the assignment parents guide

THE ASSIGNMENT

"tracking a terrorist".

What You Need To Know:

(Pa, Ro, LL, VVV, NN, SS, A, D, M) Pagan, romantic worldview; 20 total obscenities & profanities; excessive violence including shooting & explosions with bloodletting; depicted & implied fornication & one scene of marital intercourse; alcohol use; smoking & drug use; and corruption

More Detail:

THE ASSIGNMENT opens with a squalid scene of a little boy relieving himself in a street to the sounds of lovemaking. Nude Carlos (Aidan Quinn) looks out a shabby window and tells a naked woman to get lost as he burns a spider in its web with the end of his cigarette. He puts on a disguise, then enters a French café, where he greets CIA agent Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) just before he throws a grenade, which kills and maims innocent men, women, and children. Shaw realizes that the man who greeted him was the notorious Carlos.

Long, unkempt hair, Carlos interrupts an OPEC meeting at its ornate headquarters and holds the Arab delegates hostage until he gets a $20 million in ransom. Jack Shaw strenuously objects to giving into Carlos’ demands and recommends that the CIA kill the terrorist once and for all when they encounter him at the Paris airport just before Carlos boards his plane. Shaw’s boss interrupts the assassination of the killer and reminds Shaw that the United States does not officially assassinate people.

Annibal Ramirez (Aidan Quinn), a Navy lieutenant who bears a striking resemblance to Carlos wanders through an Israeli market on shore leave. A group of Israeli-looking men give chase, and Ramirez flees, running into a crowded market stall, where he is jumped, beaten and thrown into jail. Israeli Intelligence Officer, Amos (Ben Kingsley), a MOSSAD agent, is convinced he has found Carlos, but, during the interrogation, Amos realizes his mistake and releases a very angry Ramirez, who vows to sue him.

Realizing the strategic value of Ramirez’s cooperation, Shaw immediately seizes the opportunity to conscript Ramirez into CIA service to capture Carlos. He trains for months without knowing exactly what the operation is. After repeated objections, Shaw finally persuades Ramirez to join the fight after he shows him pictures of the young boys Carlos killed. Then, Shaw tells Ramirez that he must commit adultery and possibly murder others in order to snare this terrorist. Shaw tells Ramirez that he has to adopt Carlos’ mindset in order to survive, and he does.

Shaw plans to convince the KGB that Carlos has defected to the CIA in order that the KGB will kill him themselves. Because a French counter-terrorism operation goes wrong, Ramirez ends up committing adultery and killing French operatives. He returns to his family in Virginia and kills an over-zealous little league father in a spat. Angry and bitter, Ramirez realizes that he has become almost as evil as Carlos. His wife knows something is changed. He confesses to her that he has had another woman and has killed men in the service of his country.

Shaw pursues another plan to capture Carlos and conscripts Ramirez once again, this time threatening his family. The result has an interesting twist. In the end, Ramirez stares out a window and burns a spider in a web, indicating that Carlos’ evil has possessed Ramirez, perhaps forever.

The theme of the movie is that all intelligence organizations are deceitful, and the CIA and the MOSSAD are just as ugly and evil as the international terrorists against whom they fight. Quinn does a good job of rendering the dilemma of the double-minded man, torn between his desire to serve his country, and to love his family.

With good production values and superb acting, THE ASSIGNMENT communicates the message that the only way man can defeat evil is with more evil. This message is cynical and anti-Christian. Jesus Christ defeated evil on the Cross (Colossians 2:15), and He didn’t use more evil. He offered Himself, the Sinless One, as the only atonement for sin and evil. Jesus defeated evil once and for all time with good.

THE ASSIGNMENT opens with lewd images, apt images for a movie which exposes the truth that the world, without God, is evil and unsafe. The tragedy of this movie is that there is a deeper truth − there is a God who has defeated evil with good.

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All images are copyrighted by their respective copyright holders and/or producers/distributors.

