The Man in the Glass Booth (1975)

Actor Robert Shaw in addition to being a great player both before the stage lights and screen camera also wrote this unusual and challenging play about a strange and troubled Jewish man. On Broadway it ran for 264 performances in the 1968-69 season and starred Donald Pleasence. For the screen Maximilian Schell took over the role of Arthur Goldman, a rich concentration camp survivor who moved to America and became a wealthy builder. As his friends and former wives know, Schell is probably the most anti- Semitic Jew on the planet earth, constantly making disparaging remarks about his own people. A lot of Jews who went through the Holocaust experience lost faith in the religion that did not deliver them from evil unleashed. But his remarks are really in horrible taste, yet he's rich enough that people tolerate a terrible eccentricity.But one fine day men from Israel come and kidnap him and the next thing we know, Schell is in a glass booth in a courtroom on trial for his life. For he's being accused of taking the identity of Arthur Goldman and really being the commandant of the camp where Goldman was one of the many slaughtered. A determined prosecutor played by Lois Nettleton seems to have the goods on Schell.Schell is defiant to the end, even insisting on wearing an S.S. uniform in court. In the end however he is humbled in the most humiliating lie of his whole life. It turns out his was a case of self hatred, he was a collaborationist Jew who the Nazis used both in camps and in city zoned ghettos to control the population.It's impossible to discuss The Man In The Glass Booth without revealing the ending. Internalized self hate is a powerful weapon indeed used by one group of people keeping another one down. In his authorized biography Branch Rickey told a story of a black man he went to school with who could not have the athletic career he wanted up against white American prejudice and breaking down and sobbing about how cursed he was with his race.I'm in a minority group that only in the last century found its voice and united to stop centuries old prejudice. Internalized homophobia is one of the worst things a gay person has to overcome in order to function. Until recently society just pounded how inferior we are into our every day and we had no recourse. Many opted for suicide, sadly many still do.Schell's character is no different than many self hating gays I've known. If he was a gay man in the camp instead of a Jew he might have more willingly allowed himself to be used as a sex object. If you recall in Exodus, Sal Mineo survived in the camp by being just that, albeit an unwilling one. What do think Larry Craig or Ted Haggard might be doing in Auschwitz?The poor soul that Schell played and I say that because he might have become wealthy, but his soul was starved indeed, was maybe someone who sold out his own people for an extra bit of ration, just trying to survive in the most horrible situation imaginable. He was filled more with shame than with hate and in the end it destroyed him.Maximilian Schell received an Academy Award nomination for a man inside the dock as opposed to being a defense attorney for the Nazis as he was in Judgment at Nuremberg. He won his Oscar for that role, but didn't make it on this try, Schell was up against Jack Nicholson for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, a film about a different kind of psychosis.The Man In The Glass Booth has the distinction of being the last production of that worthy endeavor called the American Film Theater which sought to bring quality work to the screen that otherwise might not be considered commercial enough for Hollywood. Why it failed ultimately is the source of lots of speculation, but it did sadly enough. Still this film was a worthy curtain call to that noble idea.

I can only posit my take on the meaning of this movie based on what was on the screen and not by what Shaw's novel put forth. That said, I found that the meaning and subtext of this movie is amazing.While an atheist myself, I could clearly see what would be a recasting of Christ's passion in a modern context. What "sins of the world" to be borne by a Jewish man could be more obvious than the burden of the Shoah brought upon him? I see Arthur Goldman's allusions to Jesus throughout, the references about the Catholic Church's "forgiving the Jews" for deicide, his staging of the super before knowingly putting himself in the crosshairs of the Mossad to capture him, and finally most telling... his crucifixion like pose against the inside of the booth at the end, as the magnitude of the Holocaust finally descends upon him.Did anyone else see this powerful subtext of the movie?

This is my all-time favorite film. Maximilian Schell's Oscar-nominated performance completely dominates everything else on the screen. His long courtroom speeches are both disturbing and riveting. This is based on a book and play by Robert Shaw, who'll you'll probably remember as an actor from "The Sting", "Jaws" and "A Man for All Seasons". He disowned the movie version because of changes made. It has been too many years since I've seen the film, but I have re-read both book and play this month. I think a significant change to Col. Dorff's heritage was probably his objection. While I see his point, I think he overreacted. The film itself is a bit slow moving and everyone else is overpowered by Mr. Schell's breathtaking performance. But those flaws didn't kick in for me until I had seen the film a dozen or more times. It is a must see for Maximilian Schell's work- one of the greatest performances ever filmed.

A unique and terrific movie. Max Shell is the movie. One of his best acting performances. Complex plot calls for close focus and attention. It took quite some time to understand story due to its 'Cerebral layering' of just what is the goal of Shell's character. One very interesting note to movie is that it was based on a broadway play (which on opening had near riots by audiences due to misunderstanding of plot and closed shortly thereafter)and that was based on the original book, both written by none other then Robert Shaw (Capt Quint of 'Jaws' fame). Story is he was involved with the screenwriting or consulting, but in either case Shaw had his name removed in any connection with the movie. Why? Don't know. Unhappy with movie version?? The biggest trouble with this movie is that it is very, very difficult to find. Never shown on TV(where I originally saw on a PBS channel back in ~1979) or in most Video Catalogs. Find it.It's worth the effort. Best of luck.