The Believer *** (2001, Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix, Theresa Russell, Billy Zane, Garret Dillahunt) – Classic Movie Review 9423

Writer-director Henry Bean’s critically acclaimed 2001 drama The Believer is a fascinating and sincerely intentioned but highly controversial and disturbing psychological drama, based on fact, starring a convincing Ryan Gosling as Danny Balint, a young Jewish neo-Nazi in New York City, who battles to hide his Jewish background while recommending a vicious anti-Semitic campaign of violence against the ‘enemy’.

The winner of the grand jury prize at the January 2001 Sundance Festival, it was dropped by major film distributors after protests by Jewish groups. It then appeared on Showtime pay-cable in March 2002, and won the AFI Award for TV Program of the Year, with the accolade: ‘The Believer is proof that television can take the most difficult and disturbing of subject matters and bring them to a national audience with style and grace. Ryan Gosling’s performance stands out among the year’s most extraordinary acting achievements.’

It was finally released theatrically in New York City in May 2002 by Fireworks Pictures.

It also stars Summer Phoenix, Theresa Russell, Billy Zane and Garret Dillahunt.

Henry Bean’s story (with Mark Jacobson) and screenplay are based on the Sixties factual story of Dan Burros, an American Jew who joined and left the American Nazi Party and then joined the United Klans of America (KKK) but was revealed to be Jewish in an article by a New York Times reporter.

[Spoiler alert] The article, titled ‘State Klan Leader Hides Secret of Jewish Origin’, was written by (John) McCandlish Phillips and published on the front page of the New York Times on 31 October 1965. Burros threatened to kill Phillips but instead committed suicide on the day the article was published.

Also in the cast are A D Miles, Joshua Harto, Glenn Fitzgerald, Kris Eivers, Joel Garland, Elizabeth Reaser, Judah Lazarus, Ronald Guttman, Heather Goldenhersh, Peter Meadows and Jack Drummond.

The crew could not afford filming permits because of the low budget so many scenes had to be shot quickly.

It is Henry Bean’s debut as director. He has made only one other movie, Noise (2007).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9423

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