ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

based on a true story

iMordecai – Fixing what’s broken

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?Days like this, I miss Siberia.?

A new phone becomes the catalyst for an older man to find new ways of seeing things in iMordecai from Marvin Samel. The story is based in the Samel family history. As such this is a personal project.

Mordecai Samel (Judd Hirsch) is a Holocaust survivor. As a child, he and his parents escaped Poland to the Soviet Union. The rest of his extended family were killed at Treblinka. Mordecai spent years in a Siberian orphanage. He later moved to Israel when he fought in the Israeli army. Then, he moved to Brooklyn where he married Fela (Carol Kane), and worked as both a housepainter and a plumber until they retired to Florida.

Mordecai spent his life fixing things. He figured he could fix everything. He sets out on bizarre DIY projects, like remodeling the bathroom with a jackhammer. At times, he pushed his way into his son Marvin?s (Sean Astin) life, almost always upsetting Marvin in the process. When Mordecai?s old flip-phone, held together by duct tape and foil died, Marvin takes him to get the latest new phone. Mordecai wants nothing to do with this thing that doesn?t even have buttons. But Nina (Azia Dinea Hale), a young woman who works at the store gives him private lessons on how to use it.

Then Fela is diagnosed with dementia. She needs special care, but Mordecai sneaks out to connect with Nina for more lessons. He is also making new friends with the other young people in the store, telling them his life story.

Marvin is also in the process of a major business deal, but he doesn?t want Mordecai to know about it, thinking that his father would want to get involve and ?fix things?. The rift that is developing between the two men has been growing for years. Is this something that Mordecai can?t fix?

As I said above, this is a personal project. The real Marvin Samel began writing the stories of his family after his mother?s diagnosis. Such personal histories are important. They contain both humor and pathos, as does this film. Probably the highlight of the film is a well edited section where Mordecai and Martin are in two different venues telling rapt audiences the same story from Mordecai?s life in Brooklyn.

Vanity projects often offer limited appeal. It relies a bit too much on stereotypes of both senior citizens and Jewish immigrants. While there are some universals to the family history, the film will not have the meaning to many viewers that it will have for those who know these people.

iMordecai is in theaters.

Photos courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.

Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle

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?They had said, ?We will come back for you. No matter how long it takes, we will come back.?

Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle, from director Arthur Karari, is the story of the last soldier fighting World War II. The film is loosely based on the true story of a Japanese soldier who spend decades on an island without knowing that the war he was fighting had ended. It is a story of survival and of comradeship. It is also a story that raises questions about the meaning of honor and of heroism.

In 1944, Hiroo Onoda (End? Y?ya and Tsuda Kanji) has washed out as a kamikaze pilot because of fear of heights. Actually it?s because he fears death. He is recruited from special training in guerilla warfare and sabotage. His instructions are to never give up. Suicide is forbidden. He must fight until the end.

He is then sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines. The Americans are due to attack the island. His job is to lead a group of soldiers there to attack the Americans from the jungle. Before long it is just Onoda and a group of four who hide in the jungle and make forays in to villages for supplies and to destroy grainfields. However, unknown to them, the war has ended. One of those under him notes (in 1946), ?We don?t have enemies. Who are we fighting against?? Yet, honor demanded that they continued their battle until the end.

By 1950, one of those under him has deserted, another is killed by locals as they try to get some meat by killing a cow. That leaves Onoda and Kozuka (Matsuura Y?ya and Chiba Tetsuya) who remain and fight for the next twenty years, until Kozuka is also killed. For the next few years, Onoda survives alone until a young Japanese man coaxes him out of hiding. Even then, Lt. Onoda will not surrender until his commander comes to relieve him of his duty. His thirty year war comes to an end.

The film encourages us to sympathize with Onoda and his companions. He is following the orders he received for what as called a vital mission. Even in 1950 when a ?rescue party? comes to the island to try to convince them the war is over, Onoda and Kozuka look for coded messages (and think they have found one in a haiku by his father). They continue to stay hidden and living off the land. However, there are times when they face hard decisions that only make sense if you understand them as being at war.

When Onoda finally does surrender, the local military offer salutes and honor because they see him as an exemplary soldier. Yet we are left to wonder if his time in the jungle really was honorable, heroic, or just misled. Is blindly following orders (in spite of evidence that the war is over) honorable? Is it heroic to kill civilians or even their cattle? Were there signs that he should have come out of hiding to see if what he had heard was true? Does the lack of an enemy on the island not suggest that his battle is over?

