I’ve been waiting for this movie or series for about 15 years. Philip Roth is one of my favorite writers and from the moment I read ‘The Plot Against America‘ I visualized the film in my imagination and I knew that someone would come to make it. Roth‘s book is his last great novel. It was followed by four more (the cycle ‘Nemesis’), which are more personal meditations on life, old age, death, far from the scope of this book. ‘The Plot Against America’ instead belongs to a popular genre (alternative historical fiction), has a solid narrative structure and suspense, and a social and political message that remains valid for much of American history of the last century until the present. Paradoxically, it is the least Roth-esque novel of Roth and at the same time the book with the clearest autobiographical touch, the writer himself being one of the heroes of the book, as a boy at the age of 7 to 9. The HBO series largely met expectations. I can’t say I heard Roth‘s ‘voice’ in the movie as when reading the book, but that’s not what I was looking for. On the other hand, I experienced a dense, authentic cinematic version, with political and emotional impact, of the topic approached by the novel. Some of the characters have a different weight than the one in the book, but paradoxically, for the better, being developed intelligently and interestingly. The format chosen by the producers (a mini-series of 6 episodes) was appropriate, with an excellent final episode, even if it offers an ending that is a debatable variant of the one in the book.
Philip Roth’s novel includes a well-articulated warning about the dangers of the encounter between ethnic and racial prejudice and populism in the American political system. The book was written at the beginning of the millennium, and does not imply any direct reference to the immediate American political reality, intending to be more general and metaphorical than the solution chosen in the screenplay. There is a tension in this production between a few direct references that borrow words from contemporary political discourse and the precise location of the action in the early 1940s in a Jewish-populated district in New Jersey. The alternative historical fiction that describes Charles Lindberg’s conquest of power in 1940, and America’s reorientation toward an isolationist policy and sympathizing with Nazi Germany followed by gradual adoption of anti-Jewish policies, includes a clear dystopian note about the fragility of democratic systems. Philip Roth appears in the credits as a producer and he was consulted in the initial discussions related to this project, but the political nuances and the imagined ending no longer belong to him. We can only speculate whether he would have agreed or not. To me, the historical part and the one related to the identity dilemmas and conflicts within the Jewish community seemed to me the best made and most authentic. However, I accept that other viewers may conclude differently after watching the six episodes.
Ed Burns and David Simon, the creators of ‘The Plot Against America’ are the authors ‘The Wire‘ which in my opinion is to this day the best series ever created by HBO. Their achievement here is close to the same high level of quality. America and New Jersey in the years 1940-1942 are unfolding before our eyes. The Jewish community and the people belonging to it, the identity conflicts that exist in almost every such group in the Jewish Diaspora, the diverse individual responses to political developments and social and economic threats from outside are excellently rendered. Some of the acting performances are exceptional. Herman Levin (played by Morgan Spector) is a father who evolves from a deep trust in American values and institutions to a late awareness of the totalitarian degradation that is happening around him and the fact that the system betrays him. His wife Bess is his partner in this evolution, which offers to Zoe Kazan the opportunity for perhaps the most memorable role in the series and in her career so far, that of a Jewish mother who fights the external pressures and the centrifugal tendencies in the family. Her sister Evelyn (Winona Ryder) and Rabbi Bengelsdorf (John Turturro) represent that part of American Jewry willing to go much further on the path of compromise, blinded and later deceived by the demagoguery of the politicians, avoiding any form of resistance and confrontation, endangering the whole community and finally themselves. The combination of fictional and documentary scenes, including newsreels, newspapers and radio shows, is perfect. The story flows smoothly, with rhythm and suspense, and there is enough time for both action and character development. The series ‘The Plot Against America‘ has some debatable moments and aspects, but overall it is an impressive achievement, a production that invites reflection and debate.