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August 25, 2008

Protocols of Zion (2005)

Should I see it?
No.

Short Review: This film loses its focus faster than Michael Jackson walking by Boys Town.

Leftist filmmaker Mark Levin (The Last Party, Soldiers in the Army of God) directs this rambling look at the rise of antisemitism in America after 9/11. Levin opens his film at Ground Zero with a number of people reciting the new libel that Jews were warned about the attacks and did not show up for work that day, which led to no Jewish deaths that horrible day. In other words, if the Jews didn't do it, they were at least in one the planning. He the introduces the audience to the old Russian compliment to bigotry The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. This is a book that claims to be the blueprint of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. From this fascinating beginning Levin loses his way and starts on a meaningless journey.

The film’s basic premise is never supported and actually investigated in any meaningful way. Levin spends his budget on a film that literally stands for nothing. It makes vague accusations that antisemitism is on the rise in America but doesn’t show this in action. The bulk of the film is Levin talking about the hatred of Jews in an anecdotal fashion but never puts the effort into trying to uncover the actual reasons or motives behind the hate.

The great crime of this piece is that Levin never questions his opening propositions. Never does he ponder if it possible that America isn’t growing in its antisemitism. He works off an assumption, doesn't provide concrete evidence to support his claim and then pontificates as if he's dealing in fact. This lack of questioning makes this whole piece little more than a personal home movie with good editing.

In a piece that claims the hatred of Jews is on the rise, it says something that Levin had to go to a skinhead, a prison and into a meeting of Palestinians (after a Palestinian leader had been killed) in order to find people who hated Jews. There are no soccer moms, no national talk show hosts, no filmmakers shown acting up. There are no responsible people interviewed, just the fringe kooks. If the hate is on the rise, Levin should have been able to pick people at random. He didn’t because he can’t. He talks with fringe anti-Semites in America and then plays footage from The Eternal Jew (1940) (a German film that equated German immigrant Jews with rats) and scenes from Egyptian television showing the blood libel (Jews using a Christian child’s blood to make Passover matzos.) One of the reasons this film is so unfocused is that Levin is unable to prop up the stated reason for the film. He cannot fill an hour and a half with actual American antisemitism. He pulls in foreign examples, his father’s decades old memories of the Catholic “monsters” next door and bitter outsiders.

Looking at this film, Levin should be thrilled that the worse case he can find is harsh language. With the history of Russian pogroms and The Holocaust being mentioned, seeing someone get threatened by Evangelicals admitting that Jews need to turn to Christ in order to get into Heaven seems a little out of place. Hatred is a problem in this country but that's because we've populated it with human beings. If anything, hatred is harder to find in America than elsewhere around the world. Sure people have problems getting along but we don't have death squads, camps or pogroms.

One thing that struck me about the film is how unaware Levin appears to be about the open bigotry in his own piece. The only African-Americans in the piece are wild eyed Muslims or prisoners. Arabs as similarly represented. Christians are welcoming, but are conniving to stab Jews in the theological back. When someone takes a jab at Jews in the piece, Levin is quick to retort. When Jews casually throw out vitriol at Christians or Muslims Levin is quick to nod with a smile. At one point two Jewish men rabidly denounce The Bush Administration for wanting to go into Iraq to start Armageddon, be taken up in The Rapture and bring the return of Jesus because the administration believes they will all go to Heaven. The men then spit out that if George Bush gets into Heaven they don’t want to be in there with him. Levin has nothing to say about these words in a film where he is concerned about outlandish lies.

The inconsistencies of Levin and his friends and family is stunning in its causal nature. Make no mistake, Jews have their own unresolved issues with bigotry and hatred and those issues are seen in this production. It is difficult to see a Jewish man complain about antisemitism while walking past a picture of Che Guevara hanging on a wall in his own house. A line of thinking that leads to The Holocaust is one thing to this man, but his line of thinking (Marxism) that has led the slaughter of millions of other people is worthy of a portrait in his living room? Levin himself claims that the roots of antisemitism are Christians. The anger over the death of Christ is the genesis of the hate. He doesn't offer any background for this statement he simply makes it as though it was a random point. He is welcome to make this point, my call is for him to back up his strong words. It is unbearable for Muslims to make irrational claims about the Jews but Levin is comfortable throwing that bomb at the Christians without support. These kind of inconsistencies litter this film and are unacknowledged.

Of all of the points missed in this piece none is more overlooked than the fact that the world itself is largely antisemitic and America is the exception in this crowd. In a time when Muslim extremists are blowing up babies to make their point and the international left is clamoring for Israel to dissolve it's sovereignty, this film comes across as just pointless and sad.

Related Reviews:
Documentaries
Street Fight (2005)
Manda Balla (Send a Bullet) (2007)

Other Critic's Reviews:
Film-Forward
Combustible Celluloid

Labels: anti-semitism, documentary, film, Marc Levin, movie review

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