heir to an execution
last night i made us watch heir to an execution, a documentary about the rosenbergs. in retrospect, it probably wasn’t the ideal choice for taco night, as jared initiated one of his silent pokemon protests.
i’m that person who does a wikipedia search mid-film about the film. less about the rosenbergs themselves so much as orbital characters like morton sobell and the couple’s two sons michael and robert meeropol. i call this supplemental movie watching material. jared usually takes this action as “i’m not even watching my movie” and we should turn it off and let him play GRAW.
i have to admit, i have picked up a few stinkers in the lifespan of my netflix queue. but i honestly found this interesting: a documentary about the conviction and execution of the rosenbergs, filmed and directed by their granddaughter, ivy meeropol.
i remember studying the rosenberg trial in high school. what i remember is that they were communists, it wasn’t proved that they did what they were convicted of, and that i was really uncomfortable with the description of ethel’s death.
what it trip it must have been to be born into a family with such sensational documentary material!
knowing the subject was so close to the director’s heart increased my awareness of interviewees’ body language, ease of emotion, judgment, and willing consensus. the motivation for the project was to reclaim the rosenbergs for the family.
ivy meeropol graduated from sarah lawrence, something i forgive her for because knowing me, i probably would have gone there too. there is equal shame in all liberal arts degrees (my school was ranked 80th of top), some just wear fancier parade hats than others.
one of the thematic questions throughout the documentary was simply “why?” why didn’t they give any information that would have saved their lives? why did they leave their two young sons? why were they killed for their crimes while others were spared? these are the kind of questions only asked by those who mourn them. to the rest of the world, it might appear fairly straight forward:
julius did commit treason and ethel stood by him. there was no evidence that they sold the secret of the atomic bomb and they did not expect to be convicted.
the u.s. government does not want anyone else to profit from sale of intelligence other than the u.s. government. but of those who had discovered this lucrative deception, an example had to be made. make it undesirable. show the populous they aren’t afraid to kill a woman. sell our secrets and you will die.
but this is america, you can’t just kill. use the strength of the cold war. set the target, one who is guilty enough to be afraid. embellish the charges, get the mob on your side and they will do the job for you.
for all of the driving “why’s” she does an excellent job illuminating the “who”. it is after all, a rather touching personal journey…undeniably at fault for jared’s boredom.
the film received a fair showing at sundance. films42 has a good article about the film and context.
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