REVIEWS

LA WEEKLY

A film that builds its case with quiet force and intellectual acuity, The Art of Remembrance: Simon Wiesenthal is far removed from the sort of standard-issue hagiography that clutters the documentary field.
Skillfully directed by Johanna Heer and Werner Schmiedel, with original music from John Zorn, the '95 documentary puts Wiesenthal at its center less to glorify one man's work than to inquire into the moral imperative of that work.
Wiesenthal, a onetime architect, began his crusade -- "justice, not revenge" -- right after the end of the war, and almost by accident.
The chance discovery of a street sign bearing the words Eichmann & Sons set Wiesenthal on a search that, 15 years later, led to the arrest of one of those most responsible for the "final solution."
Over the years, Wiesenthal has tirelessly pursued other war criminals, lobbied Germany (somewhat successfully) and Austria (far less so) to make amends, and helped to organize human-rights organizations, including the one that bears his name. In the end, what makes Wiesenthal a remarkable citizen of the 20th century is not so much his role as a "Nazi hunter", but his morality. Wiesenthal's sense of righteousness and of keeping the past present has been his greatest answer to the Shoah.
--Manohla Dargis, LA Weekly

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