• Tomboy, a Revenger's Tale
• (Re)Assignment

• Caroline Chan

• See all credits
• "A deliciously transgressive and smart classic B movie."  Todd McCarthy : The Hollywood Reporter
• "[It] gracelessly mashes together hardboiled crime-melodrama cliches and an unintentionally funny 'Oh no! I'm a chick now!!' gender-change narrative hook."  Dennis Harvey : Variety
• "The filmmaker’s touch is completely lost here, and the only danger the film winds up posing is to the time spent by those who choose to watch it."  Kevin Jagernauth : The Playlist
• "The film's dialogue is entertainingly hard-boiled, and the performances knowing without ever being arch."  Keith Uhlich : Slant
• "Walter Hill (...) has enough skill and personality going for it to make it worth checking out, even if it doesn’t quite live up (...) to its borderline sleazy premise (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"  Peter Sobczynski : rogerebert.com
• "Gender-switching hitman thriller is staggering misfire (...) a strong contender for 2016’s worst movie (…) Rating: ★ (out of 5)"  Benjamin Lee : The Guardian

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‘the assignment’: film review | tiff 2016.

Sigourney Weaver stars as a twisted surgeon and Michelle Rodriguez as the man she turns into a woman in Walter Hill's '(Re)Assignment.'

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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A demented pulp fiction about a brilliant surgeon who creates a Frankenstein monster by performing a sex change on the scumbag assassin who killed her brother, The Assignment (previously titled (Re)Assignment ) is, by any objective standard, a disreputable slice of bloody sleaze. But there’s also no question that veteran director and co-writer Walter Hill knows exactly what he’s doing here, wading waist-deep into Frank Miller Sin City territory and using genre tropes to explore some provocatively, even outrageously transgressive propositions. For longtime fans of the filmmaker, this Canadian-made low-budget revenge yarn will be embraced as Hill’s most entertaining and, on the terms it sets for itself, accomplished film in some time. It’s an instant cult item.

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In a public climate arguably more saturated with discussions of gender than ever in the history of the world, Hill and his co-screenwriter Denis Hamill make subversive creative use of the topic in ways that are both brainy and amusingly provocative. The catalyst for all the mayhem is genius, but now defrocked plastic surgeon Dr. Rachel Kay ( Sigourney Weaver in intimidatingly imposing mode), whose revenge upon low-life hitman Frank Kitchen, who took out her brother, is to capture him and apply her expertise by turning him into a woman (Michelle Rodriguez); in a world where transgenderism is now an accepted fact of life, this is one example where it is neither voluntary nor desired.

The Bottom Line A deliciously transgressive and smart classic B movie.

Intercutting between Rachel’s interrogation by shrink Dr. Ralph Green (Tony Shalhoub ) and the hatching of the now-female Frank’s extensive revenge-taking for what’s been done to him/her physically results in a great deal of exposition. But Hill keeps it lively and interesting, on one hand by supplying the brilliant Rachel with lots of blunt and high-toned commentary about how and why she’s done what she did; on an intellectual level, she and Hannibal Lecter would be an even match.

On the other, there’s the spectacle of watching Frank come to grips — and this is meant literally — with “her” own new body. Without any self-consciousness, Rodriguez enacts a thorough physical self-inspection from top to bottom, and her former tough guy character remains infuriated by having been deprived of the equipment he used to enjoy. All the same, she eventually reconnects with a young nurse and part-time good-times girl (Caitlin Gerard) “he” had hooked up with just prior to his unwanted conversion.

A good part of the action involves the extensive revenge Frank exacts upon a local San Francisco gangster, Honest John (Anthony LaPaglia ), for an earlier betrayal; plenty of bad guys get blown away here in bloody fashion, and Frank really is remorseless. In this world, much of it set in San Francisco’s Chinatown (actually shot in Vancouver), everyone is guilty — or, to paraphrase Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven , everyone’s got it coming.

Hill, production designer Renee Read and cinematographer James Liston immediately establish and then maintain the look of a seedy urban world defined by dirty browns and blacks, as well as by dimly lit streets, a lonely diner and a seedy old hotel; this is as noir as it gets these days. On numerous occasions, sequences end with visual punctuation courtesy of graphic comics-style illustrations.

