The Believer
Encyclopedia
The Believer is a 2001 film written by Henry Bean
and Mark Jacobson
, and directed by Henry Bean
. It stars Ryan Gosling
as Daniel Balint, an Orthodox Jew
who becomes a Neo-Nazi. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival
.
The film is loosely based on the true story of Daniel Burros, a Ku Klux Klan
member in the 1960s who committed suicide after being exposed by a New York Times
reporter to be Jewish.
who has become a fanatically violent Neo-Nazi in New York
by his early 20s. The film plots his rise through the ranks of a fascist party while he attempts to reconcile his religious past and ethnic heritage with his anti-Semitism
.
During his childhood, which is shown in flashbacks, Daniel is shown as a highly outspoken Jewish boy who regularly challenges his religion teachers with his unorthodox interpretations of scripture, much to their annoyance. For instance, he believes that the story of the Binding of Isaac
was not about Abraham's faith but God's power. He also theorizes that Isaac was actually killed by Abraham and that the part about an angel stopping the sacrifice is a lie. He comes to the conclusion that God is a "bully" and leaves his old faith.
In the present day, Daniel finds a meeting of fascists run by Curtis Zampf and Lina Moebius who live with Lina's daughter Carla. He advocates killing Jews, specifically Ilio Manzetti, an investment banker. He finds that these fascists oppose harming Jews on practical if not moral grounds. However, Lina is impressed with Daniel's intelligence and invites him to a retreat in the country.
After the meeting, Daniel and his fellow skinheads get into a fight with two African-American men and are bailed out of jail by Carla. After spending the night with Carla, he returns to the home of his ailing father, where he goes through some of his old Hebrew school notebooks and finds his old semiautomatic pistol. He is confronted by his sister Linda for his Nazi beliefs and urged to stay and eat dinner with his father. The two watch television, which is considered forbidden on Shabbat
. This leads them to discuss the incomprehensibility of Jewish law.
Daniel is contacted by Guy Danielsen, a journalist writing an article on right-wing groups post-Oklahoma City Bombing
, and the two agree to meet in a cafe for an interview. After allowing Daniel to rant about his various grievances over Jews, Guy reveals that he had been in contact with Daniel's old rabbi Stanley Nadelman and knows that Daniel is Jewish. Daniel takes Guy at gunpoint and threatens to commit suicide
if Guy publishes Nadelman's allegations.
Daniel and his skinhead friends go out into the countryside to Lina's retreat. There they meet fellow skinheads including Kyle (Joshua Harto
), an explosives expert, and Drake (Glenn Fitzgerald
), a skilled marksman.
Daniel and five other skinheads from the retreat go to a Jewish deli where they insult Jewish dietary restrictions. A fight breaks out and Daniel and the other skinheads are forced to take sensitivity training, where they hear about the experiences of Holocaust survivors. One talks about how his son was murdered by a Nazi. Daniel is enraged that the survivor did nothing to stop them. When the survivors respond that Daniel would also have done nothing to avoid being killed, he angrily leaves the session.
Later that night, Daniel and the other skinheads break into a synagogue
, vandalize it, and plant a bomb under the pulpit. They also tear and spit on a Torah
scroll, though Daniel tries to stop them. After they leave, Daniel takes the scroll and a tallit
with him. The next morning, the skinheads hear on the news that the bomb failed to go off because the timer froze at thirteen minutes. Thirteen, the rabbi explains, is a mystical number in Judaism, and they feel this means that God protected the synagogue. Back in his cabin, Daniel cleans the scroll and repairs the tear with tape. As he does this, he pictures himself as the Nazi soldier in the Holocaust survivor's story. He puts on the tallit under his shirt and performs a combination of the Nazi salute
and Jewish prayers.
Daniel gets a phone call from Guy Danielsen, who suspects him of planting the bomb in the synagogue. Afterwards, Drake approaches him with a plan to kill Ilio Manzetti. The two wait outside a temple for him with a sniper rifle. Daniel fires at him but misses. Drake sees the tallit under Daniel's shirt and realizes that he is a Jew. Daniel shoots him and escapes.
