Product Details

• Actors: Alan Levin, Marc Levin
• Directors: Marc Levin
• Producers: Marc Levin, Daniel Praid, Danielle Schleif, Daphne Pinkerson, Jeff Herr
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: IMAGE/THINKFILM
• DVD Release Date: July 10, 2006
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000FAOCF4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,100 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Protocols of Zion" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

San Francisco Examiner

"a compelling case that authenticates our greatest fears."

Product Description

While rattling through the bustling streets of New York City in a yellow cab filmmaker Marc Levin (Slam) discovered the idea for his next film from an unlikely source. Striking up a conversation with his Egyptian taxi driver Levin was unnerved when the conversation turned to the events of September 11 2001. Angrily informing the filmmaker that he believed no Jews had died in the terrorist attacks on that day the cabbie explained that they had all been warned of the event in advance so they could stay safely home. Levin subsequently turned to the 100-year-old book The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion, which was exposed as a forgery in the 1920s but is still followed by a disconcertingly large number of anti-Semites across the globe. After examining the book-which was furtively written by the Russian Secret Police and was alleged to be the meeting minutes of a group of Jews who were hell-bent on world domination-Levin decided to explore some of the protocols in his film. Traveling across America with his father Levin encounters various hate-filled figures and attempts to understand their feelings toward Jews. His most entertaining Michael Moore-like excursions take place in New York City where he encounters people whose oddball behavior does a fine job of discrediting their views and attends a discussion group about Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. However these moments are tempered by some jaw-dropping footage of an Egyptian TV mini-series based on the Protocols book and the Malaysian prime minister paraphrasing from the pages in 2003. Creating a fascinating and worthwhile film Levin sensibly discounts various crackpot theories but makes it clear that many of the people who spread anti-Semitic feeling remain worryingly influential.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nearly Unwatchable, January 30, 2007

By 

Historylover "jurgen42424" (Laurel, MD USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Protocols of Zion (DVD)

Ever Again was not a particularly well done documentary, but it's a work of genius compared to this drivel. It seems most of the other reviewers have been soft on this film because it is against the evil of Antisemitism. This film fails to make a coherent argument. The director jumps from scene to scene with no flow or direction. There are numerous tangents that go nowhere. The director likes to hear himself talk and ends up in verbal fights with idiots while he spouts stupid platitudes. Worst of all, the director seems to believe in a great all encompassing corporate conspiracy not much different than that expoused by The Protocols.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Original in This One, October 11, 2009

By 

stoic (Mobile AL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Protocols of Zion (DVD)

My wife and I checked Protocols of Zion out from our local library. The synopsis on the case looked good, so we both had high expectations. When we logged on to Amazon.com and checked the reviews, we were disappointed to see that people who had seen the film did not like it. We then watched the film. Unfortunately, I have to agree with the reviewers; you can skip this film and not miss anything.

Director Marc Levin investigates the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the 2000s. He discusses the famous forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion and what it reveals about anti-Semites and their paranoia.

The basic problem with this film is that it has nothing original to say. Director Marc Levin does some interviews with various people who agree that the Protocols are true and with those who work to combat anti-Semitism. The film starts off pretty well, but it soon becomes very boring and repetitive. Levin puts various members of his family in the film; I thought that the "family" scenes were especially tedious.

We also had a couple of other quibbles. The audio was distorted and we had to turn the volume up to hear the film. (There are no captions). Also, the DVD contains several previews and it was not possible to skip them by going straight to the disc menu.

In summary, I recommend that potential viewers skip this film.

29 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A chilling look at anti-Semitism in the wake of September 11th, July 11, 2006

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Protocols of Zion (DVD)

In the wake of September 11th, documentarian Mark Levin ("Gladiator Days: Anatomy of a Prison Murder," "Soldiers in the Army of God"), was stunned to hear people on the streets of New York City claiming that no Jews were killed when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center fell. He was also told that the attack was not made by Islamic terrorists but was instead part of a Zionist plot that had been set down over a century early in a book called "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." According to some this is a record of a secret meeting in which Jewish leaders set down their plan for world domination. For others it is a hoax, consisting of material plagiarized from earlier sources, perpetrated by the Tsarist police to attack the Bolsheviks. If you fall into the first camp then all you need to know about this 2005 documentary is that Mark Levin is Jewish. He does not belong to a synagogue, but his grandfather is honored in one, and since the director is Jewish this film would have to be seen as an attack on those who dare to debunk the "Protocols." If you are in the second camp then what you will find here is a look at the power and pervasiveness of hate.

I belong to the second camp, which means I think it would be interesting to see somebody from the first camp telling Osama bin-Laden that it was the Jews who brought down the WTC and not Al Qaeda's suicide hijackers. On the topic of the world Jewish conspiracy, my opinion is that it is not going too well. There is a scene where Levin is in West Palm Beach, wanting somebody to explain the Butterfly-ballot fiasco in light of the Jewish plan to take over the world. Of course he fails to look at it from the perspective of the rabid conspiracy theorists, who would still see this as evidence that the "Protocols" are true because having Bush and Cheney in office who be more beneficial than having Gore and Joe Lieberman. The Democrats would not have invented Iraq, whereas the Republicans were looking for an excuse. And so it goes.

The "Protocols" are the starting point for Levin taking his camera and having interesting discussions with Arab Americans, white nationalists, black nationalists, Christian evangelicals, Kabbalist rabbis, Holocaust survivors, and who ever else he can find. The "Protocols" keep popping up, but Levin is looking at anti-Semitism in the wake of 9/11. This includes not only a white supremacy that cannot keep copies of the "Protocols" on their shelf in West Virginia, but also the opening of Mel Gibson's film "The Passion." For the most part Levin lets people say what they want to say, but he often tries to challenge some of the statement. The best indication of how this usually goes is when he is told that New York City is controlled by Jews in the person of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Levin counters by pointing on that on 9/11 the major was Rudy Giuliani only to be told that "Jew-liani" proves the argument as well. And so it goes.

British journalist and diplomatic Lucien Wolf was the first to document that the protocols were fabricated from two obscure 19th-century sources, Maurice Joly's "Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu" (1864) and Herman Goedsche's "Biarritz" (1868). This comes out more in the bonus interview with Will Eisner, who's graphic novel "The Plot" tells the history of "The Protocols of Zion," than it does in Levin's documentary, which is more interested than taking the premise and looking at those who believe the hoax to be true. There is also more of the interview with James Carroll on the Passion story, the "Protocols of Zion" trailer, and a timeline, as well as a discussion with Marc Levin at the Boston Jewish Film Festival, November 6, 2005, where he freely admits he has no solution to the problem of combating such hatred. However, he does argue that this is the question on the table for the current generation.

Beyond the notion that anti-Semiticism is making a comeback in the 21st century, Levin covers the entire range of such beliefs, from those who brandish weapons while promising death to the Jews to small children who have been taught to hate. But beyond the power and the prevalence of such hate there is also a chilling element of politeness. I would have thought that people discussing such things in calm voices would have been a good thing, but it does not turn out to be that way. In the end, "Protocols of Zion" leaves viewers as bewildered as it does the filmmaker as to where do we go from here. You hate to get to the end of such a documentary and feel such a sense of despair, but hope is hardly a rational belief in light of what we see on the nightly news (regardless of who is really behind it).