The somber tone and low-end production values may not be exactly in tune with young neo-noir enthusiasts, but more seasoned fans of the genre and the filmmaker will recognize and embrace Hill’s use of noir to play with and comment on topical issues in a deliciously subversive way, political correctness be damned. At the same time, however, a witty intellectual loftiness hovers over everything thanks to the erudite remarks ceaselessly pouring from the mouth of Weaver’s doctor, who likes to confound her interrogator with frequent references to Shakespeare.   

Weaver’s terrifically articulated performance neatly establishes the top side of the film’s high/low dynamic. For her part of the equation, Rodriguez, with momentary exceptions, maintains a virulent charge of fury, anger and disgust with what’s been done to him/her, something that quite plausibly drives the vengeful mission. It’s a story of two killers, one of whom operates from the brain, the other from more basic instincts, and together they’re quite a pair for one movie.

Venue: Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentation)

Production: SBS Films

Cast: Michelle Rodriguez, Tony Shalhoub , Anthony LaPaglia , Caitlin Gerard, Sigourney Weaver

Director: Walter Hill

Screenwriters: Walter Hill, Denis Hamill

Producers: Said Ben Said, Michel Merkt

Director of photography: James Liston

Production designer: Renee Read

Costume designer: Ellen Anderson

Editor: Philip Norden

Music: Giorgio Moroder , Raney Shockne

Casting: Sheila Jaffe , Candice Elzinga

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The Assignment

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The Assignment Movie

A hit man seeks revenge after being knocked out and awakening to discover he has been surgically turned into a woman.

Who's Involved:

Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Caitlin Gerard, Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia, Walter Hill

Release Date:

Friday, April 7, 2017 Limited

Plot: What's the story about?

Hitman Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez) is given a lethal assignment, but after being double-crossed, he discovers he’s not the man he thought he was—he’s been surgically altered and now has the body of a woman. Seeking vengeance, Frank heads for a showdown with the person (Sigourney Weaver) who transformed him, a brilliant surgeon with a chilling agenda of her own.

official plot version from sabanfilms.com

3.21 / 5 stars ( 14 users)

Poll: Will you see The Assignment?

Who stars in The Assignment: Cast List

Michelle Rodriguez

F9, Fast & Furious 6  

Sigourney Weaver

Avatar: Fire and Ash, Avatar: The Way of Water  

Tony Shalhoub

Cars 2, Flamin’ Hot  

Anthony LaPaglia

Annabelle: Creation, A Good Marriage  

Caitlin Gerard

Insidious: The Last Key, Smiley  

Who's making The Assignment: Crew List

A look at the The Assignment behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director Walter Hill last directed Dead For A Dollar and Bullet to the Head . The film's writer Walter Hill last wrote Dead For A Dollar and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? .

Walter Hill

Screenwriter

Production Companies

Watch the assignment trailers & videos.

Theatrical Trailer

Production: what we know about the assignment.

• Michelle Rodriguez is to play the hitman while Sigourney Weaver is the scalpel-wielding doctor.
• Based on a story by Denis Hamill.

Filming Timeline

• 2016 - May : The film was set to Completed  status.

Cameras start rolling November 9, 2015 in Vancouver.

The Assignment Release Date: When was the film released?

The Assignment was a Limited release in 2017 on Friday, April 7, 2017 . There were 18 other movies released on the same date, including Smurfs: The Lost Village , Going in Style and The Case for Christ . As a Limited release, The Assignment will only be shown in select movie theaters across major markets. Please check Fandango and Atom Tickets to see if the film is playing in your area.

The Assignment DVD & Blu-ray Release Date: When was the film released?

The Assignment was released on DVD & Blu-ray on Tuesday, June 6 , 2017 .

The Assignment VOD & Digital: When was the film released digitally?

The Assignment was released across all major streaming and cable platforms on Friday, April 7 , 2017 . Digital rental or purchase allows you to instantly stream and download to watch anywhere and anytime on your favorite devices. Available from various digital retailers including Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Apple, Vudu and others.

Q&A Asked about The Assignment

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Also known as

• Tomboy, A Revenger's Tale

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Follow the Updates

• Mon., Jun. 12, 2017 from Amazon
• added the US Blu-ray release date of June 6, 2017
• added the US DVD release date of June 6, 2017
• Sun., Mar. 19, 2017 from Saban Films
• added Theatrical Trailer to trailers & videos
• added the US VOD release date of April 7, 2017
• added a poster to the gallery
• added photos to the gallery
• added a synopsis
• set the MPAA rating to R for graphic nudity, violence, sexuality, language and drug use
• added a running time of 95 minutes

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Where to watch

The assignment.

