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| Monday, November 28, 2005 |
Ignore the Protocols
Marc Levin's new documentary Protocols of Zion made waves at Sundance this year ... but I'm not really sure why. Yes, the subject matter -- how the controversial Russian Protocols of the Elders of Zion has spurred a century of virulent anti-Semitism -- is a hot button topic that many Jews and non-Jews alike will find interesting.
However, the film's undoing is not in its topic, but in the way Levin attempts to get his message -- whatever that may be -- across to the audience. Levin, who gained notoriety with 1998's Slam, uses the attacks of 9/11 (and the subsequent popularized myth that no Jews were killed in the World Trade Center) as the springboard for his road trip (which barely leaves the New York area) to see how people really feel about Jews in America.
Again, that's all well and good, a fine idea for a compelling documentary. But, unfortunately, Levin gets in the way by driving the film into various differing trajectories. First, he turns it into a father-son flick by dragging his dad along to reminisce about growing up Jewish in the Bronx. Then, one day while filming, he sees something on the news about the war in Iraq and decides to devote 20 minutes to that. Then, on another day of filming, an Arab sheik is murdered. Another 20 minutes about that.
A documentary about any one of these topics would be interesting on their own merit. But Levin has cinematic A.D.D. and is not content to stick with just one. Compound that with the fact that Levin is insistent on being incendiary, and likes to push buttons ... like when he badmouths Arabs ... in front of Arabs.
In any event, it's a Jewish film which means it'll draw the usual crowd of tribe members wishing to see themselves reflected on the silver screen. Nonetheless, you may want to curb your enthusiasm for this one.
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