Director Quentin Tarantino has said that he was motivated to make his new film, the brutal revenge fantasy Inglourious Basterds,
in part by a frustration with the standard Holocaust narrative
presenting Jews as victims. To be sure, Tarantino's characters, in
typical Tarantino fashion, go to violent extremes (scalping Nazis,
carving swastikas in foreheads, and so on) but his is not the first
movie to show Jews on the attack. Instead, the chosen people have a
rich cinematic history of ass kicking. Here, a few of our favorites:
Cast a Giant Shadow
Kirk Douglass plays an American
officer who becomes commander of Israeli forces during the 1948 war to
establish the Jewish state. Douglass is a tortured tough guy, but we
love the clip above, if only because we never thought we'd hear John
Wayne toast, "l'Chaim."
Bananas
Ok,
so this one's a stretch, but we couldn't resist. Woody Allen takes on
Sylvester Stallone in his 1971 movie, Bananas. And he almost wins!
Almost.
Once Upon a Time in America
An
epic story of Jewish gangsters (with the best names ever: Noodles,
Cockeye, Patsy) coming of age in New York's Lower East Side. 3 minutes
into this clip, things get bloody.
Hebrew Hammer
Mordechai
Jefferson Carver, aka "the Hebrew Hammer," is an orthodox Jew who kills
Santa Claus and joins forces with Esther Bloomenbergensteinenthal to
save Hanukkah. This clip is awesome. That is all.
Don't Mess with the Zohan
Adam Sandler plays an Israeli commando who starts a new life in New York, as a hairstylist. Also, he feels no pain.
Defiance
This
2008 film tells the story of a set of Jewish brothers hiding out in the
forests of Eastern Europe following the Nazi invasion of Poland in
1939. In this clip, Liev Schrieber is like an Ashkenazi Rambo.
Which ones are we missing? Do you have a favorite Jewish badass? Tell us in the comments!
