Reviews

On the audio-commentary track to the DVD version, Terry Gilliam makes repeated reference to the film being just too daring and too different for audiences to grasp. That supposedly is why it flopped at the early screenings and was never given a proper release. Well, Mr. Gilliam, if you are reading this, let me just say that you are deluding yourself. Your film sucks. It is the least interesting film you have ever made.

I say this as a fan. I love most of Gilliam's films. His adaption of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was dead-on. This film never approaches the excellence of his best works. Or even his best misfires.

Like all of his films, Tideland is about the crashing together of worlds of fantasy and reality. In this case it is about how a young girl's innocence and imagination shield her from the hellish world she is thrown into by emotionally damaged adults. The point is that what we would think would be a terrify ordeal -- the death of her parents, her isolation in a decrepit farmhouse, the antics of the bizarre Dell and Dickens -- is, when seen through the eyes of a young girl, actually an amazing adventure, maybe even the most exciting time of her life.

It's a great idea, unfortunately the film it inspired just doesn't work. Brief scenes of grotesque ugliness bookend a staggeringly dull, seemingly endless story where basically nothing happens. No tension builds in the plot, and aside from the young girl herself none of the other characters are remotely interesting. The sense of awe and whimsy a film like this needs to truly grab a viewer is simply absent.

You know the film is in trouble when Gilliam tacks on a prologue where he looks directly into the camera and begs viewers to watch the film through the eyes of a child. If the film actually worked, he wouldn't have to rely on such special pleading, would he?

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is one of those films that you wish was better than it really is. It's got so much going for it: a dark, original plot; a great cast; a marvelous setting; and more ... it's a pity then that the film somehow never lives up to its potential.

It lacks the focus and energy that films like the Wild Bunch have. The pace drags, the dialogue is often slack and the action scenes don't really pay off. Nor does the film really dig into the film noir/contemporary western atmosphere. Peckinpah had some great ideas but the result fell short of what it could be: another In Cold Blood or Reservoir Dogs.

I really wanted to enjoy this film. It wouldn't let me.

The Protocols was obviously a very personal project for Levin, his chance to get at the eternal question: why always the Jews? It was inspired by a single conversation the filmmaker had with an Arab cabdriver who was convinced that Israel was behind the 9-11 attacks. How did the cab driver know this? Because he had read it in the book "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

The century-old book purports to be the minutes of a secret meeting of Jewish leaders in which they lay out their plans for world domination. In fact, it's a fraud; most of the book was plagiarized from earlier works of fiction. Mainstream western society declared it out-of-bounds over 80 years ago. Yet as Levin documents the book remains remarkably popular both on the fringes of American society and throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Levin tries to get to the bottom of this by interviewing neo-Nazis, Palestinians, radical black activists, conspiracy theorists, Christian evangelical leaders and various Jews. The most fascinating and disturbing bits are clips from Arab TV shows which dramatize the Protocols as if they were historical fact.

He never quite gets to the bottom of it -- he's not exactly the most probing of interviewers -- but the results are never less than fascinating. He deserves enormous credit for his bravery in talking to many of these people as well as his willingness to explore the "don't go there" areas of Jewish conspiracy myths. Watch it with some friends then go to a coffee shop and have a good discussion.