Directed by Walter Hill

A revenger's tale.

Ace assassin Frank Kitchen is double crossed by gangsters and falls into the hands of rogue surgeon known as The Doctor who turns him into a woman. The hitman, now a hitwoman, sets out for revenge, aided by a nurse named Johnnie who also has secrets.

Michelle Rodriguez Sigourney Weaver Tony Shalhoub Caitlin Gerard Anthony LaPaglia Paul McGillion Ken Kirzinger Paul Lazenby Zak Santiago Adrian Hough Alex Zahara Chad Riley Jason Asuncion Darryl Quon Hugo Ateo Sergio Osuna Terry Chen Lauro David Chartrand-DelValle Caroline Chan Lia Lam Eltie Pearce

Director Director

Walter Hill

Producers Producers

Saïd Ben Saïd Michel Merkt Todd Giroux Kevin Chneiweiss Sarah Borch-Jacobsen John Lind Suzan Derkson Alexia S. Droz Harvey Kahn

Writers Writers

Denis Hamill Walter Hill

Story Story

Casting casting.

Sheila Jaffe Candice Elzinga Sandra Couldwell

Editor Editor

Phil Norden

Cinematography Cinematography

James Liston

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

John Lind Annabelle Wilczur

Lighting Lighting

James M. Jackson Jason Weir Cameron Root

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Dale H. Jahraus Bruce Borland

Production Design Production Design

Set decoration set decoration.

A. Blair Stevens Meredith Garstin

Special Effects Special Effects

Visual effects visual effects.

Geena Renk Kris Wood Brent Boulet Jess Brown

Stunts Stunts

Jason Asuncion Melissa R. Stubbs Paul Lazenby

Composers Composers

Giorgio Moroder Raney Shockne

Sound Sound

James Fonnyadt Bryson Dodwell Kelly Cole Daniel Cardona Bill Mellow

Costume Design Costume Design

Ellen Anderson

Makeup Makeup

Courtney Frey Joel Echallier Agnieszka Echallier

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Jessica Rain

SBS Productions

Canada France USA

Releases by Date

11 sep 2016, 08 jun 2016, 27 apr 2017, 19 oct 2017, 23 nov 2017, 03 mar 2016, 23 mar 2017, 02 may 2017, 07 jun 2017, 06 jan 2018, 03 apr 2016, releases by country.

• Premiere Toronto International Film Festival
• Digital R15+
• Theatrical M/16

South Korea

• Theatrical 18
• Digital 16 DVD & Bluray
• Physical 15 DVD
• Digital R internet

95 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Sally Jane Black 12

CW: HRT/transition-related surgery

We are not born into the wrong body. We are born into the wrong society.

As I take hormones to alter my body, I am not gaining a new body. My body is naturally reacting to the estrogen and testosterone-suppressors I am putting into it. It's still the same body I have always had. It's a different shape. It's softer. But it's the same body I have had for 35 years. When I get the surgery I need, I will not be losing my body, either. This is the right body for me. My transformation is merely one of presentation. It is no more radical than any other bodily changes a person undergoes.

We are not born…

Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★½ 10

Action! - The Unlikely Rumble: Hill v Hyams

So we end the first half of our combat with Hill returning to the vengeance genre, bringing his Western sensibilities to a picture where guns and retribution are the order of the day.

