A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
The story of Whittaker Chambers, a man “caught in a tragedy of history,” unfolds like Shakespearian drama. His masterpiece, Witness, is a tale of suffering and redemption, of Communist turned anticommunist, which crystallizes what was at stake, morally, in the West’s struggle against Communism (“You have not come back from hell with empty hands,” Andre Malraux told Chambers in 1952, two years after Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury). Witness‘ “Foreword in the Form of a Letter to my Children” is worth the cost of the book alone (it’s worth much more than that), and here is an excerpt from it:
Religion and freedom are indivisible. Without freedom the soul dies. Without the soul there is no justification for freedom . . . The crisis of the Western world exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God . . . Communism is the central experience of the first half of the 20th century, and may be its final experience–will be, unless the free world, in the agony of its struggle with Communism, overcomes its crisis by discovering, in suffering and pain, a power of faith which will provide man’s mind, at the same intensity, with the same two certainties: a reason to live and a reason to die.
In its sweeping and gloomy analysis of the state of the West, Witness offers an entire world of wisdom that is relevant to our culture today. But sadly, it largely remains an unread book, even among conservatives.
But maybe that will soon change. Conservative cultural commentator Mark Judge, one of my favorite writers on the scene, is behind a forthcoming documentary called, The Whittaker Chambers Story. The spark behind the project was the power of Chambers’s story: “The story is so so incredibly dynamic and lends itself so well to film that I knew it could be great,” Judge explains. “But it’s very expensive to do, and Hollywood isn’t going to do it. But I decided to do it anyway—the technology has largely leveled the playing field where we can do these things.”
According to its website, the film will be,
a feature-length documentary about Whittaker Chambers, whose book Witness is a political and spiritual classic. Chambers had insight into the human condition that transcended his time. He was a member of the communist party in the 1920s but after years of secrecy revealed his past – and fingered Alger Hiss. The Chambers-Hiss case was the trial of the 20th Century; the story had espionage, revenge, thrilling escapes and even a subtext of homosexuality. More than a simple spy story from the 1950s, the Chambers story touches on humankind’s quest for utopias—and the role of suffering in triggering fanaticism.
“The story of Chambers,” as Judge tells me, “is essentially a religious story, the story of a soul.” Judge, working with director Paul Moon and executive producer Stana Benesova Kimball, hope to create a film that captures “the poetic and spiritual energy” of Witness.
Here’s a sneak peak of the documentary.
The Whittaker Chambers Story | Teaser from H. Paul Moon on Vimeo.
Though a release date has not been set, the trio hope to finish the film by the end of this year. Judge says, “We’re all doing this pro bono. . . we can gripe about Hollywood or we can do it ourselves and support our own. Find us as whittakerchambersfilm.com.”
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Dec '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Yes + Yes, Please = YES!
Regards,
Jim
May '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Why is it expensive to do? And why wouldn't Hollywood want to do it?
Aug '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
You had me scared there until I saw the word documentary.
I was thinking oh no, not Philip Seymour Hoffman again !
My copy of Witness was given to me by a Czech who had defected in 1988, it is a treasure to me.
May '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
A chronic insomniac, I find audio books sometimes help me fall asleep--not because they're boring, but because they yank me off the mental treadmills that interfere with peace.
I've been listening to Witness over and over again in the last few months. It is a beautiful, beautiful book. A stunning moral achievement, as was Chambers' life.
I endorse every endeavor to make him better known. I just wish Elia Kazan were here to direct the movie.
Aug '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Technically, not so expensive thanks to low-cost digital HD technology.
But there's the cost of travel for doing interviews, research, tracking down historical footage, securing the rights to use that historical footage, etc...
Oct '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
A documentary is great, I'll take a block of tickets right now, but there's plenty of drama in this saga for a feature film. It would be great to draw the mostly apolitical middle into theaters for a full dramatization. Busy, Mr. Klavan?
Dec '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Why wouldn't Hollywood do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah.... I've got a really great real estate deal for you. There's this bridge that goes to Brooklyn in NYC. It's a beautiful piece of 19th century architecture. I have an exlusive right to sell it. Guess what, the owners are desperate. Now just wire a very large deposit into my account in the Kaymen Islands. You'll steal it.
Look genious, Hollywood is full of Communists and those are the nice ones. They HATE Whittaker Chambers. Wow, maybe I should draw it on a blackboard for you.
