The Confession
starring Alec Baldwin and Ben Kingsley
written by David Black
directed by David Jones
Based on the book Fertig by Sol Yurik.
I liked this film, not bedcuase it was exciting or particularly intesitn. It wasn’t, except on a purely intellectual levl. I liked it bedcuawse of the moral picture it gives us, and the qeustions that are raised.
We are given an odd situation in that Mr. Fertig, a devout Jew played by Ben Kingsley, has committed triple murder - hospital personnel who declined to treat his only son. His son died of a burst appendix after doctors refused to cut short their coffee break and hospital staff insisted he had to wait his turn in line in the Emergency Room. Mr. Fertig fully, completely admits is crime and instead of pleading insanity he asks to be prosecuted as a sane man so that he can take responsibility for his actions.
This is what’s odd. In America today nobody wants to take responsibility for his actions, especially in a murder case. In fact, evading responsibility and framing oneself as a victim of one thing or another has become almost normal in American courts. More and more crime and wrongdoing are perceived as our misfortune rather than our depravity which is unfortunate because this perspective is arguably wholeheartedly wrong. Our wrongdoing is our depravity. We are depraved creatures albeit creatures capable of great virtue, as well.
Guilt is a virtue more than a vice , and if we are not guilty beings then on what grounds do we claim humanity?
Fertig’s lawyer, played by Alec Baldwin, encourages the usual insanity plea and is stunned by his client’s moral proposition, that Man can do heinous crimes like murder with full awareness of his actions and their consequences, and then may not rightly be denied the punishment that he says he knows he deserves. The fact that he is a very religious man makes him appear like an even bigger kook to less scrupulous people, not the least bemuse he appears to be an arch hypocrite, advocating devout religion but still deliberately taking life.
Fertig exposes the real insanity that secular, non-spiritual society considers normal. The tables are turned, although the two have an uphill struggle to argue the idea in a court of law.
I like this because it is close to what I myself have been saying for years. First, morality and ethics are not synonymous. Second, we are created by god with free will. So to be fully human we require the maximum leeway to err. Otherwise the moral amoral obligation to do in life whatever we want to do, even if that means heinous crime, but only scredibility of our actions is compromised. Therefore, we have o long as we stand prepared to live responsibly with the consequences of our behavior afterwards. If we have no such intention then we have no such obligation (freedom to action) and our humanity is compromised. Third, we are individually morally responsible. Fourth, guilt means responsibility more than it means culpability. Therefore, we are all guilty and ought not to fear it, but be proud of it, proud that we are creatures that are capable of responsibility. Guilt is a virtue more than it is a vice, and if we are not guilty beings (responsibility-bearing) then on what grounds do we claim humanity? Guilt is a sign of our ability to be responsible, which is one thing that raises us up above lower orders of animals.
Fertig gets his wish. He is prosecuted and convicted as a sane man and given a life prison sentence. He is spared capital punishment because knowledge he has as an accountant is being used in another case to bring major fraud felons to justice. I would like to see more stories like this to help remind people of what is right and wrong, and of the slippery slopes in our cultures that deliver us to the bizarre, amoral environments we have today in which we believe with such profound shallowness.