The biopic The Life of Emile Zola is on the surface a highlights reel of the life of one of the late 19th century's leading writers. Zola is best known for his connection to the infamous Dreyfus Affair in France, and that's the main focus of this movie, though it does spend a little time on Zola's early adulthood, his friendship with painter Cezanne, and attainment of fame as a muckraker-style writer.
Then comes the Dreyfus Affair, in which (for those who slept through this lesson in history class on the leadups to the first and second World Wars) an army captain is falsely accused of passing intelligence to the Germans and when their mistake is revealed the French High Command desperately tries to cover it up in order to save face. Zola eventually takes up the cause, and the movie's high point is his trial for libel in which he is eventually found guilty thanks to enormous pressure from the military and the French government. Zola flees to England, but eventually new people come to power who force the truth to come out. Zola and Dreyfus are eventually exonerated, but the day before Dreyfus is publicly acquitted Zola accidentally dies of carbon monoxide poison.
This movie is probably most interesting to examine in context rather than for its actual content, though Paul Muni admittedly gives a stirring performance as the titular character and the guy playing Dreyfus (Joseph Schildkraut) has long-suffering pathos for days. But this movie, while set in late 19th century France, was made in America in 1937. The Dreyfus Affair is one of the best-documented examples of European anti-Semitism prior to Hitler and his ilk, yet this movie conveniently forgets to mention that Dreyfus was Jewish, let alone that he was targeted *because* he was Jewish and therefore an easy scapegoat as a traitor and saboteur. Hitler didn't get his ideas about the Jews out of a vacuum. So it makes it an interesting move for those making this movie in 1937 to make Dreyfus such a sympathetic character who is to be pitied, yet fail to mention Dreyfus' Jewish heritage. No opinions from me on what it means, just an observation.
The character of Zola also makes several impassioned speeches directly to the camera about fighting tyranny and upholding the torch of liberty and justice and so on. Clearly a barely disguised reference to current events in 1937, though WWII would not begin for another two years and the US would not enter it for yet two more years after that. My favorite is the moment when the camera is placed in the jury box. We, the audience, are the jurors left to decide whether it is more important to let truth prevail or allow a few people get screwed over in the name of preserving public faith in the system and its leaders (here we are again, as in Mutiny on the Bounty, with the idea that the World's Worst Human Being is the man who decides to double down rather than admit to a mistake).
Mr. Trump, this whole Russia thing may get to you yet. (Which is a big jump from talking about a movie about the Dreyfus Affair. Or perhaps it isn't. Hmmm... I leave it to you, dear readers, to perhaps watch this currently overlooked film for yourselves and draw your own conclusions.)
Watched: August 3, 2017
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