Genghis Cohn (1994)

Fresh and Exciting

An action-packed slog

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

First, i hope my English is sufficient enough to say all i want. I saw this movie 13 years ago but not ever since so i remember very little of it. I sure have something to say about it. This movie is not about Jewish culture. I don't think that was the objective of the movie. it doesn't speak of the holocaust in a nut shell, or through the eyes of a deranged police officer who just lost his mind over visits of his personal ghost. liver and onion are not the only thing Jews eat and certainly they don't use 'meshuganeh' on everyday spoken language. Unfortunately Yeddish is becoming a forgotten language for many people who live in Israel because of rude government directed estrangement and short sighted, ignorant educational program. But what of it? don't you ever use the word "crazy" every now and then? I have a question or two: 1.. What's wrong with comedy - for many people it seems as if the holocaust has shut down all human feelings so laughter is forbidden? for centuries the essence of Jewish self preservation was based on humor and this movie isn't different than other humorous Jewish stories. on the contrary: all aspects must be considered and if one wants to use comedy to bring some objectives into surface, then one should do it. Since this movie wasn't about holocaust but a funny situation of "murder she wrote"/comedy - it did very well. It wasn't the best movie about post-war-guilt psychological situation because it did not mean to be like it. 2.. Why would reminders of Jewish food and Yiddish slang offend anyone (or raise anger)? it was the natural habitat of an entire Jewish European people. Jews are not only about great writers and scientists, they're not all Einsteins. Openheimers,Boers, Mendelsons, Yasha Hefets and so forth. But also about common people who were mostly farmers and tailors and carpenters who used common (slang) Yiddish language as many Christians (if they wanted their way in local commerce)for everyday life - so food. language, habits, and even, god forbid, comedians would be very good examples among the unfortunate six millions. Genghis Cohn is maybe one small example that represents the whole

I enjoyed it immensely. If you are looking for deep discussions on the Holocaust or the Jewish plight in history or this movie as a historical perspective, don't. It was a lot like Catch 22 or even watching George Costanza on Seinfeld. It's funny in a very uncomfortable way, not roll in the isles funny. I would still recommend it. Besides, Diana Rigg is still hot after all these years!

Genghis Cohn is a (very) mildly entertaining British movie about a German police commissioner in the late 1950's who is haunted by the ghost of a Jewish comedian that he killed 15 years earlier while serving under Hitler in the SS. The ghost comes back and wants his killer to live as a Jew to atone for the murders he committed.Otto, the German policeman actually knows this ghost's name because, the last thing he did before he died was said, in Yiddish, `Kiss my ass'. The policeman didn't speak Yiddish, so he asked around until he found the meaning. The `kiss my ass' left such an impression that everybody involved with that killing learned and remembered the comedian's name, Genghis Cohn.There are a bunch of men who are murdered in the jurisdiction of the police commissioner, and there are no helpful clues. The men are murdered with a set of knives that are missing from the local butcher. The butcher announces that his knives are missing while the commissioner is in the store to get a liver and onion sandwich, so the commissioner is a suspect. The first man is killed while making love to the butcher's wife, so the butcher is a suspect. But the butcher maintains that he would be very busy if he killed every man that slept with his wife. All the men are killed immediately after the climax of lovemaking.I think I might be a bit angrier than the ghost of Genghis Cohn if I was killed like he was. He seems to be very good-natured about it, as if he was just in a mild car accident. I can only guess that it is because it is a British movie and they are known for being a very polite people. He uses some of his material from his stand-up routing, and I just didn't find it very funny.I gave this movie a 4 because it was just kind of goofy. I thought it should have been a little more serious than it was. The movie turns out to be a murder mystery (where did this come from?), and it seemed that Genghis should have been more helpful than he was. The movie gave me a tiny look into Jewish culture, but was only skin-deep. Do all Jews love liver and onion sandwiches? Do they all say `shtoop' and `meshuganah' in their daily vocabulary? Isn't there more important stuff that we should know about the culture?I saw this movie at a Jewish community center in Berkeley, CA, and I was the only person in the room whose hair was not fully gray or white. (I have no gray or white hair.) There were 18 of us, and after the movie they stayed for about 20 minutes to discuss the movie. There were 2 main concerns expressed there: 1. The movie was way too light-hearted and future generations might not understand the gravity of what happened and 2. As the Holocaust survivors are dying off, future generations will not know what really happened. I thought that this second concern was ridiculous and I told them I thought they didn't need to worry because there is tons of literature out there and there will always be people who like to watch movies, like myself. The murder of 6,000,000 people by a very bad man will not ever be forgotten. I write this last paragraph because they charged me with telling others about my experience that day.

This movie deals with a Jewish comedian, killed in a concentration camp, who `haunts' his former captors by coming back and gradually turning them Jewish. There are some interesting themes here, and they are presented in an interesting manner, but the major failing of the film is the lackluster dialogue and rather insipid story arc. Worth a look if you are interested in the Holocaust from the `German guilt' perspective, simply because so few movies have been made on the subject. Also Sher's performance as the title character is pretty good. Very Alan Cummings.~