We may sympathize with Onoda, but we also know that he was deluded in his single-minded attention to his mission. The film does not show us any of his reintegration to the world, which I think merits as much attention as the story we see.

Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle is available on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Dark Star Pictures.

My Name Is Sara – A Unique Too Common Story

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?You have to survive. It will be our revenge.?

Steven Oritt?s premiere feature film, My Name Is Sara, is based on a true story from the Holocaust. It is like many other such stories, but it is also different from those stories as well. It is a bit of a reminder that all stories have a unique quality to them, even if we may want to group them together.

Thirteen year old Sara G?ralnik (Zuzanna Surowy) escapes from her ghetto in Poland. She settles in with a Ukrainian farming family (Eryk Lubos and Michalina Orsza?ska). Therman and wife are suspicious that she is Jewish, but she is able to say the Christian prayers and so they take her in?but are constantly vigilant. Sara manages to avoid detection by passing as an Orthodox Christian. When she sees the cracks in the marriage, she stays quiet, mostly because to do otherwise could put her at risk.

What is different about this story is that there is no virtuous rescuer or protector. In fact, if there were any real evidence that she was a Jew, the family would be more than willing to turn her in?both because of the danger and because they, like their neighbors did not like or trust Jews.

The story boils down to a story of survival. The family is struggling to survive the war around them. The Germans and partisans alike raid their farm and take what they want. Sara is also struggling to survive and will do whatever it takes. She even stuffs cloth in her mouth when she sleeps to be sure she does not say a Jewish prayer in her sleep. She goes through all the Christian rituals so that no one will know who she really is. It is only when liberation comes that she can return home. Although in reality, the only home she can return to is her real identity. All her family perished.

This film has come about because one of Sara?s sons, Mickey Shapiro, wanted to tell his mother?s story. The film is done in association with the USC Shoah Foundation, which has collected tens of thousands of video testimonies. The Foundation?s website includes a page with information about the film along with video clips of Sara Shapiro?s taped testimony.

The stories of survivors, such as Sara, as well the stories of those who perished in the Holocaust, constantly refresh our memories of the depths to which humankind can, and at times has, descend to. We must continue to build a world that will prevent such horrors.

My Name is Sara is showing in select theaters.

Photos courtesy of Strand Releasing.

Jerry and Marge Go Large – What is the value of money?

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?I?ve waited forty years for it to be just us, and so far, we suck at it.?

Retirement can be a challenge for people who have been busy their whole lives. It helps if you find a hobby to fill your time. Maybe that hobby turns out to be lucrative?lucrative enough to change lives. Jerry and Marge Go Large, directed by David Frankel, is a wonderfully entertaining story of such a remarkable hobby and the way it touched lives and built a community. It?s based on a true story.

Jerry Selbee (Bryan Cranston) has just retired (not happily) from a career at Kellogg?s. He lives in a small town in Michigan that is well past its prime. He?s floundering for something to do. Jerry is a wizard with numbers. One day he discovers a loophole in the state lottery that adjust the odds so that winning is more likely. After a couple of failures to score, he determines that he needs to bet really big to get a payoff. So he recruits others in the town to trust him with their money (we?re talking thousands each) and forms a corporation. It starts working, but Michigan shuts that game down. It is still being played in Massachusetts, however.

So every few weeks, when the jackpot gets large enough to trigger the loophole, he and his wife Marge (Annette Benning) do a road trip to Massachusetts to spend the day printing the thousands of lottery tickets involved, aided by a friendly and eccentric convenience store clerk (a very entertaining Rainn Wilson). The payoff is astounding. The small town is enjoying the life of new money in town. More importantly Jerry and Marge are having a great time rebuilding their relationship in a new way.

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However, soon, Tyler Evens (Uly Schlesinger), a student at Harvard, discovers the same loophole and gets money from other well-healed students in his dorm. When Tyler figures out there are two group doing this, he threatens Jerry with the idea that he would hack all his neighbors and ruin their lives. Tyler is the epitome of privilege, who wants nothing more to win at anything he?s involved in.

In some ways, this part of the story provides some dramatic tension to make it interesting, but it also opens the door for us to consider what it means to be stewards of the gifts we have.  

