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Protocols Of Zion
R4 - Australia - DV1 Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Jarrod Baker (12th November 2006). |
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The Film
 Soon after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, a poisonous rumour began to spread about the source of the attacks. Despite those who carried out the plane hijackings having demonstrable links to Al-Qaeda, and despite Al-Qaeda directly claiming responsibility for them, the claim began to surface that the Jews were in fact behind this terrible event. Furthermore, the rumour goes, no Jews actually died when the buildings collapsed. They were all warned, and so didn't go to work that day. All 4,000 of them, apparently. Despite the ease with which this rumour can be debunked - by, for example, asking any of the families of the many Jews who did in fact die when the World Trade Centre fell - this hideous slander has gained currency in certain circles. New Yorker (and Jew) Marc Levin was justifiably incensed by this, and set out to examine this new Anti-Semitism. "The Protocols of Zion" is the result, in which he confronts bigot after bigot, demonstrating in the process that the mindless hatred that led to both the Russian Pogroms and to the Nazi death camps may still be alive and well. The film is interspersed with text from 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion', the document from which the picture gets it's name. This forgery, which first surfaced during the Pogroms as a piece of anti-Semitic propaganda, purports to be the minutes of a meeting of Jewish elders in which they outline their plans for world domination. Despite being at least as thoroughly debunked as the crazy 9/11 rumour above, this document is still produced and distributed by Anti-Semites to this day - from The National Alliance (a white supremacist group) to the Nation of Islam. Hezbollah have even made television miniseries featuring the Protocols, and audiotapes have been made in the US (presumably for those racists who experience difficulty reading). At times, "The Protocols of Zion" can be amusing. Satirists from Sacha Baron Cohen to John Safran have demonstrated what good sport racists can be if you just give them enough rope to hang themselves. White supremacists seem particularly eager to demonstrate their lack of superiority to anything, while remaining cheerfully unaware of how ridiculous they must look to outsiders. It becomes downright hilarious, however, when these American racists try to justify their beliefs that the media is controlled by Jews in the face of Levin gently pointing out that the world's biggest media companies are French (Vivendi), German (Bertelsmann) and Japanese (Sony) - and that the most powerful man in new media is Rupert Murdoch. But it's hard to find it anything but chilling, however, when Levin cuts from these modern racists, with their fetish for Nazi memorabilia (and their thriving businesses selling it) to clips from the propaganda films used by the Nazis to stoke anti-Semitic sentiment during the 1930s and 1940s. It's even more chilling when in a clip from Egyptian television Levin shows a 3 year old Muslim girl talking about how much she hates Jews. "The Protocols of Zion" serves as a reminder that we can not be complacent - we must remain firmly aware of the past in order to avoid repeating our mistakes in the future. We have seen the effects of mindless bigotry before, and must be vigilant to ensure that such events do not occur again. Highly recommended.
Video
DV1 has provided a 1.33:1 full screen transfer for this release, which is not the film's original aspect ratio, in fact this film should be in 1.85:1 widescreen. Why DV1 chose to release this film this way is beyond me and shows little respect for the director's vision. The transfer looks cropped dropping information from the left and right and also seems slightly zoomed in to fit the 1.33:1 ratio. Despite this cannibalisation of the image the overall image is somewhat of a mixed bag, I found parts of the film sharp and clear while other parts exhibited moire effects, some jagged edge pixalation and some compression artefacts. Colours are flat but natural.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is included for this release and presents the dialogue clearly and without distortion, the track lacks depth and doesn't have a punchy impact but this isn't entirely necessary for a dialogue driven documentary film. The track is adequate for this film but won't blow anyone away. This disc does not feature any optional subtitles.
Extras
First up we have "A Discussion with Director Marc Levin" this is a Q&A session from the 2005 Boston Jewish Film Festival and runs for 15 minutes 16 seconds. This takes place after the screening of the film as Levin fields questions from the audience. He comments on the relevance of the film, religious fanaticism, how he got in touch with the National Alliance, his encounter with an Egyptian cab driver in New York, the influence of the Jews in Hollywood and what he learned from making the film. Overall this is an interesting clip that provides some background for the film. A series of 2 deleted scenes which are presented in the film's original ratio of 1.85:1! Is this some kind of joke? The deleted scenes in widescreen while the film has been cropped! I was annoyed at first now I'm just angry. In any case the scenes are: - "James Carroll on the Passion Story" which runs for 5 minutes 14 seconds and sees Carroll talk about Mel Gibson's interpretation of the Passion story and comments that the gospel was written decades after the fact, he stresses the importance of context and interpretation on regards to the Jews having killed Christ. - The next scene is "Will Eisner - The Plot" which runs for 5 minutes 48 seconds, this scene sees Eisner commenting on his new comic book entitled "The Plot" which deals with the Protocols. Next is "The Protocols of Zion Timeline" an 11 page text document that covers the history of the Protocols compiled by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and covers a period from 1903 when an early incomplete version was published in a Russian newspaper to 2005 with the release of new version by the Syrian Ministry of Information that claims September 11 was a Jewish conspiracy. Following that is a Marc Levin biography which covers 3 text pages of the filmmaker's career. Rounding out the extras is a director's statement which is a liner note on the inside cover of the DVD and outlines why he chose to make the film.
Overall
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