He later meets with Lina and Curtis, who want to start an above-ground movement to bring fascism into the political mainstream. They also intend to invite Jews, blacks, and liberals. Daniel reluctantly agrees to help them raise funds. Carla comforts him and the two sleep together at Daniel's home. Carla sees the stolen Torah and asks Daniel to teach her Hebrew for intellectual reasons. Carla soon wishes to participate in Jewish rituals, ostensibly for "know your enemy" reasons.
Daniel hosts a lecture on anti-Semitism
, asking a small audience of anti-Semites why they hate Jews, listing numerous contradictory reasons people give for anti-Semitism. Ultimately, Daniel concludes that anti-Semites have no concrete reason for hating Jews. He believes that the hatred is instinctive and natural.
Daniel meets with a donor for Lina and Curtis' nascent fascist movement. He offers money but asks Daniel to drop all anti-Semitic rhetoric, arguing that the free market has made anti-Semitism useless as a propaganda tool. Daniel is disgusted by the donor's greed and lack of values, considering his behavior Jewish.
Daniel wanders into a Jewish bookstore where he runs into Stuart, an old friend from his synagogue who is training to be a rabbi, and Miriam, Stuart's fiancee and an intern for the District Attorney. Assuming that Danny is an anti-racist skinhead
, Stuart invites him to a Rosh Hashanah
service at his synagogue. There he meets Stuart, Miriam, and another old acquaintance Avi, who calls him out as a racist skinhead. Miriam later reveals that half of the people in Lina Moebius' meetings are informants for the D.A.
Daniel speaks for an audience of Lina and Curtis' wealthiest donors. He argues that because Jews always emerge stronger than ever from periods of great suffering, the only way to annihilate Jews is to love and assimilate them, ending with a Jewish prayer. The speech alienates most of their donors and Lina expels Daniel from the movement.
A news report shows that Ilio Manzetti was murdered. Flashbacks reveal that the shooter was Drake. Miriam says that Lina suspects Daniel, who proposed killing Manzetti at her house. Miriam offers to claim that Daniel was an informant for the D.A. who proposed killing Manzetti only as a cover. In return, Daniel has to wear a wire and get Lina to say something incriminating on tape. Daniel refuses her offer.
As Yom Kippur
approaches, Daniel calls Miriam and insists on taking Stuart's place at the pulpit on Yom Kippur. He and Kyle then plant a new bomb under the temple's pulpit. However, the pulpit is reinforced and the explosion will not go far beyond it. Daniel still orders Kyle to plant the bomb.
At the service the next day, Daniel is surprised to see Carla, who is still practicing Jewish rituals. Daniel takes his place at the pulpit and leads the congregation in prayer. He again thinks about the story the Holocaust survivor told him, only this time he imagines himself in the place of both the Nazi and the Jew. Daniel reveals to Stuart that he planted a bomb under the pulpit and orders everyone to evacuate. However, Daniel refuses to leave the pulpit and dies in the explosion.
The final sequence shows Daniel in the afterlife represented as the Jewish school he left as a child. His old religion teacher appears to him, hoping to continue discussing his theory about the Binding of Isaac. His teacher suggests that Isaac died on the mountain and was reborn in the next world. However, Daniel ignores him and continues ascending the school's stairs infinitely. His teacher urges him to stop climbing the stairs, saying that "There's nothing up there."
Music by Joel Diamond
"awe-inspiring...a late contender for one of the best films of the year - an intellectually breathtaking, profoundly moving film." Jamie Russell, BBC films
"It's naturally thrilling...The Believer is astonishing" Charlotte O'Sullivan, The Independent
"the film is driven by Gosling's revelatory performance... arresting, prickly, vaguely funny, even - 'difficult' in the best sense." Time Out
Henry Bean
Henry Bean is an American screenwriter, film director, producer, novelist, and actor.Most famous as a screenwriter, Bean wrote the screenplays for Internal Affairs, Deep Cover, Venus Rising, The Believer , Basic Instinct 2 and Noise.Bean...
and Mark Jacobson
Mark Jacobson
Mark Jacobson is an American author and writer.-Early life:Jacobson graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and achieved recognition in New York City whilst writing for the Village Voice in the 1970s, most particularly for a lurid account of life in the Chinatown Ghost Shadows...
