‘Bernstein’s Wall’ Film Review: Leonard Bernstein Doc Manages to Be Both Revelatory and Enigmatic
th Century, if not of all time. Becoming an assistant conductor for the New York Philharmonic at 25, success and fame came to him quickly, despite his resistance to Anglicize his last name; meanwhile, relationships with college professors and, later, mentors like Aaron Copland provided him with a socially acceptable outlet for homosexual instincts he could only communicate privately via personal correspondence.The film breezes by Bernstein’s blacklisting by Joe McCarthy far too quickly and fails almost entirely to indicate what consequences if any he faced as a result of it.