THEODORE BIKEL: IN THE SHOES OF SHOLEM ALEICHEM (2014) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: John Lollos
This movie is like a diptych, a dual portrait of the author and playwright Sholem Aleichem, who died in 1916, and Theodore Bikel, the actor and folk singer who carried Sholem Aleichem's words and message forward into the 21st century. A lot of the movie is just Theo on a stage, often alone, performing selections from Sholem Aleichem's work, or commenting on the writer's life and career, or his own. He was close to 90 at the time, and seriously ill, but you'd never know that from his performance, which is energized and full of life. Alan Alda narrates, and Bel Kaufman, Gilbert Gottfried, David Krakauer and others weigh in on the crucial role both men played in preserving traditional Jewish culture. An unanswered question hangs over the piece and remains. If Sholem Aleichem carried the instinct for survival and creative expression from the shtetls of Eastern Europe into the early 20th century, and Theo carried those same traditions into the age of computers and smartphones, who will carry them on from here? Somebody always has and somebody always does, but who will follow in the shoes of Theodore Bikel?
Theodore Bikel
(1924-2015)
