Skokie le village de la colère

Danny Kaye again showed his talents as a brilliant dramatic actor in this 1981 television movie.

He plays a Holocaust survivor who has settled in Skokie, Illinois after the war. Skokie has become a predominantly Jewish town and the serenity of the area is threatened with the Nazi garbage threatening to march through the town to cause the reopening of nightmarish wounds, fear and trepidation among the Jewish citizenry of the town.

As the spokesman, Kaye conveys those fears but is adamant that the garbage shall not march. His voice is etched with unbelievable feeling as he will do anything in his power to thwart the threatened march.

As the Nazi leader leading such a march, George Dzundza is quite effective as Nazi Frank Collin. Filled with hatred, and contempt for humanity, Dzundza also etched an unforgettable character. Of course, the picture belongs to Kaye and he received an Emmy nomination for best actor for it.

There is only so much that an afflicted people can take- 1st amendment rights or not.

Deep thinkers will be fascinated, appalled and intrigued, all those reactions at the same time, with "Skokie", movie based on a true story that for the most part we wished it could be an very imaginative fiction. It retells the events surrounding an American Nazist group who decided to march on the streets of Skokie, a town whose majority of habitants consists of Jewish people, most of them Holocaust survivors. If only the story would stop right there because you already have one major conflict to give your food for thought.

There's a whole tension involved, politically specially, since the town's mayor is trying to make anything to secure his citizens that such march won't occur and if it does happen no violence will take place. The Nazi leader (George Dzundza) says it's his right as an American citizen to have his free speech; the Jewish community are really afraid of such atrocious act, harmful enough just in being thought about it; and they already made clear that if that march occur they won't stand there peacefully, they'll react against it with all of their forces. As one of the most respected leaders (Danny Kaye) says: "We'll attack them with baseball bats!".

The case goes to court where it will be decided if such rally is valid or not and if hurts the freedom of speech rights. This is where the story gets really interesting, unbelievable yet it's the truth, one of those life ironies that can't be easily understood: the American Nazi's decided to file a lawsuit against the Jewish community of Skokie by calling on their behalf the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to help them, and they're getting represented by a Jewish lawyer (John Rubinstein) who firmly believes that the law must be respected above all, he sees that there is interference with free speech and he decides to go forward with this process, which goes against what most of his associates think, creating a difficult problem in the union since the majority of people who support them are Jewish just like him and they wouldn't want to be known as the ones who defended people who go against everything they are and stand for.

Only with such plot and presentation of facts "Skokie" would already be something to be seen. But the cast makes it more involving, a true must-see. Carl Reiner, Eli Wallach and Brian Dennehy are great in the supporting roles, and veteran Lee Strasberg steals the show with just one scene in one of his final performances. But the main focus of our attention is comic Danny Kaye, playing a dramatic role of many dimensions, a man who went through a lot in his life, only trying to live peacefully but when hearing about the rally he's very vocal against it, and decides he won't tolerate that. Some find his performance a little over-the-top but it's not. It's very effective, one of the greatest things about this film.

Here's a quality TV film, very well made and with plenty of things to say about ethics, laws interpretations (they're never so black and white/right or left as one can imagine it is). The whole argument of what free speech really is and the rights of certain groups against others, it's very provoking to see and deal with it. 10/10

This film is based on actual events that occurred around 1977-1978 in the small village town of Skokie which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, neighboring the City of Chicago's northern border. It is a story about a group of National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, 432 U. S. 43 (1977), arising out of what is sometimes referred to as the Skokie Affair, which was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court dealing with freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

The film concentrates more or less on the disgust of the majority of the towns residents who wanted no part of the likes of the National Socialist Party who threatened to lead a parade through the village of Skokie in their Neo Nazi uniforms wearing swastikas.

As like most people who have learned about the Holocaust I can appreciate how any reminder of that period of time in our history although never to be forgotten should not be glorified by any party or individual. This may be a film that circles the drain about free speech, but the only speech that was prevalent was angry and long winded and took away from the critical point between two groups of very different opinions.

Some very distinguished actors provided the film its credibility but I believe the film would have been better with fewer long winded speeches from only one side of the conversation.

I give the film a passable 5 out of 10 IMDb rating.

One of the better TV movies ever made about a current political issue. The issues are dramatized vividly - freedom of assembly vs. the rights of a community. The performances are consistently excellent. I would especially cite Danny Kaye, whose portrayal of quivering outrage is one of the great moments of his wonderful career. I was interested to read about the career of the screenwriter, Ernest Kinoy. Among his many credits are a couple of episodes of the excellent short-lived series "The Senator" (part of "The Bold Ones"), very much a "ripped from the headlines" series. So too with this movie.

Jake Blues said it best... "I hate Illinois Nazis."