Protocols of Zion

I felt like the movie was not so specifically about the Protocols, or about anti-Semitism specifically after 9/11. It was, in my opinion, a brief overview of the history of anti-semitism, and a defense of the 'other side.' He touched upon Arab anti-semitism, the whole white power movement, and African-American anti-semitism (albeit briefly). There were two things that struck me - one was that this man interviewed dozens of people who he knew hated him simply because of who he was - and he kept going back for more. The other was a memory - a year and a half ago I walked through Majdanek and Auschwitz, and was overwhelmed by the feeling of death and the pile of ashes. I am continually amazed by the ease with which seemingly decent people become full of such illogical, passionate hate for something they do not know or understand.

An interesting and engaging subject matter, and one that deserves discussion and attention. However, I found Levin's presentation to be meandering and unfocused. The film was entitled "The Protocols of Zion" but devoted relatively little time to the eponymous text -- more of a survey of anti-Semitic attitudes in contemporary America. Which is itself a worthwhile subject of course, but it seemed that Levin started off trying to make a documentary on one subject, and instead ended up with a documentary on a related, but different, subject. It seemed as though he would occasionally remember what the title of the film was and throw in another of the "Protocols".

A well-intentioned film on an important subject, which unfortunately missed the mark. I'd be very interested to see a documentary that actually discussed the Protocols of Zion in depth.

This documentary has a promising start: a report on the current day use of the discredited anti-Semitic fraud, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Levin is at his best when he's covering how this silly false text is still being cited by anti-Semitic political activists, white supremacists, and the like. Actually, he could have spent even more time describing the theories regarding the document's source and history.

Unfortunately, he loses focus. After giving his main topic too abbreviated a treatment, he takes a scattershot approach which is ultimately a superficial analysis of 20th and 21st century anti-Semitism and the politics of Israel. Covering the issues of anti-Semitism and Roman Catholicism (and more pointedly, anti-Semiticism in the "Passion of the Christ") for example, could have been its own documentary. Instead, it is just a misplaced digression in this movie. Next, a presentation of anti-Semitism among Arab-Americans and Palestian-Americans, their motives and their views, takes up about 30 minutes of film.

In reality, each of these major themes: the current role of the Protocols in anti-Semitics politics, the tension between the Christian church and Judaism dating back to the Crucifixion, and the Arab-Israali conflict could take up its own proper treatment via documentary. Levin does each a disservice by trying to cover all in one modest film.

Disappointing documentary, totally misnamed, and even if retitled, still pretty scattershot.

The filmmaker starts with the question of why Jews were blamed for 9/11 and returns to that in the end, but he doesn't really even explore that issue. He also digs out an old box of JFK conspiracy material he collected as a kid, to serve no particular point. Perhaps he means to show how conspiracies can be appealing, though he doesn't say so.

There's random footage of various anti-Semitic historical figures, and ignorant people on the street. There's some, but not much, by way of balance - gentiles who don't believe the Protocols or who don't harbor prejudice against the Jews. As others have noted, he seems bigoted against Arabs, and is rather confrontational and didactic.

A shame, really.

The Protocols was obviously a very personal project for Levin, his chance to get at the eternal question: why always the Jews? It was inspired by a single conversation the filmmaker had with an Arab cabdriver who was convinced that Israel was behind the 9-11 attacks. How did the cab driver know this? Because he had read it in the book "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

The century-old book purports to be the minutes of a secret meeting of Jewish leaders in which they lay out their plans for world domination. In fact, it's a fraud; most of the book was plagiarized from earlier works of fiction. Mainstream western society declared it out-of-bounds over 80 years ago. Yet as Levin documents the book remains remarkably popular both on the fringes of American society and throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Levin tries to get to the bottom of this by interviewing neo-Nazis, Palestinians, radical black activists, conspiracy theorists, Christian evangelical leaders and various Jews. The most fascinating and disturbing bits are clips from Arab TV shows which dramatize the Protocols as if they were historical fact.

He never quite gets to the bottom of it -- he's not exactly the most probing of interviewers -- but the results are never less than fascinating. He deserves enormous credit for his bravery in talking to many of these people as well as his willingness to explore the "don't go there" areas of Jewish conspiracy myths. Watch it with some friends then go to a coffee shop and have a good discussion.