Protocols of Zion
HBO Films | Release Date: October 21, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
In the end, this earnest, inquisitive film leaves the viewer longing for some sanity, and some hope, in a world that appears to be seriously lacking in both. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Levin crawls into America's woodwork to ferret out anti-Semites of all stripes, then rushes at them with Socratic reasoning -- a futile and often hilarious project, since they prove immune to thought reform, however rational. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
Powerful and depressing. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
As the film loses its focus on the "Protocols" phenomenon -- it becomes too scattered to have the impact Levin is after. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
Protocols of Zion is often funny, revealing the idiocy of hatemongers through their own harebrained explanations. Read full review
70
VarietyJohn Anderson
Entertaining and substantial enough to attract at least a portion of the Michael Moore audience. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
This absorbing essay amply demonstrates that, as with any sort of racial-nationalist paranoia, anti-Semitism has very little to do with actual Jews and everything to do with imagined ones. Read full review
70
The New York TimesAnita Gates
Makes it case expertly and powerfully, but it does not propose a solution. The cumulative effect of the film's message is enormous sadness that hate is so strong and so resistant to reason. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Levin's curiosity and evenhandedness distinguish the movie. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Would have benefited from a tighter focus. There are too many interviews with crazies - and Levin's failed attempt to get Jewish entertainers to discuss "The Passion of the Christ" should have ended up on the cutting room floor. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Levin learned nothing that should surprise anyone who is both sentient and sane. But in tracing much of this contemporary anti-Semitism to a phony 19th-century document in which Jewish leaders lay out plans for taking over the world, we at least get some understanding of how some twisted people justify their hatred and fear of Jews. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The result is both deeply personal and maddeningly unfocused. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
May be the most successful forgery in the history of hate. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Too often, Levin confuses passion with focus, intensity with clarity, and deflating lies with discovering truths. Read full review
60
Film ThreatBob Westal
Takes a personal, kinder-gentler Michael Moore/Nick Broomfield approach to exposing anti-Semitism. Read full review
60
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
The movie goes off the rails only when the filmmaker inadvertently legitimizes the Protocols' loony philosophical heirs by interviewing a New York medical examiner and a widow about the remains of one of 9/11's Jewish victims. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Levin's on-camera presence is warm, wry and even-tempered, and he never feels the need to rub anything in. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
If it's meant as a retort to anti-Semitic doctrine, it's far too episodic, anecdotal and lacking in specifics. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Muddled, painfully earnest documentary. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The filmmaker keeps himself squarely on screen. This is fine when he engages in throwdowns with the bigots but distasteful when Levin shows himself reacting to footage -- unseen by viewers -- of the beheading of reporter Daniel Pearl. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldPeter Debruge
It's frustrating to watch Levin try to reason with far-gone street-corner evangelicals (whose arguments are preposterous at best) when he might be building a stronger case by other means. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
In the end, however, Protocols of Zion illuminates manifestations of anti-Semitism without ever really elucidating or posing solutions to the problem. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
In the end, Protocols of Zion is all context--a bit here about Father Coughlin, a minute there about the Holocaust, a stint with "The Passion" and a brief shot of Levin watching the beheading of Daniel Pearl--no soul. Read full review
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