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The Believer (2001)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
July 15th, 2007
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'The Believer' is the fascinating story of a paradoxical oddity, a Jewish neo-Nazi named Danny Balint (Gosling), who joins a right-wing anti-Semitic group and becomes its star speaker, delivering powerful oratory about why people hate Jews and how Jews actually seem to thrive on this aversion to them, as it helps them understand who they are, and always makes them look like the victim, while also discussing the nature of Jewish sexuality and general mentality, and joining skinhead thugs in the vandalism of synagogues and acts of harassment in a kosher restaurant. All of this is coupled with his intense love for the Torah, which he insists on protecting, secretly, from defilement by hiding it under his shirt, and proudly talking of its history with his girlfriend, Carla (Phoenix), who shows an interest in learning Hebrew and reading the sacred scripture. What fuels Danny's seething self-hatred? It could do with his perceptions of Jewish powerlessness, their apparent inability to fight back or save themselves from oppression and persecution, as he makes clear when talking with Holocaust survivors, including one man who talks of how a German soldier killed his son while he stood by and watched in horror. Danny meets with a journalist, Guy (A.D. Miles), who is intrigued by him, and asks how he can harbor such attitudes when he is Jewish himself. Danny explodes rather than responding in a civil or reasoned manner. He tries very hard to disguise his real identity, to remain in the movement, but also because he just cannot seem to reconcile his own religious piety with his intense contempt for what he sees as the major flaws in the Jewish personality.
Ryan Gosling is a triumph. He offers a raw and brutally effective performance, of a troubled and conflicted character. Interesting, too, is the way Danny despises the ignorance of his fellow racists, who know nothing of Judaism, and perhaps even less about the people they idolize and try to emulate, the Nazis. Billy Zane and Theresa Russell play the leaders of the fascist organization, which seems to be more about the leisurely exchange of anti-Semitic ideas as a hobby, and not committed to any form of violence or radicalism, at least at the top. Danny inspires and amazes them with his rhetoric, which is a deep reflection on his own doubts and fears, and he articulates so compellingly the "valid" reasons for anti-Semitism that one can imagine a Hitlerite stooge in today's society quoting Danny at length, to at least lend the pretext of intellectualism to their arguments. The central struggle occurs within Danny, in the depths of his heart and soul, and what a riveting struggle it is. The "real" Danny, named Daniel Burros, committed suicide after he was exposed as a Jew, but sadly, his is not a unique case. Frank Collin, successor to George Lincoln Rockwell as leader of the American Nazi Party, who wanted to lead a march through Skokie, Illinois, home to many Holocaust survivors, was eventually revealed to be half-Jewish, shortly after he was convicted on charges of pedophilia. Leonard Holstein never tried to cover up his Jewishness as he led the L.A. division of the ANP. And, perhaps most strangely, there was Leo Felton, a white supremacist and terrorist, who had both black and Jewish ancestry. 'The Believer' might provide some insight into the motives and psychology of these tortured souls, so disturbed or offended by their own heritage that they seek to rebel against it, inflict harm on those who share it. It also suggests that there might be hope for them.
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