Category:Wandering Jew--cinema (subject)

Works of cinema related to the Wandering Jew

Overview

Among the several movies inspired by the character of the Wandering Jew, some were based on Eugene Sue's novel, some on Thurston's play.

To the first group belong the French versions (1904, 1909, 1926), as well as the two Italian versions of 1912 and 1916. All three British versions (1923, 1933, 1947) are instead adaptations of Thurston's play.

The final 1948 Italian version is a very freely based on Sue's novel, but offers an original contemporary setting and twist to the familiar story, by making the Wandering Jew a hero of the anti-Fascist resistance.

All the movies on the Wandering Jew focus on, or include as a prologue, the biblical story which sees the protagonist cursed by Jesus for his lack of compassion. With the exception of the first two shorts of 1905 and 1909, they also include a conclusion in which the persecuted Wandering Jew finally finds forgiveness and redemption.

Three additional movies refer explicitly to the motif of the Wandering Jew, not as an individual character but as a collective symbol of Israel. Two of them (1921, 1933) used the popularity of the subject to promote a pro-Jewish agenda, aimed to end the "suffering" of the Jewish people. The notorious 1940 Nazi film instead exploited the most derogatory elements of the myth, to justify and legitimize the "final solution".