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25 of 32 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
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).
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling Topic, Mediocre Execution, September 30, 2006
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.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Disconcerting, May 18, 2007
I am a big fan of the genre, and I can say without qualification that this is a very well-made documentary. The subject matter is both chilling and mystifying. Marc Levin demonstrates that no matter how many times they've been debunked the "Protocols" continue to be cited by anti-Semites old and new, domestic and international. Following 9/11 the manufacture of new myths surrounding the Jews gives us, through Levin's lens, a fascinating if disturbing opportunity to witness the development of this kind of lie first-hand. It is a briskly made film with its fair share of humor, but it definitely leaves you with something less than a smile on your face. I highly recommend it.
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