For Tyler this is a matter of ego. The money really doesn?t mean anything to him; his family has plenty. It?s about showing off how clever he is. And he won?t tolerate anyone who threatens his plans. The money, per se, doesn?t matter to Jerry either. He?s more interested in what he and his neighbors can do with their winnings. For them, this is a chance to rebuild their dying little town. Parks are spruced up. Downtown shops, which have been boarded up for years, are bought and rented out for ?1 a year. (There is a humorous reason they do it for a euro rather than a dollar.) For the Michigan people, this windfall is all about the community. To be sure, they all get to make some personal upgrades, but more than anything else they see this as making everyone?s lives better.

Stewardship of what we have is a frequent topic in scripture. For example, Peter tells us ?Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.? (1 Peter 4:10, NRSV). Tyler has no concept of serving others; he expects others to serve him and feed his ego. But for Jerry, Marge, and their neighbors, the gift that Jerry nurtured for them has changed their lives, not just by making them more money. It has enriched their lives as families and community. There we see ?the manifold grace of God? at work.

Jerry and Marge Go Large streams on Paramount+.

Photo credit: Jake Giles Netter/Paramount++.

Grace and Grit – Death and Life

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?Because I could no longer ignore death, I pay more attention to life.?

Based on a true story, Grace and Grit, from director Sebastian Siegel, is story of love in the face of death. The specter of death is of such existential power that we would expect such a story to have a spiritual aspect. It does, but that part gets a bit buried in the emotional tumult of the two lovers.

The story is that of Treya Wilber (Mena Suvari) and her husband Ken (Stuart Townsend). Ken is a New Age philosopher/psychologist. He is described in the film as ?the Einstein of consciousness?. When the two meet, the attraction is immediate. Their whirlwind romance last four months before they marry. This opening section of the film is filled with their private thoughts in low key voice over as the action and dialogue are on screen.

Ten days after their marriage, Treya is diagnosed with a stage two breast cancer. As Treya goes through various treatments?both conventional and alternative?Ken supports her, but both must deal with not just the illness, but the emotions that accompany the years-long ups and downs. The film mixes the ongoing story of the couple through Treya?s treatment with flashes of emotive memories. There are also occasional visualizations of the sense of helplessness they feel.

This is set in the 80s when New Age ideas were at their height. Ken was certainly influenced by Eastern thought, which leads this film to have a bit of an Eastern spirituality bent. But that fits with the mindfulness that the two characters practice as they live out the crisis.

The facing of such an illness is obviously a strain in any relationship. That is especially true here. Ken and Treya are devoted to each other, but really do not have the rootedness that could help sustain them. Still, the love they share is the key that this film focuses on.

The existential aspects seem to take something of a backseat to the relationship as the film plays out. It is far more love story than spiritual story or philosophical story. In the end, that makes this a bit overwrought, especially in the most emotional scenes.

Grace and Grit is in theaters and available on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Quiver Distribution.

Blue Miracle – Fishing for the Lost

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?My prayer worked! I can?t believe it!?

Based on a true story, Julio Quintana?s Blue Miracle is a story of answered prayers, but it is even more a story about finding rebirth in the people around us. It is the story of a washed up boat captain, a fishing tournament, and an orphanage facing eviction. It is billed as a story about saving an orphanage, but there is much more to be saved in this story.

Casa Hogar is a boys? home in Cabo San Lucas. The boys are cared for by Papa Omar (Jimmy Gonzales), who was himself orphaned as a child. But money is tight. The bank is threatening foreclosure. What will become of the boys? Will they have to go back out on to the streets? Omar is determined that will never happen.

Blue Miracle. Anthony Gonzalez as Geco, Dennis Quaid as Captain Wade Malloy, Miguel Angel Garcia as Moco, Jimmy Gonzales as Omar in Blue Miracle. Cr. Carlos Rodriguez/NETFLIX ? 2020

After a hurricane blows through, a prestigious fishing tournament which is usually for well-heeled fishermen, opens to local fishermen for no entrance fee. Wade Malloy (Dennis Quaid), a boat captain who has twice won the event (but in now broke and broken) tries to enter, but as an American doesn?t qualify as local. So he is paired with Casa Hogar who along with Omar, brings a few of the boys, who must actually do the fishing for a trophy marlin. They have three days to try to catch the biggest marlin and bring in enough money to save Casa Hogar and restore Malloy?s ego.

The theme of the film is established very early when Omar is awakened and told that one of the younger boys has gone out into the night. He knows just where to find him?sleeping at the port, wishing for his mother to come find him. Omar, who we see has a large cross tattooed on his back, heads off to gather the boy in. He carries the sleeping child back through the dangerous streets?even a minor gang war. The scene is much like paintings that depict the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:3-6; Matthew18:12-13).

