Rating: 
Summary: The Beleagured
Review: The Believer is acutely distressing film depicting a former yeshiva student Daniel Balent who turns on his people and embraces neonazism. The film starts fast and the viewer is able to see an unparreled level of self loathing. Balent spends much of his time thinking of ways to harm Jews. However his intellect easily distinguishes him from being a normal antisemite. His deep understanding of Jewish traditions creates a paradox because he sees that antisemtism is ultimately baseless. It is never clear as to why he resonates such hatred. Clues suggest schooling, but it is never clear as to what exactly was the key factor. Ultimately faced with the choice of destroying his friends and community, Balent tenatatively reconnects with his faith and traditions. However it is far from a complete return. I question the title of the film. I am not sure what Balent believed. It seems that he was in an acute state of suffering and that he seemed besieged from all sides and never found true solace. Overall an interesting yet very disturbing film. It should be viewed by mature audiences.
Rating:
Summary: Raw & Powerful
Review: "The Believer" features Ryan Gosling as a Jewish fascist and is based very loosely on a true story from the 1960s. The movie has been quite controversial, and it was shown originally on cable when the studio that made it decided not to release it in theaters, even though it won awards at Sundance. It was filmed in a raw, almost documentary manner, but it's not really gratuitous. Clearly, it's meant to provoke the viewer into thinking critically about issues of anti-semitism, religion, hatred, and so forth. On that level, it succeeds. "The Believer" is the type of movie that is likely to elicit a great deal of conversation if you watch it with your friends. Some viewers may compare it to "American History X," but I think that "the Believer" is a much more complex and realistic portrait of aliented youth and hatred. The most frightening aspect of the movie is that it forces the viewer to understand (but not neccesarily sympathize with) the lead character. Ryan Gosling gives a raw, believable star-making performance. Obviously, many viewers may be (justifiably) offended by this movie, but if you're open then give "The Believer" a try. The DVD also features a wonderful episode of "Anatomy of a Scene" that shows the making of one of the best scenes in the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: mesmerizing !!!!
Review: This movie had me glued to the t.vm Ryan Gosling has a charismatic presence and you tell what he's feeling throughout the movie, even when he doesn't say a word. As Danny was conflicted between the the two worlds of either being a nazi or a jew, he decides to try both at the same time, with it coming to a feverpitch at the end. The ending is profound and was utterly sad and depressing.
Rating:
Summary: A Living Paradox
Review: This is an excellent film. It raises several very good questions about human culture, faith and truth. It is more about a man's internal conflicts than about neo-Nazism. While some of the points that Danny (the main character) brings up are founded in generic anti-Semitism, he does bring up several logical and thought provoking ideas. Like why have the Jews been persecuted since their beginning? And why should mankind have faith in religion? And what is Truth? These points make the film far more engaging than you might expect if all you saw was the trailer. I see the film as one man's realization that any dogma is faulty; whether it is religious or political, or anything else. Through long personal examination and confrontation, Danny becomes a true skeptic. He becomes a walking contradiction. He becomes a living paradox.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful, disturbing and thought provoking. I loved it!
Review: I was prepared to absolutely hate this 2001 film. It's about Daniel, a Jewish young man who's an anti-Semite. He supposedly hates Jews so much that he becomes a leader of a right wing group. He's cruel and angry and incredibly articulate about it. In fact his arguments are so sophisticated and well done, that some Jewish groups have called it a "primer for anti-Semitism". When the film was released, the press was so bad that the film never was distributed widely, especially since it came out around the time of 9/11. Based on an actual true story, the film is hard to watch. The star, Ryan Gosling, is such a good actor that I believed in his characterization entirely. His performance is nothing less than mesmerizing, as we see him go through conflicts and gradually change. We see flashbacks to his early years when he attended a Yeshiva and argued with the teacher. We also see short sequences enacting a holocaust story of a murdered child that he plays and replays in his mind. We see a romance with a young woman who is fascinated with Judaism. We see him and a gang of young toughs desecrating a synagogue. There are a lot of ugly words. And forbidden concepts. I found myself cringing throughout. My heart was beating the whole time. My eyes were glued to the screen. I was disgusted and fascinated and horrified. But, as the film progressed though, I saw that it was not an anti-Semitic film at all. In fact, it said some wonderfully positive things about Judaism and made me proud to be a Jew. However, I'm aware that many people will only see the hate and I understand why this film creates fear. It's very powerful. And it will probably feed the flames of hatred for those who already think that way. The DVD has some wonderful features. The director, Henry Bean, spoke at length about his search for an actor, his troubles with distributing the film, the true story on which the film is based, and his own struggles as an American assimilated Jew. Another feature on the DVD showed the actual filming of one of the most pivotal scenes in the film. Daniel is alone in a room with a partially destroyed Torah, the holy scroll that all Jews hold sacred. He carefully tries to clean it and repair it with tape. And his body language and facial expressions show all his conflicts and contradictions. The feature also discusses the camera angles, lenses and the use of the light and also talks about the changes made in the editing room. All of this just added to my appreciation of the film. This is not a film for everyone. And, unfortunately, it will be misinterpreted my many. But I personally loved it. And highly recommend it for those with an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: Reasons to Believe
