Characters on the Couch
Film & Television Blog
by Dr. Sandra Cohen
LEO HURWITZ
THE YOUNG FIGHTER 1953
Who Does Ray Drake Belong To?
The Young Fighter (Watch film) begins with a tough Brooklyn narrator’s voice. Tough as the boxing world is tough, tough as Ray Drake’s manager and trainer are tough; tough as the decision Ray Drake had to make. Would he become the Champ his manager and trainer were bent on making or the family man he…
LEO HURWITZ
STRANGE VICTORY 1948
Hate: Its Tenacity and Its Purpose
Leo Hurwitz’s powerful 1948 WWII documentary, with its ironic title Strange Victory (Watch Here), is just as timely today as it was then. Because the film explores the inescapable question: “If we won, why do we look as if we lost? And, if Hitler died, why does his voice still pursue us through the spaces…
FLORIDA PROJECT
How A (Seemingly)
Happy Life Can Shatter
Life doesn’t shatter in an instant, but it can seem like it when you live in a delusionally “happy,” thumbing your nose at all kinds of rules, sort of “fun.” This is the stuff of mania and mania teeters on a very delicate balance; it can easily come crashing down. Plus manic defiance is no…
