Nothing but the Truth

Screenwriter David Hare on writing DENIAL

Nothing but the Truth

Shannon Rednour

Book clubs across the country are reading Deborah E. Lipstadt's book Denial: History on Trial, and beginning to organize special screenings of DENIAL when it hits theaters. If you are interested in doing the same, be sure to DOWNLOAD our Book Club Guide which offers some discussion ideas. We can even help you schedule a special screening for your group. Just sign up through our Group Sales Tool.

As an added bonus, screenwriter David Hare has penned a foreword to the re-release of Denial: History on Trial and it's a fascinating look into the process of one of today's most prolific playwrights. You can read an excerpt below:


"It was quite a professional undertaking to make drama out of such a complete and painful act of self-denial. One thing for sure: we would not be offering a boilerplate Hollywood narrative. At great expense to her own peace of mind, Lipstadt had agreed to be silenced. The fascination of the film would lie with the personal cost of that choice. What were the implications for someone who, having been brought up to believe in the unique power of the individual, discovered instead the far subtler joys of teamwork? The book she had written turned out to be her complete defence, and the verdict vindicated that book in almost every detail.

Elvis is dead. The icecaps are melting. And the Holocaust did happen.

During the early days of the Renaissance, Copernicus and Galileo would have scoffed at the idea that there was any such thing as authority. A sceptical approach to life is a fine thing and one which has powered revolutionary change and high ideals. But a sceptical approach to scientific fact is rather less admirable. It is dangerous. As Lipstadt says in my screenplay, certain things are true. Elvis is dead. The icecaps are melting. And the Holocaust did happen. Millions of Jews went to their deaths in camps and open pits in a brutal genocide which was sanctioned and operated by the leaders of the Third Reich. There are some subjects about which two points of view are not equally valid. We are entering, in politics especially, a post-factual era in which it is apparently permissible for public figures to assert things without evidence, and then to justify their assertions by adding “Well, that’s my opinion” – as though that in itself was some kind of justification. It isn’t. And such charlatans need to learn it isn’t. Contemplating the Lipstadt/Irving trial may help them to that end."


To read David Hare's full foreword, click here to visitThe Guardian.

discover more in the bleecker street blog

bleecker blog