Stan has selected 2001 film "The Believer".

Description:

Superficial description (copied from Kanopy):

"A young Jewish man develops a fiercely anti-Semitic philosophy. Based on the factual story of a K.K.K. member in the 1960s who was revealed to be Jewish by a New York Times reporter."

Non-superficial analysis:

Daniel, a genius bar mitzvah student, engages in advanced study of scholarly Jewish sources and constantly wrestles with God by asking unanswerable questions in Hebrew school. This conflicts with his complacent and incurious Hebrew teacher's desire to present an easy canned curriculum and not have to struggle with difficult topics in particular the Akedah (Binding of Isaac). Eventually the student is forcibly dragged out of the school, banned from further study, and shunned by the community. He then embarks on a lifelong plan to train a Neonazi Army which he believes is needed to get complacent pacifist Jews to start fighting back against their enemies, which to him includes God whom he has come to see as a cruel madman with whom they are destined to wrestle with in order to live and to grow and become fully human. Among other things he struggles with the reality that his army is comprised on one side of low IQ street thugs who are not his peers and who disgust him, and on the other by a cabal of American businessmen who (like George H. W. Bush's father Prescott Bush who was involved in the Business Plot) want to overthrow the US government and replace it with a fascist regime that will benefit business interests. This movement is led by a soft spoken likeable capitalist pervert who sees racism and antisemitism as mistakes of the Third Reich and advocates for a kinder gentler fascism that celebrates diversity and welcomes Jews and Blacks with open arms. The capitalist is forced to concede that Daniel's message of hate is far more inspiring for recruitment and he appoints Daniel a key leader of the movement.

The film is "based" on a true incident from the 1960s involving a KKK Grand Dragon in charge of the entire state of New York who was revealed in the newspapers to have been as a child a 154 IQ Hebrew school student whose teachers thought he would become a Rabbi one day. However, very few of the details in this film are taken from that story. During his comments following the film's Sundance Film Festival win, writer/director Bean made comments suggesting that some of the details of Daniel's struggles, frustration and anger with the paradoxes and difficulties of faith came from his own experiences. Bean later revealed that as a result of his making this film he went from himself being a nonbeliever to rejoining a Synagogue and attending services weekly.

Warning: This movie is brilliant, extremely offensive, and shocking in its depictions of extreme antisemitism, misogyny, and desecration. Most may not want to submit to the ordeal of watching this. Doing so is neither encouraged, nor is it discouraged (per se), but all are welcome and invited to participate in the discussion.

It is a reasonable and very appropriate response, especially to a first viewing, that anyone who chooses to see this film will be deeply shocked, offended, disgusted and disturbed by it. Since we have limited time for discussion, I am hoping our discussion can accept that shock as granted and universal, and skip that easy and obvious discussion of disgust and move beyond to the more interesting deeper discussions lurking beneath the surface of the film, somewhat hidden by the director's shock and awe approach to his film's superficial plot, which is one part of this difficult film's many layers of meaning.

In particular:

A major theme of the film is Daniel's wrestling with the Akedah (Binding of Isaac), which is our upcoming Rosh Hashana II Torah portion, and his inability to find anyone willing to engage in serious discussion of this foundational text and the astonishing history of its interpretation in Judaism.
Another major theme is the issue of what can happen to brilliant students who are not engaged with but are rather shut down by school or authoritarian systems not able or willing to handle the highly gifted and which choose to deal with their "disruptions" by punishing them to get them to be quiet and stop asking questions. We can discuss studies that found that in Tennessee counties which allow corporal punishment in public schools, Special Education students are more commonly beaten than other students. Subsequent studies found the special education category most beaten with wooden paddles are the "Gifted" students, and the reason most commonly given for the beatings is "disrespect", such as pointing out the teacher's errors, or asking questions the teacher does not know the answer to.
Another key theme is the Talmudic tradition of the Mishnaic Sages who ascended to Pardes looking for answers and then died, went insane, became heretics, an/or became enlightened, depending on how well they had prepared. This story is highly relevant to analysis of the film protagonist's character growth.
A minor and incidental theme is the specific elements of Halakic law in the Responsa book Daniel reads at the Orthodox Jewish bookstore. It includes issues of music and singing and the use of instruments on Shabbat, which has been discussed as a concern in our community. I discovered the Conservative movement did put together a very interesting document analyzing the history and doing a deep dive into many of the issues involved. I really enjoyed reading this and highly recommend to those interested in understanding what the debate is about. Probably we don't need to discuss this topic in the limited time for discussion as it is completely ancillary to the plot but this film has dozens of similar easter eggs, each one of which can lead to many hours of fascinating study.
At one point Daniel gives a brilliant and intentionally insane speech to the capitalist fascist insurrectionists and he remixes a famous quote by a Historical Bad Guy. Researching this quote and its history of reappropriation and remixing by various people was an exceptionally interesting rabbit hole.

Following the events of 9/11/2001, the film was shelved from distribution and never released in theaters in the US. A later screening at the Simon Wiesenthal center resulted in an audience that found the film to be a work of genius, but which should never be released since there was no chance the largely gentile public who would see it would have the deep background to comprehend what the Director/Writer was actually trying to accomplish and thus the chance of misinterpretation was extremely high. Interestingly, a later theatrical release in Israel where people did have that background was received with critical and audience acclaim and the film is respected.

Where to watch:

Available on Kanopy at: https://www.kanopy.com/en/video/11359822

Where to chat:

Discussion 7:45pm (note new time) on Monday September 11 (2023) at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2272006912 Meeting ID: 227 200 6912

Notes:

The film won the 2001 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Because of the events of 9/11/2001 and the depiction of religious hatred and violence, the film's distribution plans were cancelled and it was not released in theaters. Many believe Ryan Gosling would have won an Academy Award for his performance here, and at least a nomination for Best Original Screenplay by Henry Bean.

The film significantly references the Akedah, the story in Genesis 22 of the binding of Isaac by his father Abraham. This will be the Torah portion on Rosh Hashanah II, which comes this year on September 17. The Shofar blowing on Rosh Hashanah is in reference to the Ram that God gave in Isaac's stead.

The film depicts many flashbacks to Hebrew school where the main character has angry disputes with his teacher regarding the Akedah and states that he follows Shalom Spiegel's analysis. Jewish scholar Shalom Spiegel published a work in Hebrew in 1950 to accompany a translation of 12th Century Rabbi Ephraim of Bonn's poem about the Akedah. Rabbi Ephraim, and medieval european jews in general at the time, interpreted that Isaac was killed on the altar, burned down to embers, then was resurrected by God with dew, at which point Abraham attempted to kill him again. At that point shocked and horrified angels interceded and presented the ram to be sacrificed instead. Spiegel's highly technical work covers the history of interpretations of the Akedah and the reasons for different readings, much which had been unknown in contemporary times and the 1950 publication was considered a revelation. It was finally released in English translation under the title "The Last Trial: On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to Offer Isaac as a Sacrifice: The Akedah" in 1967. I managed to track down one copy of this rare book and its acclaim is well merited. Like seeing the film, reading this stunning book is comparable to an atom bomb going off in your living room.

Deena Rabinovich's essay "And he saw the place from afar" (Me’agadot ha’akedah) has a wonderful discussion of the Akedah and Spiegel's work: https://shiurim.yutorah.net/2013/1053/Rosh_Hashanah_To-Go_-_5774_Mrs_Rabinovich.pdf

We have a long-standing tradition of “reminding” God of the Akedah [during high holidays] as part of our pleas for Him to forgive us.