Michelle Rodriguez is great in this role, while her first appearance as a "man" was laughably poor. The beard and everything looked terribly fake, and it was even funnier that she was acknowledged twice in the closing credits. Now, having said that, when the wicked revengeful doctor, nicely played by Weaver, completed the "sex change" on Michelle's character Frank, Rodriguez did an great job modulating her voice and making it more rougher, and even as she leaned over and…

Review by nathaxnne [hiatus <3] ★★★★½ 12

100% Ray Blanchard's fault Signourney Weaver has to be out here force-femming mob hit men into Michelle Rodriguez to obtain cast-iron proof that gender dysphoria is an innate condition irreducible to paraphilia in the year of our lord 2016, an obvious fact known to science in the 19th Century and then violently memory-holed as needed by whatever variety of fascist forgetting this was expedient for ever since. If nothing else, The Assignment might be useful to watch with clueless boomer (grand)parents in order to get them to think constructively about the experience of gender dysphoria??? U could tell them before sitting down to watch that there was a reason u checked Girlfight out of Blockbuster so many times and that…

Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★½

So cheap, so in love with its own lurid pulp. It is as unplausible as its underworld, which is part of what so pleasurable about it. That cheapstake vile movie atmosphere is the movie, pure surface ugliness that never suggests the real thing, but just drown in its own texture. The kind of preposterous film with a mad doctor quoting Shakespeare and Poe for added gravitas that everyone treats for the bullshit it actually is. Rodriguez's Frank Kitchen is so good at what he does, The Assignment is never an actual an action movie, what it does purpose is a double narrative crashing on itself (Hill's usual hunter/hunted motif taking to an unique lurid extreme), the idea of identity becoming…

Review by matt lynch ★★★

Hill comes right out and says that this should stand on style alone...it doesn't (and yikes some of those animated transitions are dire), but his (somewhat clueless, but still) insistence on keeping this a pulpy shock noir is kinda admirable.

Review by Dawson Joyce ★

With a premise this risky, unique, and thought-provoking and a more than capable cast and crew onboard, it is such a shame to see The Assignment come out not an enjoyably trashy piece of exploitation fun but instead a brutally boring, utterly lifeless mess of a film lacking in both strong characterization and entertaining action, and the fact that this was a passion project of director Walter Hill since the 70's makes the joyless and mundane end result even more baffling. Also, this film officially disproves the idiotic to begin with theory that lead star Michelle Rodriguez looks too masculine.

Review by Jesse Snoddon ★ 2

"It's hard to go back to Frank Kitchen when you look like a chick"

After stupidly named hitman Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez) takes out Dr. Rachel Kay's (Sigourney Weaver) brother, Kay enacts revenge by having Frank abducted and performing a sex change operation on him against his will. 

As a fan of Walter Hill's movies, it pains me to say this is awful. Without even getting into the more controversial elements (to the film's credit Hill seems to be trying to make the point that we are who we are inside and physically changing someone won't alter that if it's against there will...but Hill is likely not the person to have this conversation and in over his head on that…

Review by comrade_yui 2

walter hill not being a provocative reactionary dumbass makes this way less exploitative than it actually should be. it's jam-packed with several elements of his previous works, and i can't help but see this as a return to form after his dreadful output since the end of the 90s. it's slick, peppered with punchy dialogue and efficiently constructed in the way that his best films are. at the time this came out, i probably would have despised it just from the premise alone, but at this point it feels really harmless compared to the relatively high toxicity that we get from zahler, snyder and bay. reading interviews with hill and seeing the actual text here, it's clear that this film…

Review by Biscoito18 ½ 3

I'd never realized how feminine Michelle Rodriguez was until seeing her trying to pass as a biological man.

It's impossible to buy the illusion, not only because she is a very famous actress, but also because the make up is terrible and her silhouette, voice and walk remains the same.

Looks more like a bad comedy sketch (they even gave her a hilarious CGI penis and hairy chest!!!) but the tone is so dead serious that nothing works properly. It's a VERY strange movie with a very strange editing too.

Trying to adjust the tone, they even add some cartoons here and there to give a grindhouse/hq vibe to it, but ends up being another lame aspect in the weak…

Review by Rachel Rhodes

Shame on you Sigourney 

Why the name change to Tomboy on UK Netflix? Like it don’t make it a good movie

Review by Cinema_Strikes ★★½ 2

This came out to a lot of kerfluffle - seemingly mostly from people who hadn’t seen the movie - about whether it was offensive in its treatment of trans rights, but hardly seems worth the bother of getting offended. It’s a fairly bog standard pulpy action revenge thriller, and the central issue of Michelle Rodriguez getting forcibly gender swapped doesn’t seem to have any legitimate bearing on trans issues - the character is not a trans person, but someone who had their body altered without their consent (more akin to the Remade in China Mieville’s Bas-Lag series), which seems an entirely different issue, at least to this admittedly ignorant viewer. I’m sure I’m missing plenty of nuance, but honestly this…

