In this amazing scene from X-Men: First Class, we watch as Magneto tracks down the former guards from the concentration camp. In multiple X-Men movies we see how Magneto is “born” in Auschwitz as he first discovers his mutant powers to move metal. Fassbender’s mutant villain is famously motivated by his experience as a Holocaust survivor. I can’t tell if this moment is so bad-ass because it involves Nazis again (notice a theme yet?) or simply because Michael Fassbender’s performance as Magneto is so amazing here. I’m not sure if they teach this move in Krav Maga, but she is able to capture the Nazi in one of the most unique ways possible. She poses as a patient coming to him for help with fertility problems. In The Debt, Jessica Chastain plays a Mossad agent sent to capture a notorious Nazi doctor hiding in East Berlin after the war. That is of course the moment that John Goodman’s gun-totting Walter proclaims his love for the Jewish day of rest by affirming that he doesn’t roll on Shabbos. But there is one moment in this movie that is so profoundly bad-ass while also being deeply Jewish. Maybe I was too young when I saw it, maybe the humor just doesn’t fit me, but this is one movie that never had the allure to me as it clearly does to so many of its cult followers. I have to admit that I just don’t get The Big Lebowski. The song featured here speaks of how important it is to sit together as brothers, perhaps never more important that right before battle. This scene comes from Raid On Entebbe starring Charles Bronson and featuring a ridiculously young James Woods (yes, this is a TV movie but we won’t hold that against it). Generally considered to be Israel’s most daring raid, the rescue of hijacked passengers from Uganda’s Entebbe airport was immortalized in more than one film. Whether it’s Annie Hall (or more or less anything featuring Woody Allen) to the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man, Jews in film usually aren’t showing up “to chew bubblegum and kick ass.” If you search the internet for Jewish films, you’ll find numerous results that include characters that could be held up as examples of this stereotype. Perhaps, this is a leftover of past prejudice – a remnant of the “weak,” bookish Jewish stereotype. Jews don’t generally make frequent appearances in these films. Movie fans cherish these individual moments and characters that transcend mere storytelling and are elevated into the realm of the “bad ass” – a mythic place where violence is the norm and people aren’t motivated by the fear and worry that preoccupy the average human experience. One particular version of escape, represented by films such as Goodfellas or Pulp Fiction, feature characters or storylines that most people would never want to encounter in their real lives. One of the most wonderful aspects of movies is the escape they provide from the mundane world in which most people spend their lives.
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