By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.6 cats
Director: Aviva Kempner
Country: united_states
Year: 2009
Running time: 92
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1334479/
Diane says: “The radio show ‘The Goldbergs’ began in 1930 and morphed into a TV show in the ’50s. This docu is about the show’s creator and star, Gertrude Berg, who played a warm and somewhat ditsy matriarch with a Yiddish accent, introducing the radio audience to Yom Kippur and Passover. The film has been praised for going beyond its primary focus to shed light on the birth of family sitcoms, the place of Jews in American life, and the entertainment industry black list.
“I feel like you have to have loved the show to love the docu–that’s the way it played out between my father, my mother, and me. On one hand, I wish the director included more of the actual show for us uninitiated; on the other hand, I didn’t like the little I saw anyway–way too tame and unfunny for today’s (and my, I guess!) standards. Director Aviva Kemper (THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANK GREENBERG) uses stock footage more than I’m comfortable with, to give a sense of the times. 2 cats.”
Marilyn says: “I, too, found stock footage was way overused taking away from the actual documentary. This showed at High Falls with the director present and I believe she had a difficult if not impossible job, gaining the rights to actual footage of the show forcing her to use filler to make a feature length film. This picture has gotten amazing release in many theaters when other more note worthy films can’t get their foot in the door. Not sure why. 1 cat.”
Scot says: “I found the story of Gertrude, the actress/writer/producer of the radio/TV show pretty interesting, but worth maybe 30 minutes at best. And like Diane and Marilyn, I’m left mystified why the show was all that appealing. I kept thinking that we must not be seeing the good parts, but there we never got to see any real conflict in the show. I mean, what kept it going? Surely not gossip, old guys playing checkers, and mild teenage angst. 2 cats.”