Review by Scout Tafoya ★★★½

www.rogerebert.com/mzs/the-unloved-part-47-the-assignment

Hill snapped into place on another level for me when I was watching this and remembered the scene in The Driver where he smashes up that gorgeous orange Mercedes. I watched it with my dad when I was in college and neither of us understood it. Years pass and I'm watching this and I'm thinking about other moments in Hill films where characters try to sort of shed their skin because of Hill's existential body dysmorphia and my brain feeds me the scene and says without hesitation "Well there's that scene in The Driver when O'Neal destroys the car because he can't tear his skin off and reveal the bottomless void in his soul." Like somehow, at some…

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TV Listings

• Cast & Crew

The Assignment

• 34   Metascore
• 1 hr 35 mins
• Suspense, Action & Adventure

A macho hit man is abducted and given unwanted male-to-female gender-confirmation surgery by a deranged doctor. With the help of a one-night stand, the assassin seeks revenge on those responsible for the operation in this gripping action thriller.

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1:54 tHE ASSIGNMENT

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tHE ASSIGNMENT

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The assignment is a book every teen should read, regardless of religion.

By Hagar Cohen , Opinions Editor | November 14, 2022

lizawiemer.com

Book Cover, The Assignment by Liza Wiemer

Major Spoiler Warning for The Assignment 

“Would YOU speak up for what is right?” The question stands out, even in small font, on the front cover of The Assignment , written by Liza Wiemer. 

The Assignment is a book that details an assignment that should never be given and encourages people to speak up along the way. Logan March and Cade Crawford navigate antisemitism, activism, and hate in a way no student should ever have to. Their bravery throughout the book is proven time and time again. Even the side characters find their outstanding roles and voices in the story, taking the readers through a rollercoaster of their own. Although the book was published in 2020, the elements detailing Logan and Cade’s story are still relevant to this day, especially following Kanye West’s recent antisemitic speech and actions .

Liza Wiemer wrote The Assignment based on a true story , which took place in Oswego, NY. Wiemer had been visiting New York to promote and talk about her debut, named Hello? —and an assignment very similar to the one in Wiemer’s story was assigned in the small town of Oswego. Wiemer met the two teens who fought against it. The Assignment ended up winning several awards, one of which was the 2021 Sydney Taylor Notable Book award. Wiemer had been in disbelief that an assignment promoting Holocaust denial and antisemitism was allowed that year (2016), yet there are still similar assignments being assigned in 2022. In addition, antisemitism has been increasing recently, with two major celebrities tweeting antisemitic remarks. 

During October, Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) made several antisemitic remarks that cost him his partnership with Adidas, and last week, Kyrie Irving defended his decision to promote an antisemitic movie that cost him playing in games for the Brooklyn Nets and his partnership with Nike. Now more than ever, a book like The Assignment is important and relevant to the conversation of antisemitism and Holocaust denial in the United States.

In The Assignment , the two main characters, Logan and Cade, are assigned a debate in their favorite teacher’s class in which everyone is required to recreate the Wannsee Conference in favor of the Nazis. The premise of the assignment was disappointing, yet not surprising. The Wannsee Conference was the debate in which senior Nazi officials discussed the Final Solution to the Jewish Question, which was the plan for extermination of Jewish people in Germany. Logan and Cade both immediately expressed a negative point of view on the assignment and planned to refuse to participate. This immediately sets up the fast pacing of the novel, introducing the conflict starting from the first page. 

Logan and Cade knew in their hearts that this assignment felt off, yet they hesitated to speak up at first. The hesitation is all too familiar, even when it comes to speaking out about unrelated topics. I felt seen and reflected in both characters, but especially in Cade. He had a connection to Judaism that he didn’t explore further until later in the book, but it was still very easy to draw parallels between his story and mine. Besides Cade, Daniel is a close second for the character whose story is extremely similar to mine. Daniel is a side character who notices the struggles of Logan and Cade and silently joins their protest and outcry. Daniel feels like a special character to me because although he is scared of the repercussions of speaking out, his situation is vastly different from everyone else’s. The parallel drawn between him getting bullied because of his gay identity and Logan and Cade getting bullied for speaking out is the string that sticks out, tying together the story. 

