The Believer (2001)
Country: US
Technical: col 98m
Director: Henry Bean
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix, Theresa Russell, Billy Zane
Synopsis:
A self-hating Jew turned neo-Nazi skinhead joins a proto-fascist organization in New York and flirts with terrorist enterprises; but an affair with his employer's masochistic daughter brings his internal conflicts to a head when she becomes fascinated with the Torah and the way of life it enshrines.
Review:
An unblinking examination of racial hatred which offers many thumbnail descriptions of what it is to be Jewish but ultimately boils down to the admission that 'we hate them because they exist'. Thus the phenomenon of the articulate, initiated antagonist who is merely trying to cut out a part of himself makes for a compelling take on intolerance, while neatly affirming the concept of racial hatred as a deeply irrational belief. No less irrational, however, than any number of the Judaism's own tenets, the film suggests.
Country: US
Technical: col 98m
Director: Henry Bean
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix, Theresa Russell, Billy Zane
Synopsis:
A self-hating Jew turned neo-Nazi skinhead joins a proto-fascist organization in New York and flirts with terrorist enterprises; but an affair with his employer's masochistic daughter brings his internal conflicts to a head when she becomes fascinated with the Torah and the way of life it enshrines.
Review:
An unblinking examination of racial hatred which offers many thumbnail descriptions of what it is to be Jewish but ultimately boils down to the admission that 'we hate them because they exist'. Thus the phenomenon of the articulate, initiated antagonist who is merely trying to cut out a part of himself makes for a compelling take on intolerance, while neatly affirming the concept of racial hatred as a deeply irrational belief. No less irrational, however, than any number of the Judaism's own tenets, the film suggests.
Country: US
Technical: col 98m
Director: Henry Bean
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix, Theresa Russell, Billy Zane
Synopsis:
A self-hating Jew turned neo-Nazi skinhead joins a proto-fascist organization in New York and flirts with terrorist enterprises; but an affair with his employer's masochistic daughter brings his internal conflicts to a head when she becomes fascinated with the Torah and the way of life it enshrines.
Review:
An unblinking examination of racial hatred which offers many thumbnail descriptions of what it is to be Jewish but ultimately boils down to the admission that 'we hate them because they exist'. Thus the phenomenon of the articulate, initiated antagonist who is merely trying to cut out a part of himself makes for a compelling take on intolerance, while neatly affirming the concept of racial hatred as a deeply irrational belief. No less irrational, however, than any number of the Judaism's own tenets, the film suggests.