The Believer (2001 film)
The Believer | |
---|---|
Directed by | Henry Bean |
Screenplay by | Henry Bean |
Story by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Jim Denault |
Edited by |
|
Music by | Joel Diamond |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Fireworks Pictures IDP Distribution[1] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 98 minutes[2] |
Country | United States |
Languages |
|
Budget | $1.5 million[1] |
Box office | $1.3 million[3] |
The Believer is a 2001 American drama film written and directed by Henry Bean in his feature directorial debut, based on a story by Bean and Mark Jacobson. Starring Ryan Gosling, Billy Zane, Theresa Russell, and Summer Phoenix, the film follows Daniel Balint, a Jew who becomes a neo-Nazi. The film is loosely based on the true story of Dan Burros,[4] a member of the American Nazi Party and the New York branch of the United Klans of America who died by suicide after being revealed as Jewish by a reporter from The New York Times.[5]
The Believer premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2001, where it won the Grand Jury Prize.[6][7][8] It was theatrically released in the United States on May 17, 2002, to positive reviews, with particular praise for Gosling's performance. The film earned several accolades, including the Golden St. George at the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival.[9] It received four nominations at the 17th Independent Spirit Awards, Best First Feature and Best Screenplay for Bean, Best Male Lead for Gosling, and Best Supporting Female for Summer Phoenix.
Plot
The film begins with a continuing series of flashbacks into the childhood of Daniel Balint, a young Jewish yeshiva student. Brilliant but troubled, he often challenged his teachers with unorthodox interpretations of scripture. During a debate about the Binding of Isaac, Daniel argues that the story was not about Abraham's faith but God's power: that God's purpose was not to have Abraham accomplish a particular task, but rather to demand unquestioning obedience; harshly depicting God as a bully. It is from these early experiences that Daniel begins to defect from his Jewish identity.
In the present day, Daniel is now a fanatically violent
Guy Danielsen, a journalist writing an article on hate groups, meets Daniel for an interview. He listens to Daniel's
Daniel goes to the fascist camp retreat, where he meets Drake, a skilled marksman, along with an explosives expert. Six of the retreat participants, including Daniel, go to a Jewish deli, where they torment the owner about
The story haunts him, and he imagines himself as the Nazi. Later that night, Daniel and the gang break into a synagogue, vandalize it, and plant a time bomb under the pulpit. They also tear, trample, and spit on a Torah scroll, though Daniel protests. After they leave, Daniel takes the scroll and a tallit katan with him. The next morning, the neo-Nazis hear on the news that the bomb failed to go off. Back in his cabin, Daniel puts on the tallit under his shirt and performs a combination of the Nazi salute and a Hagbaha.
Drake approaches him with a plan to kill Manzetti. Outside a temple, Daniel fires at him but misses. Drake discovers the tallit and realizes that he is a Jew, so Daniel shoots him and escapes. He continues to meet with Lina and Curtis, who want to start an above-ground movement to bring fascism into the political mainstream, inviting Jews, blacks, and liberals. Daniel reluctantly agrees to help them raise funds. At the meetings that follow, Daniel first charms, then enrages, their potential donors with his intellectual games, leading to his expulsion. When news breaks that Manzetti was killed, Lina suspects Daniel, since he proposed the assassination, but Drake is the real killer.
Carla comforts Daniel and they sleep together at his home. When she sees the stolen Torah, she asks Daniel to teach her
As Yom Kippur approaches, Daniel calls Miriam and insists on taking Stuart's place leading the Ne'ila service at the bimah on Yom Kippur. He and his friends plant a new bomb under the temple's pulpit even though they find it reinforced, limiting the explosion. When Daniel takes the pulpit the next day, he is shocked to see Carla in the congregation. He again imagines himself in the story the Holocaust survivor told him, this time as both the Nazi and the Jew. With minutes to go, Daniel stops and tells everyone to get out because there is a bomb, but refuses to leave himself.