Other than the encouragement to speak out, the representation of Judaism in the book is also extremely important to Jewish teens like me. This book was what 8th-grade me would have loved to see, which is why I loved it so much. As I realized back then that antisemitism can and does happen everywhere, I believe that a story like Logan and Cade’s would have made an extremely strong impact on me and my perspective on antisemitism. 

The teacher that assigned the debate, Mr. Bartley, defends his assignment, saying that it is important to understand the thought process of the Nazis who debated the Final Solution. However, one student takes this literally and he “stands up and snaps his feet together. He lifts his right arm and salutes like a Nazi. ‘Heil Hitler,’ he calls out” (Wiemer 10). This was the first time I had to put the book down. All I could think about were the posts on social media calling students out for performing Nazi salutes in their schools and classrooms, and the students not getting reprimanded for it. The reality in the book is so important to highlight and talk about as the conversation surrounding antisemitism continues. 

Later on in the book, Logan’s locker is vandalized with “pictures and sticky notes filled with blood red swastikas and hateful words” (Wiemer 152). This was another notable moment where I had to put the book down. The shock of the student body, Logan, and Cade upon finding the surprise in Logan’s locker reminded me of a dinner conversation with my family, where I found out that someone drew a swastika in the bathroom of my brother’s elementary school without knowing the implications of their actions. The suspense kept convincing me to pick the book back up, as Logan and Cade always managed to find the most logical solutions to problems that should have never existed.

Logan and Cade’s active outcry against the assignment is repeated and emphasized in every chapter. They talked to Mr. Bartley, took it to the principal, took it to the local newspaper, and eventually, their outcry went viral. Logan and Cade took every possible action to ensure that the antisemitic debate would be canceled. The closest adults in their lives are behind them and support them, with Logan’s father saying, “I will support you and Cade in every way I can” (Wiemer 106) and Cade’s mother saying, “You’re Granite. Steel. Titanium. You don’t allow any of that hate to get through. You understand?” and “What you said to the reporter showed tremendous dignity and respect. Let that be your guide. You and Logan must be together on this, and if you need guidance, you can turn to us” (Wiemer 144-145). Logan and Cade never give up, which I found extremely admirable. I found myself enjoying this rollercoaster of events, and the plan they put into action found its way into occupying my brain. The courage displayed by Cade and Logan and the support of their parents is deliberately written in a way that encourages the reader to find their own courage to stand up to an antisemitic assignment at their school and antisemitism in their communities. 

The writing style of the story really emphasized the intertwining of Logan, Cade, and other side characters’ stories in regard to the assignment given out. In every chapter, the book mainly switched points of view between five characters: Logan, Cade, Mason, Heather, and Daniel. There are also chapters of text conversations, social media comments, and phone conversations, which provide important context to the advancement of the plot. The chapters with Logan and Cade are in first-person, while the rest of the characters’ points of view are in third-person. This makes their stories much more interesting, since sometimes the first-person point of view does not take into consideration certain characteristics of the characters. Mason’s father is the coach of the school’s hockey team, and he is implied to be abusive. The players on the hockey team also bully him, and although he wants to speak out, he is scared of facing repercussions from it. Specifically, the quotes “[The hockey team players] trashed Mason, taunted him, told him he was gay like Daniel Riggs” and “‘Keep the boys focused on the game. That’s it. Besides, this never would’ve happened if you had played better, if you hadn’t missed that goal…’ He went on and on picking Mason apart until Mason wanted to shrink into his chair just like his mother did when the criticism was aimed at her.” stood out to me because they make Mason’s character more real in a way, and give readers who are also scared of the repercussions of speaking out a character to relate to. Heather is similar to Mason in the way that she is also scared of the repercussions of speaking out because of her family life, but in the end, she finds her voice and joins Logan and Cade with full support. 

At the end of the story, a major plot twist occurs. Cade finds out that his grandparents were actually Jewish, but concerned for their safety, they pretended to be Christian. The twist was the most shocking and unexpected part of the book, yet it made his story that much more relatable. 

