Throughout Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors, the characters of Judah and Lester have similarities and differences that reflect Alan Watts' main theme of morality and insecurity in his book, The Wisdom of Insecurity. Say No to Plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Crimes and Misdemeanors by Woody Allen interweaves two stories Judah is a wealthy doctor and family man, who has been having a two-year affair with Dolores. Dolores threatens to go public with the affair and Judah's dark financial dealings unless Judah lets his wife ask her mobster brother to kill. Dolores, which he arranges and committed The second plot involves Cliff, a successful, nerdy documentary filmmaker, who is in an unhappy marriage. While working on a documentary about a television character named Lester, Cliff falls in love with Halley, a network producer. Halley rejects Cliff because he is married. When Cliff finally divorces, Halley becomes engaged to Lester. In both plots, discussions arise about God's role in establishing ethical values and whether the world would have no value if God did not exist. Judah and Lester are both financially successful. Each of them has a huge support network of family and friends, admirers (both personal and professional). Although both use women for their own self-centered needs, towards their closest women, both have the ability to be affectionate, caring and romantic. Judah is the type of person who doesn't bask in his success and is very humble while Lester is a gloating, self-promoting, shameless and pompous. Lester continually uses the woman for his personal image while Judah only uses one woman, Dolores, to satisfy his loneliness. Another key difference between Lester and Judah is that Judah is a smoker while Lester is a non-smoker. This is symbolic of Judah's addictive personality. Allen used eyes as a pervasive metaphor in the film. Judah is an eye doctor, Rabbi Ben eventually goes blind. Crimes and Misdemeanors is about people who don't see. They don't see themselves as others see them and they don't see right and wrong in situations. The rabbi is not only physically blind but metaphorically blind to other things, to the realities of life. Even the rabbi's blindness is a gift, he is blessed and lucky because he has the best gift anyone could have, he has genuine religious faith. Although Allen claims that the rabbi is detached from the reality of the world, clearly Judah is as detached as the rabbi if not more so. During an imaginary conversation with Rabbi Ben, Judah describes three levels of detachment that are characterized in the film by him and Ben. In both cases, the detachment is caused by a particular worldview. In Ben's case, the view is that the world originates from a totally good God. In Judah's case, it is the idea that he himself is a moral person, a view that leads him to ignore his own questionable moves. In The Wisdom of Insecurity, Watts argues that our primary way of giving up presence is by leaving the body and retreating into the mind. While Judah technically doesn't leave his body, in the scene where he visits his old home we see an example of someone retreating into his own mind. Visiting his childhood home, Judah imagines his family celebrating the Passover meal, arguing about religion and morality. He asks what happens if a man kills. The image of his father responds that one way or another he, the sinner, will be punished. Judah's uncle intervenes and states that only if the man he killed is caught, will he be punished. Your aunt makes a very important statement that..
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