Review: Protocols Of Zion (2005)

Protocols Of Zion
documentary
2005
100 minutes

by Scott Mendelson

In the four years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there have
been moderate increases in anti-Semitism around the globe. This is
partially due to a rumor that the Jews were warned ahead of time and
all stayed home that day, resulting in a Jewish causality rate of
0.00ænbsp; Oh, and modern anti-Semitism stems from a Russian book
written in 1905 detailing a non-existent meeting of imaginary Jews as
they discussed a scheme to eventually take over the world. This book,
entitled The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has experienced an
upsurge in popularity due to various factions blaming the Jews for
9/11 and other geo-political ills.

Protocols Of Zion offers no more knowledge than stated in the above
paragraph. It is a rambling, repetitive, contradictory and
intellectually insulting movie that absolutely should not get a pass
from critics and audiences on account of its subject matter. Director
Marc Levin claims the film is his personal journey into the heart of
this new anti-Semitism. It is nothing more than Marc Levin's
narcissistic speechifying, where he draws broad conclusions, makes
false statements, quotes out of context, and plays a version of Jay
Leno's Jay-Walking, finding the most inflammatory, brain-dead, and
simplistic representations from a given community to represent various
creeds, classes, and ethnicities.

The rare strong points of the film are the purely factual aspects,
where Levin interviews various scholars about the history of anti-
Jewish bias and discusses various stereotypes that have pervaded the
Jewish existence for thousands of years. The Protocols themselves are
amusingly general enough to be applied to any fascist regime in
history.

But Levin is the sort of man who sees anti-Semitism in honest
discourse, not just from the white supremacy groups in America or
various anti-Jew factions in the Middle East. According to Levin's
world, criticizing Israeli government policies makes one anti-Jew.
Much screen time is given to the aftermath in the Palestinian
community to the July 2002 assassination of a Sheikh Salah Shehadeh,
without mentioning the fact that the Israeli army fired a missile into
a residential building and city street, blowing up seven children and
four other civilians in their wake. The only non-Palestinian in
opposition to any Israeli government policies is a man who believes
that Sharon wasn]t being tough enough and should have started
cleansing the ethnics.

Levin spends an obscene amount of time covering the release of Mel
Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ. Levin interviews the same Jewish
leaders who stupidly turned the would-be art house experiment into a
pop-culture event by taking to the airwaves to protest the film sight
unseen, thus causing Christians to join together in support of the
film as a matter of religious conviction. Gibson is quoted out of
context during an interview, and the rantings of his truly anti-
Semitic father are used against him (so disparaging someone because of
someone else's comments or actions is ok... sometimes?). Levin travels
to church meetings and scorns them for having specifically Christian
beliefs (I hope I'm not going to hell for not accepting Jesus, but
that IS their religious belief, not a bias toward any one group). Not
mentioned in the film is that not a single act of anti-Semitic
violence occurred in this country because of the film, and polls
showed that the belief in the 'blood libel' actually decreased after
the film's release.

Levin can't seem to grasp the idea that people hate and blame because
it's easier than either accepting their own responsibility, or it is
easier than blaming random chance. Some people hate out of stupidity
or anger, or sadness. Sometimes, people hate to excuse their own
deplorable behavior (the language and ideas of modern racism were in
fact invented as an excuse for slavery, a justification for how moral,
God-fearing people could condone the kidnapping and selling of fellow
human beings). Levin seems shocked by the very principle that people
hate other people for no good reason.

Levin finds no answers and asks no real questions. The film has little
value as an educational tool, since it practices the same sort of
closed-minded thinking that it attempts to debunk. By neither
ascribing this anti-Jew attitude towards various ingrained prejudicial
outlets or detailing the very real conditions in the world that bring
about fear mongering nor finger pointing, Levin has created a
documentary that will enlighten no one.

For a better, smarter look at anti-Semitism, look for The Believer, a
fine drama about a Jewish youth who becomes a skinhead leader in his
community.

Grade: C-