A true story of four Jewish intellectuals born in New York and educated at City College during the 1930s, and their divergent paths over the next six decades.
Writing
Witty archival debates that make academic sparring genuinely gripping.
Direction
Dorman lets egos clash without picking winners—rare documentary restraint.
Director
Joseph Dorman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The famous 'cafeteria' was actually the CCNY dining hall, where the alcoves were physically segregated by ideology—Trotskyites on one side, Stalinists on the other.
Released during the Clinton impeachment, the film's meditation on intellectual honesty landed differently than it would post-2016; Dorman himself noted audiences now read the fractures as prophecy rather than history.
US