, and directed by Henry Bean
Henry Bean
Henry Bean is an American screenwriter, film director, producer, novelist, and actor.Most famous as a screenwriter, Bean wrote the screenplays for Internal Affairs, Deep Cover, Venus Rising, The Believer , Basic Instinct 2 and Noise.Bean...
. It stars Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Thomas Gosling is a Canadian actor and musician. He first came to public attention as a child star on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club and went on to appear in other family entertainment programmes including Are You Afraid of the Dark? , Goosebumps , Breaker High and Young Hercules...
as Daniel Balint, an Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
who becomes a Neo-Nazi. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
.
The film is loosely based on the true story of Daniel Burros, a Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
member in the 1960s who committed suicide after being exposed by a New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reporter to be Jewish.
Plot
The film follows the story of Daniel Balint, a brilliant but troublesome student at a Jewish yeshivaYeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
who has become a fanatically violent Neo-Nazi in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
by his early 20s. The film plots his rise through the ranks of a fascist party while he attempts to reconcile his religious past and ethnic heritage with his anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
.
During his childhood, which is shown in flashbacks, Daniel is shown as a highly outspoken Jewish boy who regularly challenges his religion teachers with his unorthodox interpretations of scripture, much to their annoyance. For instance, he believes that the story of the Binding of Isaac
Binding of Isaac
The Binding of Isaac Akedah or Akeidat Yitzchak in Hebrew and Dhabih in Arabic, is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah...
was not about Abraham's faith but God's power. He also theorizes that Isaac was actually killed by Abraham and that the part about an angel stopping the sacrifice is a lie. He comes to the conclusion that God is a "bully" and leaves his old faith.
In the present day, Daniel finds a meeting of fascists run by Curtis Zampf and Lina Moebius who live with Lina's daughter Carla. He advocates killing Jews, specifically Ilio Manzetti, an investment banker. He finds that these fascists oppose harming Jews on practical if not moral grounds. However, Lina is impressed with Daniel's intelligence and invites him to a retreat in the country.
After the meeting, Daniel and his fellow skinheads get into a fight with two African-American men and are bailed out of jail by Carla. After spending the night with Carla, he returns to the home of his ailing father, where he goes through some of his old Hebrew school notebooks and finds his old semiautomatic pistol. He is confronted by his sister Linda for his Nazi beliefs and urged to stay and eat dinner with his father. The two watch television, which is considered forbidden on Shabbat
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
. This leads them to discuss the incomprehensibility of Jewish law.
Daniel is contacted by Guy Danielsen, a journalist writing an article on right-wing groups post-Oklahoma City Bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19...
, and the two agree to meet in a cafe for an interview. After allowing Daniel to rant about his various grievances over Jews, Guy reveals that he had been in contact with Daniel's old rabbi Stanley Nadelman and knows that Daniel is Jewish. Daniel takes Guy at gunpoint and threatens to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
if Guy publishes Nadelman's allegations.
Daniel and his skinhead friends go out into the countryside to Lina's retreat. There they meet fellow skinheads including Kyle (Joshua Harto
Joshua Harto
Joshua Denver Harto is an American actor, television writer and television producer.He has guest starred in a number of notable television series, including American Dreams, Carnivàle, Crossing Jordan, JAG, Strangers with Candy, The Practice, Cold Case and more...
), an explosives expert, and Drake (Glenn Fitzgerald
Glenn Fitzgerald
Glenn Fitzgerald is an American actor who has had over 30 roles in movies or television series. He played the character of Sean in The Sixth Sense...
), a skilled marksman.
Daniel and five other skinheads from the retreat go to a Jewish deli where they insult Jewish dietary restrictions. A fight breaks out and Daniel and the other skinheads are forced to take sensitivity training, where they hear about the experiences of Holocaust survivors. One talks about how his son was murdered by a Nazi. Daniel is enraged that the survivor did nothing to stop them. When the survivors respond that Daniel would also have done nothing to avoid being killed, he angrily leaves the session.
