History without
a dramatist
By Michael
Moriarty
web posted April 23, 2018
History
without a dramatist and actors to reenact it is not only a statue without life;
such a set of frozen facts is Truth without a voice or means to make the worst
nightmares within that Truth indelibly unforgettable.
Truth we
can never, ever, for even one moment, forget!
Such were
my thoughts upon watching the Netflix film, Killing
Heydrich.
Of course,
had I not been an actor all my life, I would, most likely, not be writing this
tribute to the theatre, film and television’s dramatic achievements in
historical drama.
However, I
was not only an actor but a very privileged one to have been a part of the company
and cast that created the television film, Holocaust.
Much of
those six weeks in Vienna filming that mini-series came back to me as I watched
Killing Heydrich.
Having
played the role of an SS Officer, Major Eric Dorf, one forever answerable to
the increasingly two-legged disease that Reinhard Heydrich, as eventual head of
the SS in Czechoslovakia, turned out to be, as profoundly disturbing as such a
job is at times, I’m eternally grateful for the opportunity to indelibly reveal
the depth of Nazi Germany’s previously unimaginable Evil!
There can
never be too many novels, plays, films or television shows about the horrors of
Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.
I cannot
imagine what the human race and life itself would be without either the divine
blessings of literature, drama, the theatre, film and television.
No warning
simply stated is ever as unforgettable as a fully embodied, well-produced and
well-acted play, film or television drama that actually makes you experience
the nightmare personally.
That
horrifying part of history can then become a powerfully experienced and
unforgettable corner of one’s own life.
The
Real Ján Kubiš and Josef Gabcík
The three
central messages of Killing Heydrich
are 1) Why Reinhard Heydrich had to
be killed; and 2) The infinitely deep reservoir of courage it took for the two
principal heroes, Ján Kubiš and Josef Gabcík, to accomplish that task and 3)
The Tragic inevitability that both heroes had to commit suicide.
In their
final haven and hiding place, a church, they and their few comrades fight
bravely, killing dozens of Nazi soldiers, much to our satisfaction, but the
only alternative to being captured and tortured would be suicide.
The
nightmare of accepting that fact is most powerfully played by two very
brilliant actors!
And
performed courageously without one ounce of self-pity!!
Their
death scene is, without a doubt, one of the most heart-rending events I’ve ever
witnessed on a screen of any size or any kind.
These two,
miraculously heroic men are the last human beings we want gone from this Earth!
Following
their deaths, we instantly flash-back to the very day the two of them met, both
on their way to this assignment!
It is a
film you must see!
Why?
The killing
of Reinhard Heydrich, one of History’s unquestionably most evil men, was the
only planned assassination by the allies in all of World War II; and
Czechoslovakia was not an official
ally but a nation occupied by the Nazis.
Personally,
I find that fact shocking on a record-breaking level.
The
attempts on Hitler’s life were all begun in Germany and by Germans.
Those two,
remarkable facts are now part of our memories, not because of History, but
because of the dramatists, technicians, actors and producers who know for
certain that some corners of History must
be dramatized or we are in that much greater danger of repeating such History. 