Movies/Books
These movies are recommended by Rabbi Henoch Dov Hoffman :
Synopses follow the movie titles, many taken from the Rabbi’s discussions. Click on the titles for details. Extracted from Rabbi Hoffman’s website which was last updated 7/13/04.
- American Beauty dessication & emptiness of suburban life
- As Good as it Gets truth, acceptance, and forgiving
- A Thousand Clowns
- A Walk to Remember Amalek – adolescent issues
- Beautiful Mind ezer k’negdo – the help meet – here saving a genius [true story]
- Billy Budd
- Billy Elliot
- Changing Lanes feuding and rage, forgiving and transformation
- Dead Man Walking comfort for the condemned
- Defending Your Life
- Far From Heaven relationships that challenge convention
- Fiddler on the Roof Jewish identity, history
- Good Will Hunting genius in the rough
- Groundhog Day refining the approach through repetition
- Heartbreak Kid Jewish identity
- Hurricane Joseph’s path of teshuvah
- Instinct illusions of control
- Jerry McGuire
- K-PAX inter-dimensional comfort for a broken heart
- Liberty Heights a pastiche of Jewish life from the ’50s
- Magnolia plague of frogs / breakdown of parent-child relationship
- Mr. Saturday Night
- Rabbit Proof Fence farmers vs. shepards; mother daughter issues
- Radio Days Woody Allen’s look at Jewish life in the ’30s & ’40s
- Razor’s Edge helping or hindering / examining motives
- Shine
- Straight from the Heart
- Sunshine
- The Apostle the journey of Teshuvah
- The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz Jewish identity
- The Believer self-loathing engenders a Jewish Neo-Nazi [true story]
- The Chosen father / son issues – clash between Zionists & Hasidim
- The Fixer Soviet injustice | Dalton Trumbo script
- The Front Woody Allen [seriously!] and the Blacklist/McCarthyism
- The Giraffe (aka Meshugge) Jewish identity buffeted by Nazism
- The Matrix Abraham differentiating from Lot; being Jewish in a world of artifice [It's the question that drives us]
- The Passover Plot alternate story of the birth of Christianity
- The Pledge trust vs. betrayal / Joseph setting out to connect with his brothers
- The Power of One overcoming the tyranny of habit
- The Straight Story
- Trembling Before G-d gay and lesbian Orthodox and Hasidic Jews
- Unfaithful dessication & emptiness of suburban life
- What Dreams May Come dreams and the afterlife
- Zelig Jewish identity, or lack of it
Other people’s recommendations:
- Baraka a reverent meditation on the world’s sacred spots
- Dreams Kurosawa’s breathtaking series of vignettes
- Latcho Drom intimate portrait of the Gypsies, told with music
- Lathe of Heaven A guy who’s dreams influence reality
- The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser true story of a man raised in isolation
- The Loved One witty, hilarious sendup of the American funeral industry
- The Ruling Class black comedy about Christianity and British attitude
- The Truman Show unreliability of perceptions
- Prospero’ Books beautiful adaptation of Shakespeare’s Tempest
- Richard III definitive version of the Shakespeare play
- True Stories scathing portrait of Generica
- My Dinner with Andre looks at the variety of ways people live
Thanks to Internet Movie Database for the taglines.
Suggested Reading:
- The Painted Bird / Jerzy Kosinski
- East of Eden / John Steinbeck
- Escape From Freedom / Erich Fromm
- Flatland / Edwin Abbott
- The Invisible Man / Ralph Ellison
- Joseph and His Brothers / Thomas Mann
- Man’s Search for Meaning / Viktor E. Frankl
- Operation Shylock / Philip Roth
- Soul on Ice / Eldridge Cleaver
- The Slave / The Dibbuk / The Penitent / Isaac Bashevis Singer
- Enemies – A Love Story / Isaac Bashevis Singer
- The Hebrew Letters – Channels of Creative Consciousness / Rabbi Yitzach Ginsburg
- What Makes Sammy Run / Budd Schulberg
- Shivitti: A Vision by Ka-Tzentnik 135633 [ISBN 0062508709] Auschwitz and LSD
Halacha/Jewish Philosophy:
- The 39 Avot – Melacha of Shabbat / Rabbi Baruch Chait
- Shemirath Shabbat / Yeshua Y. Newirth
- Code of Jewish Law / Ganzfried Goldin [Shulchan Aruch]
- The Secret of Jewish Femininity / Tehilla Abramov
- The Laws of Kashrus / Rabbi Benjamin Forst
- Sacred Fire / Aish Kodesh
- The Holy Fire / Pizetzer Rabbi
- The Way of G-D / Moses Chaim Luzzatt
For an up to date listing of Rabbi Henochdov’s recommendations Click here
Morah Yehudis Fishman:
• Antoine Fisher
• Apollo 13
• Buckaroo Bonzai
• Defending Your Life
• Fastlane
• Flatliners
• Ghost
• Groundhog Day
• Heaven Can Wait
• Hook
• House of Spirits
• Legally Blonde, Red, White & Blonde
• Matrix
• Medicine Man
• Mr. Holland’s Opus
• Pay it Forward
• Peaceful Warrior
• Princess Bride
• Razor’s Edge (old & new versions, old is better)
• Remember the Titans
• Shallow Hal
• Shawshank Redemption
• Spiderman
• Starwars
• The Chosen
• The Dybuk
• The Last Wave
• The Mask
• The Secret of Roan Inish
• The Shadow
• What The Bleep do We Know
• With Honors
• Wizard of Oz