Blue Miracle. Jimmy Gonzales as Omar, Steve Gutierrez as Tweety in Blue Miracle. Cr. Carlos Rodriguez/NETFLIX ? 2020

The rest of the film is a series of lost sheep experiences. The two main lost sheep are Malloy, who has become so involved with what he calls ?a calling to greatness? that he has lost touch with all the things of value in his life. He only cares about the next marlin (and not getting that, stewing in his misery). In a twist, his son now lives away from him and barely knows him, while the orphans are fatherless.

The other main lost sheep is Moco, an older street-harden kid that Omar is trying to get to come into Casa Hogar. When Omar tells him he could use his help, Moco replies, ?I only look out for myself.? He stole Malloy?s watch, and to avoid jail returns it under Omar?s supervision. When he and Malloy are on the boat together, there?s friction.

Blue Miracle. Dennis Quaid as Captain Wade Malloy, Jimmy Gonzales as Omar in Blue Miracle. Cr. Carlos Rodriguez/NETFLIX ? 2020

Even Omar has a certain lostness, in spite of his confidence and maturity. He as much as Malloy or Moco needs to be rescued from the wolves around him and within him.

It isn?t so much a particular ?shepherd? that finds these lost sheep. It is the interactions between them all. Each in his own way discovers that he is lost when one of the others shows him the way to return to the safety of the fold.

Blue Miracle. Pablo Rodriguez as Young Omar in Blue Miracle. Cr. Carlos Rodriguez/NETFLIX ? 2020

The film provides the orphan boys with witty dialogue and allows them to be the main purveyors of wisdom (the wisest is the smallest of them). The film is a feel-good story without going overboard with sentimentality. It allows us to not only celebrate the good that comes, but also to consider the ways we and those around us are in need of someone to lead us back from time to time.

Blue Miracle streams on Netflix.

Photos courtesy of Netflix.

Mangrove – Demanding Justice

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?We must become the shepherd of our own destinies?

Mangrove, the opening film of Steve McQueen?s Small Axe anthology, is a tale of racial struggle against police abuse. It is based on the true story of the Mangrove Nine, a group of men and women put on trial in London. (Yes, that?s right, racial prejudice is not the sole possession of America.)

The first half of the film focuses primarily Frank Crichlow (Shaun Parkes), a Trinidadian immigrant who in 1968 has just opened the Mangrove restaurant in the Notting Hill area of London. It serves the kind of spicy foods preferred by Caribbean people. Almost from the start the police, lead by Police Constable Pulley (Sam Spruell), begin harassing Crichlow and the restaurant. The restaurant becomes a gathering place for the immigrant community. In time they take issue with all the harassment and plan a protest. During the protest, the police attack the crowd. In the aftermath nine leaders of the community are put on trial for the serious charges of riot and affray.

The second half of the film is a courtroom drama. The defendants faced many years in prison. Their very lives were in the balance. And solicitors and barristers told them over and over to trust the system. But the defendants knew that the legal system was just as corrupt as the police. Two of the defendants chose to represent themselves, which allowed them the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses and address the jurors. On the whole, the defense was an attack of the status quo of racial animosity. The trial became the first time the courts made note of the racial discrimination by the police force.

Thereare some comparisons to be made to The Trial of the Chicago 7 in that they occur roughly at the same time, both involve police caused riots, and the trials took on a rebellious tone. But this is by far a much better film.

The Small Axe anthology is a collection of five films by McQueen that focus on the world he grew up in. His parents were from Grenada and Trinidad. At least four of the films are based on actual events and people. It shows the black immigrant society as a vibrant culture of music, color, language, and joyous celebrations?but also frequently hardship because of a racist system.

This film shows some of the different manifestations of racism. (And we need to note that these forms are as relevant in this country as they are in the UK of the film.) The racism that we see in PC Pulley is the kind of blatant racism that repels us. (?The thing about the black man is he has his place. He?s just got to know his place.?). He and other police officers regularly hassle random black people for no reason. In court they suggest that all blacks are ?criminal, prostitutes, ponces, and the like?.

But when the film switches to being a courtroom drama, the entire system comes under scrutiny for the ways that racism has been institutionalized, such as the make up of the jury, the way defendants are supposed to put their trust in the ?professionals?, and the ways the judge fails to allow them to have voice. This kind of racism can be even more injurious because the system gives the impression of fairness, but often that impression is an illusion.

