Crimes and Misdemeanors

      The fundamental question explored by the Woody Allen movie Crimes and Misdemeanors is the question of values. This movie deals with the issue of meaning of life and the existence of God. The film begins with the successful and wealthy ophthalmologist Judah Rosenthal being honored. As a speech, Judah remember the religious teachings of his father and the crisis caused by his lover, Dolores Paley, who is pushing him to abandon his wife Miriam and so he decides kill Dolores. Judah tells his problems and listen to the good advice of his patient, Ben rabbi. Beyond that story, the documentary Cliff Stern film a biography of his hated brother Lester, a famous TV producer.  In the end, Judah and Cliff are at a party and they talk about crimes and misdemeanors in real life.

      In the story of Judah and Dolores, the question of morality is extremely linked with the existence of God and the meaning of life. The central theme of this story is that life is only meaning if God exists and so there is a moral structure. However, if God does not exist, life has no meaning and consequently we do not have any bases to follow and know how to live, in others words, there is no moral.

      There is an interesting part of the movie when Sol, the Judah’s father is interrupted by his sister, Judah’s Aunt May. Their conversation is about the nature of truth and morality. The message here is that God is opposed to the truth and that God does not exist:

      An uncle says “And if all your faith is wrong, Sol, I mean just what if?” The father answers, “Then I’ll still have a better life than all those that doubt.” The aunt asks, “Do you mean that you prefer God to the truth?” The father responds, “If necessary I will always choose God over truth.”

      So if we conclude that God does not exist, there is no value or moral structure in the universe and life has no meaning. Therefore, we can say that everything is acceptable. This lesson can be seen in the fact that Judah have gotten away with the murder. He is not punished in the end, and he lives happy and without guilt.

      But if God does not exist, why our lives cannot have meaning?

      The movie defend that value and meaning needs permanence. The real meaning of life has to be something absolute that never changes. Without God,everything in the universe is always changing. Therefore, there is no permanence and so there is no meaning or value in life. In other words, without God, there is no absolute truth, so no moral and no punishment.

      The fact that God does not exist implies that no one will be punished. This can be symbolized by Rabbi Ben’s progressive blindness. Since the Ancient philosophy, sight can be a metaphor for the truth as we can see in Plato’s “Allegory of the cave”. The real blindness of Ben can be seen as a metaphor to the truth about God. Ben believes in God and consequently he blinds himself to the reality.

      Nevertheless, the end of Crimes and Misdemeanors seems to show something different. In the scene when Ben dances with her daughter in her wedding, we can hear Professor Levy’s voice:

      “We're all faced throughout our lives with agonizing decisions, moral choices. Some are on a grand scale, most of these choices are on lesser points. But we define ourselves by the choices we have made. We are, in fact, the sum total of our choices. Events unfold so unpredictably, so unfairly, Human happiness does not seem to be included in the design of creation. it is only we, with our capacity to love that give meaning to the indifferent universe. And yet, most human beings seem to have the ability to keep trying and even try to find joy from simple things, like their family, their work, and from the hope that future generations might understand more”

      This scene suggests that even if God does not exist, we can still have meaning in life. However, I still think that there is some irony in the end of the movie as we can see in the scene of the conversation between Judah and Cliff. Cliff thinks that Judah is really talking about a film and so he suggest a different ending.

      Clifford Stern: Here's what I would do: I would have him turn himself in. Then your story assumes tragic proportions. I mean, in the absence of a God, or something, he's forced to assume that responsibility himself. Then you have tragedy.

      Judah Rosenthal: But that's fiction, that's movies. You see too many movies. I'm talking about reality. I mean, if you want a happy ending, you should see a Hollywood movie.

The voice of Levy is like the end of Hollywood movies that Judah rejects. The end of Crimes and Misdemeanors is naively optimistic. In order to accept this end of Hollywood movies we have to choose do not see the reality like Ben does. So I think the movie is extremely pessimistic.

       This question about morality is also explores by Simone de Beauvoir in her work “The Ethics of Ambiguity.”  According to her, one can accept the values made by others, or one can bravely decide to embark on the journey of making his own.  We can say that Judah Rosenthal and Clifford Stern, attempt to negotiate this question. However, I think maybe this movie wanted to show us that the value of life, in fact, cannot exist. The movie defends Dostoevsky’s claim that without God everything is permissible while Simone de Beauvoir opposes it.

      Beauvoir rejects the familiar charge against secularism made by Dostoevsky: “If God is dead everything is permitted”. As she sees it, without God to forgiven us for our “misdemeanors” we are inexcusably responsible for our actions. According to her, Dostoevsky was wrong. The problem of secularism is the problem of the “we”. Can separate existing individuals be bound to each other? Can they forge laws binding for all? She insists that they can. She does this by arguing that evil resides in the denial of freedom (mine and others), that we are responsible for ensuring the existence of the conditions of freedom and that I can neither affirm nor live my freedom without also affirming the freedom of others.