Why did Shaw have his name removed from the credits?
Does anybody know the details about why Robert Shaw was so unhappy with the film adaptation of his stage play that he had his name removed from the credits?
shareI can't remeber exactly why Shaw didn't like the script adaptation when he read it but I beleive that Aurthur Hiller said in a interview kyears later (after Shaw's death so no way for him to be refuted) that after Shaw saw the finished movie he was very happy with the way it turned out and asked that his name be put back on the film. Unfortunately the post production was already done and so it could not be added to the credits. This movie is available on Netflix, and I got this information from an interview with Hiller in the special features section of the dvd.
shareApparently, Shaw was unhappy because of the changes that were made to his stageplay, particularly the ending.
The most obvious difference between the film and Shaw's play seem to be this: in the play, Goldman turns out to have been a former kappo (Jewish camp boss given special powers and favors by the Nazis) and a distant cousin of the camp commandant, and his guilt over his role is what motivated him to assume the identity of the commandant. This part of the story wasn't in the film version, where Goldman's principal motive is to become a Christ figure.
I didn't get the Christ figure goal of the movie Goldman (of course him being Jewish it was the farthest thing from my mind). I have never seen, or read the play so I did not know the thing about Goldman being a kappo or related to the camp commander. I took him as a guy who had done anything and everything necessary to survive (physically) as a concentration camp prisoner, selling out his faith as well as his fellow prisoners, taking other identities etc etc. By doing so his mind and soul eventually revolted on him and he came up with his idea to frame himself as the camp commander so Israel, figuratively (Judaism) and literally (The High Court) could punish him.
"I'd resent that if I were sober."
Lt. Col Henry Blake
[deleted]
"A sanitation problem", that's what the prosecutor called him - typical Nazi phrase.
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