Mar '11
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Read it. Loved it. Hope the doc is as good.
May '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Since when does Hollywood have to like someone to do a movie about them? Chambers life story is exciting, lurid, internally conflicted -- in other words loaded with drama.
In any case the only people in Hollywood that "hate" Whittaker Chambers have dentures.
Signed, Genious.
May '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Jun '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
The Sam Tanenhaus biography of Chambers is very good too. Tanenhaus is no conservative, but as I recall, the book was very detailed and very fair to Chambers. Tanenhaus made Congressman Richard M. Nixon look like a microphone-loving opportunist, but that might've been fair too.
Dec '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Hollywood-- by and large-- don't know who Chambers is, James. Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by ignorance or incompetence.
Witness is one of my favorite books of all time. Life-changing. Inspiring. Terrifying. Beautiful.
It is a tragedy this man-- and that book-- are not well known. Upon release I will pester everyone in my social circle to see it.
May '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
katievs: A chronic insomniac, I find audio books sometimes help me fall asleep--not because they're boring, but because they yank me off the mental treadmills that interfere with peace.
I've been listening to Witness over and over again in the last few months. It is a beautiful, beautiful book. A stunning moral achievement, as was Chambers' life.
I endorse every endeavor to make him better known. I just wish Elia Kazan were here to direct the movie. · 2 hours ago
A big "like" for you on that, katievs.
Mar '11
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
I read Sam Tanenhaus' Whittaker Chambers: A Biography years ago, but I've never tackled Witness. I should do so, on all the recommendations above.
KarlUB: Hollywood-- by and large-- don't know who Chambers is, James. Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by ignorance or incompetence.
Witness is one of my favorite books of all time. Life-changing. Inspiring. Terrifying. Beautiful.
It is a tragedy this man-- and that book-- are not well known. Upon release I will pester everyone in my social circle to see it. · 30 minutes ago
When the VENONA transcripts were finally made available, it became apparent that not only had Alger Hiss been a KGB spy, he'd been a full Colonel. Not long after that, most of the "Hiss is innocent" crowd quit talking about it.
Aug '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Hollywood generally doesn't make documentaries.
Dec '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Trace Urdan: Since when does Hollywood have to like someone to do a movie about them? Chambers life story is exciting, lurid, internally conflicted -- in other words loaded with drama.
In any case the only people in Hollywood that "hate" Whittaker Chambers have dentures.
Signed, Genious. · 43 minutes ago
I'm afraid you are both naive (Trace & Karl). Spielberg has the money and authority to do anything he wants. He knows perfectly well who Whittaker Chambers was. He won't do it because he is a left wing apologist. He is Jewish or so you think so. His real religion is left wing nostalgia. He let the gay blade of Broadway, Tony Kuchner, write a screen play unbelievably anti-Israel. Schindler's list was impressive only because Spielberg was riding a trend of openess about the holocaust that way predated Schindler He never would have risked it if he was going to lose anything by it. In fact he won awards he never would have won because the Hollywood Elite now took him seriously. The holocaust thing helped him not the other way around.
If they did Chambers they would find a way to sabotage the message. Guaranteed!!!
Aug '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
double-post. sorry
Edited on Jan 27 at 1:53pmNov '11
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Chambers wrote the must brutal and unfair book review I've ever read.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/222482/big-sister-watching-you/flashback
Explain, anyone, please, how a philosophy based on the notion that it is unforgivable to initiate physical force against another somehow is a command “To a gas chamber — go!”
May '10
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
I wonder about this all the time. Why don't people on our side buy TV networks? Why don't we have people who can make entertaining movies? They don't have to be conservative (though many certainly can be), even-handed and non-political would be an improvement. With the sea changes in distribution, it is time for lovers of freedom to step forward.
I'd invest in a mutual fund that was set up for conservative media opportunities. The only issue is that you can't be inadvertently cornball like "Fireproof" and that genre, trying to keep every different group happy about every fillum so that the ultimate product is like a censored high school production. Robert Ferrigno's "Assassin" trilogy would make a great series, but the subject matter is too politically incorrect for Hollyweird.
And Drew Klavan also has a lot of books to adapt for the first round, we even know a comedy producer.....
Oct '11
Re: A Whittaker Chambers Film? Yes, Please.
Rather unfortunate choice of music there. As great as it is, Prokofiev's film score to Alexander Nevsky was for a film used as pro-stalinist propaganda before and after The War.