I just watched Woody Allen's

I just watched Woody Allen’s film Crimes and Misdemeanors. I can’t think of a more bleak or depressing film at the moment. I’ve seen my share of bleak films in movies like Straw Dogs, Requiem for a Dream or The Deer Hunter. However, I must say that none of those left me as empty and angry with an uncaring universe as Crimes and Misdemeanors. As the title suggests it’s drawing on Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. In the movie Judah (Martin Landau) might as well have been called Raskolnikov as he too comes from the Nietzschean Superman theory of morality. However I think the thing that bothers me the most is the cruelty the Cliff (Woody Allen) and Professor Levy characters suffer through. I can’t imagine that my desires to lead an honest and virtuous life would be punished so thoroughly.

Perhaps I’ll watch The Secret of Nimh, its “lesson” is so much more upbeat. I still remember the words to this day. It occurs towards the end when Jenner and Justin are fighting Jenner says “I’ve learned this much: Take what you can, when you can.” and Justin’s reply is “Then you’ve learned nothing.” It makes me wonder if the real Superman of morality is the one that resists serving his own needs and perseveres to serve a greater good even in the absence of belief in a benevolent God ordering the universe.