Later that night, Daniel and the other skinheads break into a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
, vandalize it, and plant a bomb under the pulpit. They also tear and spit on a Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
scroll, though Daniel tries to stop them. After they leave, Daniel takes the scroll and a tallit
Tallit
A tallit pl. tallitot is a Jewish prayer shawl. The tallit is worn over the outer clothes during the morning prayers on weekdays, Shabbat and holidays...
with him. The next morning, the skinheads hear on the news that the bomb failed to go off because the timer froze at thirteen minutes. Thirteen, the rabbi explains, is a mystical number in Judaism, and they feel this means that God protected the synagogue. Back in his cabin, Daniel cleans the scroll and repairs the tear with tape. As he does this, he pictures himself as the Nazi soldier in the Holocaust survivor's story. He puts on the tallit under his shirt and performs a combination of the Nazi salute
Nazi salute
The Nazi salute, or Hitler salute , was a gesture of greeting in Nazi Germany usually accompanied by saying, Heil Hitler! ["Hail Hitler!"], Heil, mein Führer ["Hail, my leader!"], or Sieg Heil! ["Hail victory!"]...
and Jewish prayers.
Daniel gets a phone call from Guy Danielsen, who suspects him of planting the bomb in the synagogue. Afterwards, Drake approaches him with a plan to kill Ilio Manzetti. The two wait outside a temple for him with a sniper rifle. Daniel fires at him but misses. Drake sees the tallit under Daniel's shirt and realizes that he is a Jew. Daniel shoots him and escapes.
He later meets with Lina and Curtis, who want to start an above-ground movement to bring fascism into the political mainstream. They also intend to invite Jews, blacks, and liberals. Daniel reluctantly agrees to help them raise funds. Carla comforts him and the two sleep together at Daniel's home. Carla sees the stolen Torah and asks Daniel to teach her Hebrew for intellectual reasons. Carla soon wishes to participate in Jewish rituals, ostensibly for "know your enemy" reasons.
Daniel hosts a lecture on anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
, asking a small audience of anti-Semites why they hate Jews, listing numerous contradictory reasons people give for anti-Semitism. Ultimately, Daniel concludes that anti-Semites have no concrete reason for hating Jews. He believes that the hatred is instinctive and natural.
Daniel meets with a donor for Lina and Curtis' nascent fascist movement. He offers money but asks Daniel to drop all anti-Semitic rhetoric, arguing that the free market has made anti-Semitism useless as a propaganda tool. Daniel is disgusted by the donor's greed and lack of values, considering his behavior Jewish.
Daniel wanders into a Jewish bookstore where he runs into Stuart, an old friend from his synagogue who is training to be a rabbi, and Miriam, Stuart's fiancee and an intern for the District Attorney. Assuming that Danny is an anti-racist skinhead
Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice
Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice are anti-racist skinheads who oppose neo-Nazis and other political racists, particularly if those racists identify themselves as skinheads....
, Stuart invites him to a Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah , , is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Nora'im which occur in the autumn...
service at his synagogue. There he meets Stuart, Miriam, and another old acquaintance Avi, who calls him out as a racist skinhead. Miriam later reveals that half of the people in Lina Moebius' meetings are informants for the D.A.
Daniel speaks for an audience of Lina and Curtis' wealthiest donors. He argues that because Jews always emerge stronger than ever from periods of great suffering, the only way to annihilate Jews is to love and assimilate them, ending with a Jewish prayer. The speech alienates most of their donors and Lina expels Daniel from the movement.
A news report shows that Ilio Manzetti was murdered. Flashbacks reveal that the shooter was Drake. Miriam says that Lina suspects Daniel, who proposed killing Manzetti at her house. Miriam offers to claim that Daniel was an informant for the D.A. who proposed killing Manzetti only as a cover. In return, Daniel has to wear a wire and get Lina to say something incriminating on tape. Daniel refuses her offer.
As Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
approaches, Daniel calls Miriam and insists on taking Stuart's place at the pulpit on Yom Kippur. He and Kyle then plant a new bomb under the temple's pulpit. However, the pulpit is reinforced and the explosion will not go far beyond it. Daniel still orders Kyle to plant the bomb.