The film also touches on the responsibility of both intentional and accidental leaders. Crichlow really did not aspire to being a community leader. He just wanted to run his restaurant. He told one of the more strident leaders, ?It?s a restaurant, not a battle ground?. But when circumstances continued to escalate, he had to make choices that pushed him into leadership. We also see in Crichlow the struggle of facing the risk that leadership brings. He is torn at times between doing what would be safe and doing what is right.

To do the right thing often is a matter of faith. Throughout the film, the defendants are told to have faith?in the judicial process. They hear it so often it becomes a joke to them that they should expect the system to come through for them. Others suggest that the characters need to have faith in the community to stand in solidarity. But at a crucial time, Frank, unable to sleep, sits on his bed and opens his Bible to a picture of his parents. On the back it reads, ?In God you must trust.? There he finds the strength to carry on with what is right.

Mangrove (and the other Small Axe films) are streaming on Amazon Prime.

Photos courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Recon – Moral Questions of War

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?I have had enough.?

How should we think of war? Is it a romantic, idealized story of heroics? Is it hell, as General Sherman said? Do we accept that ?all?s fair? in war? Are there rules of morality that we must follow to maintain our humanity? Recon, written and directed by Rob Port, uses a real event in World War II to ask some of these questions. It is interesting that the film is being brought out for Veterans Day, a day we celebrate the military. While the film is not anti-military, is certainly has a perspective that war is a morally troublesome experience.

The film follows four soldiers as they climb an Italian mountain in search of German soldiers. They are being led by an Italian man who claims to be a partisan, but they are never sure of his real loyalties. The four are haunted, to varying degrees, by having seen their sergeant murder a civilian woman. As they make their way up the mountain with the dangers of landmines and snipers, they speak of life and death, of war and justice, of right and wrong.

They are a diverse group?liberal, racist, Jewish, Catholic, different educational levels, different backgrounds. Their perspectives on the murder range widely as well. At times, their differences threaten to bring them to violence. Only their taciturn leader, Corporal Marson, manages to keep them on focus and working together. The constant danger the squad faces as it seeks the enemy and then must find its way back home give the film a familiar war film tension.

This is not just a celebration of bravery?although there is that aspect as we see these soldiers carry out their mission. It also dives into the questions about the nature of war. It is not just the murder of a civilian that is at issue. These soldiers must also make decisions of life and death. They cannot just turn off their morality or their spiritual life. To kill another human is not an inconsequential occurrence. It leaves a spiritual mark. Perhaps some people can live with that, but not everyone. This film highlights the spiritual and emotional injuries that war brings as well as the physical costs.

As the story plays out, eventually Marson will have to decide just what kind of person he is. Can he kill just because it is war, or must he respond as a human?and as a Christian. That choice will have an almost karmic effect when we read the title card post script to the film.

From the times of the early church, war was seen as problematic. Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas both spoke of Just War?a recognition that war is inherently evil, but at times necessary. There may be questions whether modern weapons and technology make Just War possible. Part of Just War theory is not only the justice of the cause, but also the justice and morality of how war is carried out. Recon taps into that tradition of thinking of war.

Recon show through Fathom Events on November 10 and releases in limited theaters November 13.

Photos courtesy of Brainstorm Media.

The Keeper -Finding Forgiveness

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Based on a true story, The Keeper, from director Marcus H Rosenm?ller, is the story of a German POW who in the post-war years becomes one of the most famous football (soccer to Americans) players in England. Along the way the story looks the difficulty of forgiving both our enemies and ourselves. And there?s a love story.

Bert Trautmann (David Kross) is a German paratrooper who fought most of the war in Poland, earning an Iron Cross. Late in the war, he?s captured by the British and placed in a POW camp in Lancashire. Because he volunteered for the German army and was well decorated, he gets some pretty nasty jobs in the camp. After the war, the POWs were kept there for some time until repatriation could happen.

One day when Jack Friar (John Henshaw) and his daughter Margaret (Freya Mavor) deliver goods to the camp, Friar sees Trautmann tending goal as the prisoners play football. He is exceptional. Friar is the manager of a local football club that is in dire need of improvement. He arranges to have Trautmann work for him so he can use him as a goalie in upcoming matches. The team prospers, and just about the time Trautmann is due to return to Germany, the manager of the Manchester City club offers him a tryout. Around this same time, Trautmann and Margaret marry. (The love story takes up most of the first half of the film.)

