The makers of the Oscar-nominated film, “The Reader,” issued a statement on Friday defending the film from what they called “fringe criticism” that it is a Holocaust denial film.
What’s going here? “Fringe” people writing on “the fringe” – that would be author Ron Rosenbaum (“Explaining Hitler”) on Huffpo and Rod Lurie (“The Contender”) on Slate – have slammed the film for validating a defense of indefensible actions by the film’s main character, Hannah (the nominated Kate Winslet).
Leave it to Harvey to pull out a cannon when a water gun would do.
How many people have heard of this ‘controversy’? “The Reader’ has been a huge, best-selling book for years, and the movie – seen by a handful of moviegoers thus far – is not new either.
Nonetheless, it is not only the movie’s director Stephen Daldry, producer Donna Giglotti and screenwriter David Hare who feel it necessary to step up today and wax indignant.
No, Harvey also pulls out Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, and Abraham H. Foxman, Holocaust Survivor and ADL National Director, to stand beside The Weinstein Company and affirm that "The Reader" is no Holocaust denial film.
Because when it comes to the Holocaust and Oscars, no one will outshine Harvey’s anti-genocide credentials.
