Update: This article was changed to reflect the screenwriting credits for 'Denial'
New courtroom drama Denial tells the inside story of a libel case brought by a famous Holocaust denier.
In 1996 Holocaust denier (or, as they prefer to be called, revisionist historian) David Irving tried to sue author Deborah Lipstadt for libel. In her book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory she wrote:
“Irving is one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial. Familiar with historical evidence, he bends it until it conforms with his ideological leanings and political agenda. A man who is convinced that Britain's great decline was accelerated by its decision to go to war with Germany, he is most facile at taking accurate information and shaping it to confirm his conclusions.”
Hoping to use the British courts as a bully pulpit for his bullshit, Irving’s libel lawsuit put the burden of proof on Lipstadt and her publisher, Penguin Books, to demonstrate conclusively that Irving is not only “an apologist for and partisan of Hitler,” but also “misstated evidence; misquoted sources; falsified statistics; misconstrued information and bent historical evidence.”
Irving got creamed. Not only did the judge write a 333-page judgment exhaustively laying out the ways in which Holocaust denial is dependent on lies and distortion, he also forced him to pay the exorbitant legal fees that had accrued. It bankrupted Irving.
Oh, spoiler alert. Sorry, that kind of ruins the ending of the new movie Denial, which is all about this despicable saga in the long history of poisonous sophistry and intellectualized racism. Here’s the trailer:
Helmed by Volcano director Mick Jackson, Denial was adapted from Lipstadt's book by David Hare (The Reader).
This very real monster movie will be in theaters on Sept. 30.