It is not easy for a former Nazi to be accepted either by teammates or fans. The issue was multiplied when he began playing in Manchester, which had a sizable Jewish population. In time, a rabbi who had fled Germany wrote an open letter saying that we shouldn?t judge on what we presume, but judge each by their merit. That let Trautmann find some acceptance, and his exceptional play led the team to more victories?eventually winning the FA Cup?a match in which Trautmann played the last 15 minutes with a broken neck.

The film, as is often the case with sports stories, deals with adversity, perseverance, and heroics. But it is also a love story, and that adds another dimension. In fact, this is more love story than sports story. But the issues of adversity, perseverance, and heroics are just as important in that part of the story.

Through the first half of the film, the adversity has to do with Trautmann?s past as a German soldier, and the perception others had of him. As one character tells him, ?To me and everyone around me, you?re still the enemy.? Margaret was just as set against Trautmann as everyone else. But as she got to know him, and saw within him someone who had dreams and fears like everyone else, she softened to him.

Later in the film, other problems arise that test Trautmann individually, and him and Margaret as a couple. We learn in bits and pieces through the film some of the ghosts and guilt that haunt Trautmann. Just as Margaret, then fans had to come to term with how they viewed Trautmann?s past, so must he. Often it is much more difficult to forgive oneself that to find forgiveness in others.

There is an interesting side note in this film for people familiar with Christian hymnody (at least for non-British people). In the scene leading up to the famous championship game, we hear the crowd singing ?Abide with Me?. It turns out that that is a tradition for the FA Cup Finals dating back to 1927. (I?ve yet to find an explanation.) It seems a strange song to sing prior to a sports match, given that it is a song asking for God?s presence at the time of death. The song is sung again at the end of the film. While the song is included mostly for its association to football, it also fits well at the end of the film because death crops up at various times in the film, as it does throughout our lives. It is a nice reminder of our need for God?s presence, not only when ?fast falls the eventide?, but always.

The Keeper is opening in theaters (where open) and on virtual cinema through local arthouses.

Photos courtesy of Beta Cinema.

The Traitor: What is Honor?

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?I was and remain a man of honor.?

Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino) claimed to be an honorable man. But what he meant by that may mean something different than you think. The Traitor is the story of how in the 1980s, he (and some others) began to bring down the Cosa Nostra (aka Sicilian Mafia).

As that time the Cosa Nostra was controlling the world heroin trade. As the film opens, Buscetta is attending a summit of the Palermo and Corleone clans to divide up the business. They establish a tentative peace, which turns out to be short-lived. Buscetta (who is a prison escapee) has set up a life in Brazil with a new wife. He lives well there. But when the gang war reignites, resulting in the death of his two sons of a previous marriage, some want him to return and take revenge. He is reluctant, but soon the Brazilian authorities arrest him, torture him (and his family), and extradite him back to Italy.

He returns to Italy volunteering to talk to Judge Giovanni Falcone, a prosecuting magistrate, about the Cosa Nostra, but not planning to be an informer. But as he and Falcone establish respect and rapport, Buschetta becomes the key evidence leading to hundreds of arrests and a massive trial. Buschetta is villainized in Sicily?even by his old family. But his new family is settled into witness protection in the US.

Early on in his discussion with Falcone, he defines ?honorable man?. That is the term that the soldiers in the Cosa Nostra use for themselves. But Buschetta sees it as more than that. For him it harkens back to the values espoused by the Cosa Nostra when he became affiliated. Those values are explained in a story of early on, he was told to kill a particular person. That person saw Buschetta and knew what was to happen, but he grabbed his baby. Buschetta would not kill him with his child nearby. That would be wrong. So he waited while the boy grew.

At two and a half hours, this film takes its time in an attempt to provide an overall look at Buscetti?s life and his decision to inform on those with whom he had served. Yet in covering so much, it makes it hard to explore the more intimate bits of the story, such as the developing relationship between Buschetta and Falcone and how that relationship shaped Buschetta and his opinion of what he was doing.

And most of all, the film needs a bit more attention to the meaning of the honor that Buschetta saw himself as embodying. As a ?man of honor? within the Cosa Nostra, his honor was a sort of twisted sense of values. To be sure, the Cosa Nostra took care of their community in a certain sense, but that concern was less than honorable by most standards of morality. But when Bruscetta becomes an informer and serves as a witness against former allies, perhaps he has discovered a new sense of honor. That exploration could have added some heft to a story that wants so say something about truth and honor.

The Traitor is available on VOD and DVD.