At the service the next day, Daniel is surprised to see Carla, who is still practicing Jewish rituals. Daniel takes his place at the pulpit and leads the congregation in prayer. He again thinks about the story the Holocaust survivor told him, only this time he imagines himself in the place of both the Nazi and the Jew. Daniel reveals to Stuart that he planted a bomb under the pulpit and orders everyone to evacuate. However, Daniel refuses to leave the pulpit and dies in the explosion.
The final sequence shows Daniel in the afterlife represented as the Jewish school he left as a child. His old religion teacher appears to him, hoping to continue discussing his theory about the Binding of Isaac. His teacher suggests that Isaac died on the mountain and was reborn in the next world. However, Daniel ignores him and continues ascending the school's stairs infinitely. His teacher urges him to stop climbing the stairs, saying that "There's nothing up there."
Cast
- Ryan GoslingRyan GoslingRyan Thomas Gosling is a Canadian actor and musician. He first came to public attention as a child star on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club and went on to appear in other family entertainment programmes including Are You Afraid of the Dark? , Goosebumps , Breaker High and Young Hercules...
as Daniel "Danny" Balint - Garret Dillahunt as Billings
- Billy ZaneBilly ZaneWilliam George "Billy" Zane, Jr. is an American actor, producer and director. He is probably best known for his roles as Caledon Hockley in Titanic, The Phantom from The Phantom, John Wheeler in Twin Peaks and Mr...
as Curtis Zampf - Theresa RussellTheresa RussellTheresa Russell is an American actress.-Biography:Russell was born Theresa Paup in San Diego, California, the daughter of Carole Platt and Jerry Russell Paup. She attended Burbank High School, but did not graduate. She married English film director Nicolas Roeg , in 1982...
as Lina Moebius - Summer PhoenixSummer PhoenixSummer Joy Phoenix is an American actress and model. She is the youngest sibling of the late River Phoenix, Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, and Liberty Phoenix, and is married to actor Casey Affleck.-Early life:...
as Carla Moebius - Ronald GuttmanRonald GuttmanRonald Guttman is a Belgian actor, theatrical producer and film producer.Guttman was born in Uccle. He has appeared in TV shows such as Lost, Lipstick Jungle, Heroes, The West Wing, and Sex and the City. He had a recurring role as Alexander Cambias, Sr...
as Danny's Father - Heather GoldenhershHeather GoldenhershHeather Goldenhersh is an award-winning American actress. She has appeared on Broadway, on television, and in feature films....
as Linda - A. D. MilesA. D. MilesAnthony David Miles , best known as A. D. Miles, is an American actor, writer and comedian who is best known as Marty Shonson on Comedy Central's Dog Bites Man...
as Guy Danielsen
Music by Joel Diamond
Reception
The film was well-received by critics with an 81% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of August 22, 2011;"awe-inspiring...a late contender for one of the best films of the year - an intellectually breathtaking, profoundly moving film." Jamie Russell, BBC films
BBC Films
BBC Films is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including An Education, StreetDance 3D, Fish Tank, Stage Beauty, A Cock and Bull Story, Nativity! and Match Point.It aims to make strong British films with...
"It's naturally thrilling...The Believer is astonishing" Charlotte O'Sullivan, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
"the film is driven by Gosling's revelatory performance... arresting, prickly, vaguely funny, even - 'difficult' in the best sense." Time Out
See also
- American History XAmerican History XAmerican History X is a 1998 American drama film directed by Tony Kaye and starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. It was distributed by New Line Cinema....
, 1999 film which treats of similar themes - Antisemitism in the United StatesAntisemitism in the United StatesJewish Americans have flourished since colonial times in what became the United States, which before the Second World War had a general history of racism directed to non-Christian, non-northwest European groups. Antisemitism in the United States has however lacked the extent and severity of its...
- Self-hating JewSelf-hating JewSelf-hating Jew is a term used to allege that a Jewish person holds antisemitic beliefs or engages in antisemitic actions. The concept gained widespread currency after Theodor Lessing's 1930 book Der Jüdische Selbsthass ; the term became "something of a key term of opprobrium in and beyond Cold...
- White supremacyWhite supremacyWhite supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...