Product Details

• Actors: Alan Berg, Don Black (II), Anne Bohlen, David Duke, Rudolf Hess
• Directors: Anne Bohlen, James Ridgeway
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: First Run Features
• VHS Release Date: November 16, 1999
• Run Time: 78 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302540046
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,510 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #94 in

  Video > Documentary > History > American History & Culture

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Inspired by a nonfiction book by author James Ridgeway, this 1991 documentary--largely shot at a woodsy retreat in Michigan--focuses on a day in the collective life of American neo-Nazis, racists, and conspiracy nuts awaiting all people of color to ignite Armageddon in the United States. Ridgeway (credited as one of the film's directors) teams with filmmakers Anne Bohlen and Kevin Rafferty to take an intentionally leisurely, conversational tack with supremacists who have assembled for lectures and workshops on everything from getting their message out via home videos to moving all like-minded "white Christians" to the Northwest. Michael Moore (Roger and Me), barely containing his bemusement, helps out with interviews that seem evenly divided between young people in various forms of Nazi garb and older people who look emotionally exhausted from a lifetime of suspicion and hatred. Clips from the public careers of more prominent racists such as David Duke and George Lincoln Rockwell are a part of this film, too, but what's most interesting about Blood in the Face is the way those doomstruck souls huddling in the Michigan countryside appear far more pathetic than scary. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
A skillfully made documentary about the radical right wing in North America. The movie's directors-Anne Bohlen, Kevin Rafferty, and James Ridgeway-put on display an alarmingly large aggregation of Fascist loonies: members of the Klan, the American Nazi Party, and other, less well-known organizations, all of them dedicated to spreading the gospel of anti-Semitism and white supremacy. What makes these zealots good subjects for a documentary is that they're compulsive talkers, tirelessly eager to expound their elaborate paranoid theories and make converts to the cause. (It passes the time while they wait for Armageddon.) Some really stunning delusional systems are elaborated here: everyone interviewed on this picture seems in need of a complete neurological workup. The film is fascinating, but it's also frustrating in that it doesn't provide much of a context for its menagerie of crackpots. The filmmakers don't try to explain the origins of these reactionary movements or to assess their current strength. The movie's tone is sometimes cautionary, suggesting that these groups constitute a sizable and material danger, and sometimes merely condescending, encouraging us to respond to the sheer ridiculousness of the radical right's ideas. When the film is over, all we can say for sure is that we've seen a compelling freak show. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bizarre look at the fringe of the White Power movement, March 14, 1999

By A Customer

This is an interesting and worthwhile video to see. The core issue comes during one of the interviews, when a grandfatherly man tells the interviewer that while he knows the filmmakers are using and making fun of them, they are also using the filmmakers to get their message out. Some of the characters in the film are nothing more than silly, such as the adolescents dressing up in SS uniforms, calling themselves the "Action group", and declaring that they are ready for anything. Others are more serious: true believers who are not just playing a role, but see themselves as activists for the White race. All in all, it gives everyone something to think about, from the screaming liberal, to the disaffected White man or woman looking for a connection.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars In their own words, August 15, 2000

By A Customer

From the "grand old man" George Lincoln Rockwell to today's wanna-be Stormtroopers, the militant fringe is exposed in their own words. Seething with hate, and ready for an excuse to launch a "rahowa" (Racial Holy War). This film is as disturbing as it is necessary to watch. If you can find it, watch the even earlier documentary "California Reich" to see this madness in it's incubation.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome movie, February 6, 2003

By A Customer

instead of having commentary on what to think about the aryan nations, klan, etc., we are presenting with the facts and to make our OWN minds up as to what to think of them. I could not help but go back to the part where the lady says (and to paraphrase) that if we took away G.L.R.s right to speak we would be doing much the same to ourselves. This documentary was fantasticly laid out and presented to us and this should be viewed by all, especially those who don't like being told what to think.