Review: The Believer is an articulate character study of a young man's intense desire to believe in something, anything. Daniel (the main character) desperately wants to believe in God, in the "goodness" offered there; he wants to believe in the salvation of religion. But his mind can't compromise the inherent lack of logic in any religion. This desire to believe eats Daniel alive. He is so angry at NOT being able to believe--and at the inherent contradictions of unquestioned belief, that he becomes a contradiction himself. He hates Jews (or manifests an outward hatred for them anyway), because he hates himself. He hates what he cannot be and what he so deperately WANTS to be--a believer. The movie is a character study. It's not plot driven, like American X or some of the other films listed in other reviews on this page. It is the in depth study of a young man's attempt to resolve the existential dilemma of the existence of God. Forget the reviews that say nothing happens in this flick. Everything that happens happens internally, in the brilliant character portrayal of a desperately confused, wickedly smart young man. Yes, it takes a little insight and intelligence on the part of the viewer to see this, but this is what any good movie should do--challenge the viewer to jump a few rungs on the ladder of human understanding.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable Movie
Review: This has to be one of the most profund movies ever produced. Ryan Gosling gives one of the best performances I have ever seen, and I have seen quite a few movies including the most famous. This runs circles around American History X which I also greatly enjoyed, these movies are quite similar yet in all reality complete opposites. The Believer provides an accurate portrayal of underground fascist movements currently taking place across America. The truth of the movie brings it more to life. It is not as violent as American History X, I think that it is because this was intended to make more of a political statement. These movements are real and people do not and will not realize this without further understanding that. American History X has become widely reknowned for its gruesome scenes, particularly the curbing, but the creators of this had something else in mind. The focus of the hatred of the Jews is for what they believe to be their capitalistic ways which have ruined this country. Everyone's main focus in life has become money and family values have continually deteriorated over time. At one point in the movie Gosling's character refers to a fascist financial supporter as a Jew because of his infatuation with money and corporate America. It portrays the ... Jew who is tight with money and although they may be extremely wealthy they will not go out of there way to help anyone. This movie is not a racial movie, it is only the true telling of neo-fascist movements that are sweeping the country and it does an excellent job of providing that. It is quite entertaining with a good cast of characters and a very well thought out and written plot. It definitely deserved to win at the Sundance Film Festival and will be a movie to mark America's infatuation with Jew's.
Rating:
Summary: Believer in Brilliance
Review: Powerful and profound, this character study of autophobia is superior stuff! As the ultimate self-hating Jew, the protagonist plunges himself into the slime of nazism while enduring the throes of a spiraling struggle with his Hebrew heritage and Orthodox upbringing. Desperately seeking some outlet for his frustration, he moves from respectable society to the fascist elite to the scum of the skinhead underworld--and the result is a movie of mesmerizing dimensions!
Rating: 
Summary: different
Review: This movie was OK. Did not spur any emotion within me. The part I hated was when the girl kissed the main lead after he had just thrown up.
Rating:
Summary: A good film, but nothing special
Review: It seems like every few years now another neo-nazi movie comes out. The last one was American History X and before that Romper Stomper and Made in Britain way before that. Now it's the The Believer. As you probably already know, this movie is about a jewish neo-nazi, which of course, doesn't make any sense. This was a good movie all around but what makes worth watching is Ryan Gosling's performance. Maybe people don't know or remember but he was in Remember the Titans as one of the extras for the football team. Come to think of it, Ethan Suplee from American History X is also in Remember the Titans, how strange. Anyway Ryan Gosling has been compared to Robert DeNiro's character Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver which is totally appropiate considering this was one of the best performances I've ever seen. Ryan Gosling totally gets lost in his part completely out-doing any of the supporting actors in the film, including Billy Zane. I mean, he makes them look bad, he's that good. However, aside from the fantastic performance given there is nothing else special about this movie. There is nothing that's going to make you want to watch it again and again. There wasn't even that much violence, which I thought was odd for a skinhead movie. Yes, there is racism but it seems muted amongst the skinhead's extreme hatred for jews. There's hardly a mention of other minorities and only one scene actually inlcudes them the group's agenda. Other than that, it's jews, jews and more jews. It's kind of noticable that in every neo-nazi movie there's always one main target and all other minorities are insignifacant. American History X it was blacks, Romper Stomper it was asians and now it's jews. I guess that's understandable because the main character is jewish, after all. So anyway, this is definately a movie to see, you should check it out from the video store, but it's not worth buying. Like I said, there's nothing special about this movie that makes it better than so many others. You may not even want to watch it twice, there's just no motivation.
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