There were tears streaming down my cheeks and a smile plastered on my face as all of the hard work done by Logan and Cade turned out to accomplish huge strides for themselves and for their community. I laughed, I cried, and I cheered for the characters throughout the entire book.

I had the privilege of attending a book fair presentation where Wiemer and another Jewish author, Samantha A. Vinokor-Meinrath, presented their books and talked about antisemitism to Jewish teens. Some of the topics that were talked about included the connotation of the word Jew vs. the word Jewish, the importance of tone, Jewish and non-Jewish activism against antisemitism, and our own journeys as Jewish people. Liza’s presentation just made the book come to life more, and I saw as the other teens in the room resonated with the journey taken by Logan and Cade. 

After the presentation, the book fair ran out of copies of The Assignment , and the line for the author signing was extremely long. As more people speak out against antisemitism in the United States, it is important to remember that there are many actions that can be considered antisemitic, whether it would be an assignment that defends Nazis or painting swastikas. When faced with the assignment and hatred, the courage of the two teens in The Assignment proves to readers that if they witness antisemitism and other forms of hatred in their lives, they too can gather up the courage and stand up for what they believe in. 

Relating to antisemitism in today’s society, there was rightful massive backlash against the antisemitism of celebrities like Ye and Kyrie Irving. The Tweet that stood out from Ye stated that there were plans to “[go] death con 3 on Jewish people” and that “[he] can’t be antisemitic because black people are actually Jew[ish] also.” Meanwhile, from Irving, the tweet that stood out promoted a movie named Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America , which promoted antisemitic theories. A book like The Assignment is massively important as teens grow up and start noticing that there is a growth of hatred in our society, and start to learn how to cope with it. 

The relevancy of the story, the compelling plot, the relatable characters, and the accurate Jewish representation all tie together to make this book one of the most impactful books I’ve ever read. I give this book 5/5 stars because, while being the most unique book I’ve ever read, it still keeps the reality of what’s going on in the world to make it more digestible to an overwhelmed brain. The book is about 300 pages long, yet it only took me two days to finish reading. It’s an easy yet powerful read. My main motto with books is “if it makes me cry, it’s automatically a good book”, and the amount of times I’ve cried while reading this book means it’s just that extraordinary.

• antisemitism
• book review
• liza wiemer
• the assignment

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Hagar enjoys expressing herself through writing, but also through admiration of the fine arts as a whole. She sees it as a way to show how she is feeling...

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Liza Wiemer

Award-winning author, educator, and public speaker.

• The Story Behind THE ASSIGNMENT
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The Assignment

OPTIONED FOR FILM: Screenplay Completed

In the vein of the classic the wave and inspired by a real-life incident, this riveting novel explores discrimination and antisemitism and reveals their dangerous impact., 2024 lincoln award nominee 2022/2023 georgia book award nominee free little library “read in color” recommended read tayshas recommended read (texas library association) state of illinois “read for a lifetime” book a bank street college of education best book of the year 2022 sakura medal award nominee sydney taylor book award notable for young adults wisconsin state reading association recommended young adult novel nerdy book club best ya fiction novel yalsa/ala best fiction for young adults nominee milwaukee county teen honor book, on sale now.

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SENIOR YEAR. When an assignment given by a favorite teacher instructs a group of students to argue for the Final Solution, a euphemism used to describe the Nazi plan for the genocide of the Jewish people, Logan March and Cade Crawford are horrified. Their teacher cannot seriously expect anyone to complete an assignment that fuels intolerance and discrimination. Logan and Cade decide they must take a stand.

As the school administration addresses the teens’ refusal to participate in the appalling debate, the student body, their parents, and the larger community are forced to face the issue as well. The situation explodes, and acrimony and anger result. What does it take for tolerance, justice, and love to prevail?

Based on a true incident.

The Assignment has been compared to classics such as The Wave and The Hate U Give .

The Assignment hardcover (Delacorte Press, a division of Penguin Random House) and the all-star cast audiobook (Listening Library) were published on August 25, 2020. The paperback edition was published by Ember on August 31, 2021.

To date, foreign rights have sold in Italian, Russian, Polish, and Korean.

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