The Believer
3/4
Starring: Ryan Gosline, Theresa Russell, Summer Phoenix, Billy Zane, Elizabeth Reaser
Rated R for Strong Violence, Language and Some Sexual Content
Now here is a truly challenging film. Fiercely controversial and always provocative, "The Believer" refuses to be ignored. No distributor would touch it after it inspired protests at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. A small company called Fireworks Pictures picked it up after a showing on Showtime was cancelled after 9/11.
The subject matter alone will turn off most people: the film is about a Jewish neo-Nazi. It is inspired, but not based on, the true story of Daniel Burros, a high-ranking neo-Nazi who killed himself after a journalist for the New York Times published the fact that he was Jewish.
Danny Balint (Gosling) is a fervent anti-Semite. He has such vicious hatred and anger towards the Jewish people that he can hardly contain it. The bile he spews is so poisonous that it almost turns-off the fascists that he comes into contact with (played by Zane and Russell). But while the others in the group are there because they're too stupid to realize the lunacy of hatred, Danny's reasons are more complex. We, and the others, know this after he won't let the mindless thugs touch the torah because they don't know what it is.
Danny isn't so much an anti-Semite as he is a deeply confused individual. He sees the persecution of the Jews as weakness on their part because, in his view, they didn't fight back when they had the chance (by this way of logic, he considers the Israelites to have "transcended their Jewishness" because the have fought for, and won, the land of Israel). But he is a faithful follow of the Jewish faith at heart. His problem is that he feels weak and insecure, and his way of fighting it is to destroy, or at least say he will, the people that he feels are weak even though he is one of them.
You can see how this film would be such a polarizing lightning rod with audiences. Many, including Roger Ebert, feared that this film would be harmful. I don't think so. I think that a person who watches it will realize that writer/director Henry Bean's intentions are not to create a film that is anti-Semitic, but to explore how a person's own intelligence can completely warp their world view.
The film would be little more than a curiosity had it not been for the work of then-unknown Ryan Gosling (in fact, the film probably wouldn't have worked at all). Gosling has always been a fearless actor, and this is his riskiest role. He is absolutely riveting. Danny is a person of profound, but clear, contradictions. The young actor uses his eyes to show what is beneath the venom. At first, we hate him because of the monstrous things he says and plans to do. But we come to care about him because we eventually see that he is not an evil man, just a lost soul. Able support is provided by the rest of the cast, but this is his show.
It is commendable that Henry Bean does not back down from the film's explosive content. He does not soften his punch or step on eggshells because he realizes that doing so would have muddled the film's thesis. This is a movie that may not entertain, but will not be forgotten.
Starring: Ryan Gosline, Theresa Russell, Summer Phoenix, Billy Zane, Elizabeth Reaser
Rated R for Strong Violence, Language and Some Sexual Content
Now here is a truly challenging film. Fiercely controversial and always provocative, "The Believer" refuses to be ignored. No distributor would touch it after it inspired protests at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. A small company called Fireworks Pictures picked it up after a showing on Showtime was cancelled after 9/11.
The subject matter alone will turn off most people: the film is about a Jewish neo-Nazi. It is inspired, but not based on, the true story of Daniel Burros, a high-ranking neo-Nazi who killed himself after a journalist for the New York Times published the fact that he was Jewish.
Danny Balint (Gosling) is a fervent anti-Semite. He has such vicious hatred and anger towards the Jewish people that he can hardly contain it. The bile he spews is so poisonous that it almost turns-off the fascists that he comes into contact with (played by Zane and Russell). But while the others in the group are there because they're too stupid to realize the lunacy of hatred, Danny's reasons are more complex. We, and the others, know this after he won't let the mindless thugs touch the torah because they don't know what it is.
Danny isn't so much an anti-Semite as he is a deeply confused individual. He sees the persecution of the Jews as weakness on their part because, in his view, they didn't fight back when they had the chance (by this way of logic, he considers the Israelites to have "transcended their Jewishness" because the have fought for, and won, the land of Israel). But he is a faithful follow of the Jewish faith at heart. His problem is that he feels weak and insecure, and his way of fighting it is to destroy, or at least say he will, the people that he feels are weak even though he is one of them.
You can see how this film would be such a polarizing lightning rod with audiences. Many, including Roger Ebert, feared that this film would be harmful. I don't think so. I think that a person who watches it will realize that writer/director Henry Bean's intentions are not to create a film that is anti-Semitic, but to explore how a person's own intelligence can completely warp their world view.
The film would be little more than a curiosity had it not been for the work of then-unknown Ryan Gosling (in fact, the film probably wouldn't have worked at all). Gosling has always been a fearless actor, and this is his riskiest role. He is absolutely riveting. Danny is a person of profound, but clear, contradictions. The young actor uses his eyes to show what is beneath the venom. At first, we hate him because of the monstrous things he says and plans to do. But we come to care about him because we eventually see that he is not an evil man, just a lost soul. Able support is provided by the rest of the cast, but this is his show.
It is commendable that Henry Bean does not back down from the film's explosive content. He does not soften his punch or step on eggshells because he realizes that doing so would have muddled the film's thesis. This is a movie that may not entertain, but will not be forgotten.
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