Customer Reviews

Protocols of Zion

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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).

I know so many otherwise intelligent and sensible human beings who believe that 9/11 was "an inside job." Guys by the bushel buy this idiocy and even post a cut and paste a symbol on their youtube pages to represent their take on the historical event (which they thought was fabricated). The view of the 9/11 "truther" seems ubiquitous. Personally, I cannot even remotely understand how they could take such a position. I am grateful that Marc Levin made this documentary because the absurdity of the "inside job" perspective needs to be brought to the public's attention. Actually, believe it or not, I had to explain to several people that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were written by the Tsar's Okhrana (secret police), but this explanation appears to be too obvious for them to accept. Alas, anti-Semitism is a creed that will never die and is more popular now than it was at the turn of the last century. Levin does well to highlight the morons who believe in this rubbish, but morons initiated the holocaust...and they may well be the ones who initiate a new one in the decades to come.

The video is totally mislaeding and has nothing to do with Protocols of Zion. I regrett buying it, a waste of money.
very very poor

Leave it to the Jews to figure out a way to turn 9/11 into something about them !!!! Mark Levin needs to go to Isreal and document things that are important to his foriegn, hate filled, self important people. I had issues against the Jews before this video and after watching my hatred, prejudice and the need to join a white supremicst group was re-inforced. Judenrat ........... IT IS NOT AN AGSAGGERATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I read the book and watched the dvd by Marc Levin (called Protocols of Zion). I thought both were worth my time. The dvd provides clear evidence of what some in our world believe and shows the passions that are yoked to those convictions. There are people who will immediately discount and reject Levin's presentation, but, taken at face value, it clearly presents a collection of straight forward experiences and, honestly, saddens me. We are a deeply torn humanity.

As a researcher, Protocols was a book I needed to go through. While presenting itself as "Jewish," I'm amazed by the similarities I find, in outlook and method, with any number of anti-democratic totalitarian systems, with American Progressivism, Statist Secular Socialism, and even with Islamic political fundamentalism. One could replace many Jewish references with some other entity and recognize historic examples of what the Protocols convey, likely because the book presents the workings of evil. Evil finds its home in the human heart, in the human condition. Thus, no single people group escapes its touch and the Protocols can apply to many throughout history. Assume it was not of Jewish authorship and origination. The author would need to be intimate with the workings of evil him or her self to create the work. We meet ourselves.

I realize the book's fame is anchored to some Islamic promotion, yet the concept of "freedom" found on pages 51, 65, and 97 (in my copy), for example, is a similar concept, a similar view of freedom, as that found in Islam (freedom according to Shariah, harmony, and as outlined by Islamic thinkers like Seyyid Qutb). So, before one throws stones, one should examine his or her own system and see how Protocols speaks to it.

Not everyone needs to read the Protocols, and those who do should, perhaps, labor to see its wider implications.

'The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion' is one of the most famous underground books available all across the world. Although the book has been proven to be a forgery many times, there are still a considerable amount of people who believe what is written in the book. In brief, the book tells of a secret meeting between a group of Jews who plan to take over the world by controlling the banks and media. I have not read the book, but this is what I've heard what the book is about. This documentary is about a Jewish filmmaker who goes all around New York City and the United States and asks all kind of people about their thoughts about Jews and the book.

This film had the potential to be a really great documentary, but Marc Levin does not go deep enough. Although certain moments of the film are really funny, Levin is too brief or sloppy. He is open-minded and fair though. He interviews all kinds of people; white supremacists, African-Americans, American Palestinians, Jews, and many others. He does shatter some myths about the Jews and the book, but other parts are just brushed over without any kind of clarity. I must commend him, though, for tackling some controversial issues and talking to people who are not afraid to express their extremist views.

"Protocols of Zion" takes a somewhat convulted view on modern, post-9/11 anti-Semitism in the world, using the nefarious fabrication of the "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" as a template.

Much of the film doesn't reflect much on the actual screed itself, but rather the modern world's Jew hatred. The new anti-Jewish myth is no Jews died at 9/11.

Get ready for some intense dialogue. Ironically, some of the most hateful remarks in the film come from participants in a peace rally. An older man states he'd rather go to hell than be in heaven with "f----" Bush and Cheney. This is opposed to the spokesman from the Natonal Alliance in his tacky red tie speaking plainly about their beliefs and operations. Actually, some of the best, most honest and rational sounding people in the whole film are convicts at a maximum security prison.

One of several scens that bothered me was the interview with young Palestinian-Americans. They were born Americans, but still so wrapped up in the affairs of the "old country." I had to wonder why this was, especially in the wake of so many others, like the Irish, the Poles, the Italians, the Chinese, etc. who worked to become Americans and never looked back. And then hearing these guys start talking like gangstas didn't make the situation any better.

The worst moment was definitely the interview on the Passion with James Carroll. Aside from that, it was worth the look.

I give this DVD four stars, not three, because the topic, the universal irrational antisemitism championed by a bogus conspiracy called the "Protocols of Zion," is a compelling topic, especially in a post 9/11 world where people actually embrace the crackpot belief that the Israelis, the Jews, "did 9/11," and that no Jews were killed in the World Trade Center. Sadly, the filmmaker spends too much time interviewing marginal people who are obviously loons. More chilling is when he focuses on people with credibility who embrace the same deranged beliefs.