American Jewish Films: The Search for Identity by Lawrence J. Epstein

Author:Lawrence J. Epstein [Epstein, Lawrence J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Published: 2013-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

The interplay can be read psychologically, as though Simon the writer can’t achieve a breakthrough until he finds his Jewish self. And that’s an interesting message for Jewish identity—that all attempts at assimilation result in Jews just being witnesses to their own lives and to existence itself. It is only when they take a stand as a Jew will they ever lead a full life. This is an unusually assertive statement by Simon, one he doesn’t carry through in later pictures, but it’s an important step in understanding the importance of keeping a Jewish identity in America.

In contrast to Arnold Epstein, Daisy Werthan in Driving Miss Daisy (1989) is tied not to a Jewish identity but to a southern one. That doesn’t mean that her neighbors don’t think of her as Jewish, but she doesn’t use her Jewishness to define herself. The movie is a warm tale of the relationship between Miss Daisy and her African American chauffeur. (Both Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, acting as the pair, add immeasurably to the film’s appeal.)

There are interesting moments in the film when Daisy’s Jewish radar makes viewers acutely aware that she knows the world around her very well. Here is one bit of dialogue in which she is talking with Hoke, the chauffeur, about her daughter-in-law Florene. Like many Southern Jews, Florene and her husband Boolie have a tree at Christmas and celebrate the holiday with a party. Note also the use of a Jewish stereotype. As they’re driving, Miss Daisy sees houses with extravagant displays of Christmas lights:

DAISY: Everybody’s wishing the Georgia Power Company a Merry Christmas.

HOKE: I bet Miss Florene got ’em all beat with the new house.

DAISY: If I had a nose like Florene’s, I wouldn’t go around wishing anybody a Merry Christmas!

HOKE [laughs]: Yes’m ... but, I tell ya, I do enjoy a Christmas at their house.

DAISY: Of course, you’re the only Christian in the place!

HOKE: Well, they got that new cook.

DAISY [sighs]: Florene never could keep help. Of course, it’s none of my affair. Too much running around, if you ask me.

[Hoke agrees.]

DAISY: The Garden Club this, the Junior League that ... as if any of them would give her the time of day! But, she’d die before she’d fix a glass of iced tea for the Temple Sisterhood! I just hope she doesn’t get it into her head to sing this year!

HOKE [as they are arrive at Boolie and Florene’s house and see an ostentatious show of lights]: Oh, Lord, look what Miss Florene done done!

DAISY: If her grandfather, Old Man Freitag, could see this ... what is it you always say?... he’d jump up out of his grave and snatch her bald-headed!

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