Home Media Magazine - November 18-24, 2007 - (Page 20) REVIEWS I THE RITCHIE BOYS Street 11/20 Docurama, Documentary, $26.95 DVD, NR. www.homemediamagazine.com hristian Bauer’s engaging and enlightening documentary The Ritchie Boys serves as a fitting tribute to a group of men who served a vital role in America’s efforts during World War II. As Hitler prepared for his purge, many Jews fled the German storm for America while “Europe was raped,” in the words of one émigré. Some found their way to the military intelligence training center at Camp Ritchie, Md., where they lent their unique expertise about Europe to the Allied war effort. In recounting an often-overlooked element of WWII, The Ritchie Boys serves as a companion piece to other WWII docs, such as Ken Burns’ recent The War. Bauer’s primary method is to combine narration and archival footage with interviews of the veterans telling their stories. In an aside, two of the men return to Camp Ritchie 60 years later and relive some of their experiences. The personal anecdotes run the gamut from humorous to near tragic. The DVD includes additional stories that were cut from the interview segments. The Ritchie Boys returned to Europe on D-Day, many of them altering their dog tags so as not to reveal their Jewish faith to potential German captors. Service in Europe was doubly dangerous for many of them, facing not only German prejudice, but also confusion among Americans. With German spies infiltrating the American lines, hearing the accents of the Ritchie Boys did little to inspire confidence among suspicious Allied soldiers. According to one story, a Ritchie Boy was shot after accidentally giving a password in German. The primary aim of the Ritchie Boys was to interrogate war prisoners. Another task was to analyze leaflets to be dropped on the enemy. The most effective proved to be a safe harbor note signed by Dwight D. Eisenhower that guaranteed good treatment should they be captured. While the Ritchie Boys are proud of the work they did to aid in the defeat of Hitler, most of them can’t help but feel a tinge of regret for sacrificing a piece of their cultural heritage in exchange for freedom in America. One of the Ritchie Boys describes meeting a group of liberated Jews only to realize he had forgotten how to speak Yiddish. “I just was no longer Jewish,” he says. “Not like them.” – John Latchem C I ON COMMON GROUNDS Street 11/20 Victory Multimedia, Documentary, $19.95 DVD, NR. R 20 ecently in Kansas, a group of Christians, Jews, and Muslims joined to create The House That Abraham Built, a Habitat for Humanity home built on the sweat equity of congregants from all three faiths. This hour-long documentary tells of a similar effort. But this house is built in a day in a village near Tijuana, Mexico, by Southern California members of the three faiths. The film starts in a Chula Vista, Calif., parking lot, as a representative of Corazon, a Mexican version of Habitat for Humanity, inspires the crowd of 40 or so volunteers as they pile into their cars for the border-crossing trip. The built-in-a-day home pales in comparison to the ones Habitat builds over weeks, but it’s a step up from renting a similarly small space for the Mexican family. In talking-head interviews, congregants and leaders from the participating church, mosque, and synagogue explain that they hope the project yields more than a single home. They want the interfaith project to continue. They hope their children get together again, and, most of all, they hope everyone can learn that these “others” are really not so different. The only hint of possible tension is between a woman from Israel and a woman from Lebanon. Both have lived through the violence of an occupying war. But even their potential enmity is defused by their fervent hopes that their pain won’t continue in the next generation. On Common Grounds is well intentioned and will make a great film for classrooms or to inspire interfaith projects. However, it isn’t robust enough for the discerning documentary fan. It doesn’t have the time to delve into the issues of interfaith conflict and settles for hand-shaking and smiles in place of serious debate or difficult emotions. – Brendan Howard Home Media Magazine November 18–24, 2007 http://www.homemediamagazine.com
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