There's a flash of light, and Daniel is shown ascending the stairs in the Jewish school he left as a child. His old teacher approaches, hoping to talk about the Binding of Isaac, and suggests that Isaac died on the mountain and was reborn in the world to come. But Daniel ignores him and keeps climbing up as his teacher urges him to stop, calling out, "There's nothing up there."
Cast
- Ryan Gosling as Danny Balint
- Jacob Green as Young Danny Balint
- Billy Zane as Curtis Zampf
- Theresa Russell as Lina Moebius
- Summer Phoenix as Carla Moebius
- Ronald Guttman as Mr. Balint
- Glenn Fitzgerald as Drake
- Garret Dillahunt as Billings
- Heather Goldenhersh as Linda
- A.D. Milesas Guy Danielsen
- Tommy Nohilly as Whit
- Henry Bean as Ilio Manzetti
- Joshua Harto as Kyle
- Chuck Ardezzone as Chuck
- Elizabeth Reaser as Miriam
- Dean Strober as Stuart
- Frank Winters as Young Stuart
- Judah Lazarus as Avi
- James G. McCaffrey as Young Avi
- Sascha Knopf as Cindy Pomerantz
- Tovah Feldshuh as Woman In Shul
- Roberto Gari as Ancient Jew
- Eileen B. Weiss as Woman At Yom Kippur
Reception
The Believer received an 82% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 95 reviews; the average rating is 7.34 out of 10. The consensus states: "Gosling commands the screen with a raw, electrifying performance."[10] The film also has a score of 75 on Metacritic based on 28 reviews.[11]
Jamie Russell of
Todd McCarthy for Variety said, "Bean deals with the core elements of this odd, and oddly compelling, situation with admirable frankness and intelligence, but flounders around the edges. The tenets of Zampf and Moebius' political movement receive such scant attention that the scenes devoted to it are borderline ludicrous, and the masochistic impulses that seem to draw Carla to Danny—"Hurt me!," she begs at the start of their first sexual encounter, and he willingly obliges—are rote and undeveloped."[15]
Julie Salamon for The New York Times said, "This willfully provocative film portrait (...) offers lots of raging, vulgarity and shock but little insight into the character's psychopathology. (...) The movie's most telling moment comes when Danny confronts Holocaust survivors about why they allowed themselves to be brutalized. One of them, an old man, responds by asking, And what shall we learn from you, Daniel ? It's a good question, never answered.[16]
David Germain for The Washington Post said, "Even as he commits hate crimes and becomes an anti-Jewish rabble-rouser, the youth is torn between contempt for Jewish passivity during the Holocaust and reverence for the traditions of Judaism."[17]
See also
References
- ^ a b The Believer at Box Office Mojo
- ^ "The Believer (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2001-09-14. Retrieved 2011-12-10.
- ^ "The Believer". Box Office Mojo.
- ISBN 1-56025-372-X.
- ^ "The Believer". Reeling Reviews. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ "Sundance: 10 Acclaimed Festival Movies That Have Been Forgotten By Time". screenrant.com. February 5, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
- sundance.org.
- ^ "REVIEW: 2001 Sundance Winner Finally Hits Screens; Gosling Shines in "The Believer"". IndieWire. May 16, 2002.
- ^ "23rd Moscow International Film Festival (2001)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-03-28. Retrieved 2013-03-29.
- ^ "The Believer (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
- ^ "The Believer". Metacritic.
- ^ Russell, Jamie (December 4, 2001). "BBC - Films - review - The Believer". BBC. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ O’Sullivan, Charlotte (December 7, 2001). "The Big Picture: The Believers (15)". The Independent. Archived from the original on November 4, 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ "The Believer". Time Out. Archived from the original on September 8, 2008. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ McCarthy, Todd (January 25, 2001). "The Believer". Variety. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ Salamon, Julie (March 16, 2002). "The Believer, Imagery of Anger In a Troubled Mind". The New York Times. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
- ^ Germain, David (January 27, 2001). "'The Believer' Wins at Sundance". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015.
External links
- The Believer at IMDb
- The Believer at AllMovie
- The Believer at Box Office Mojo
- The Believer at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Believer at Metacritic