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Isaachaskiya 02/03/2011 10:31:00 AM
As a most intelligent choice of using or abusing his intellectual and democratic rights, Norman Finkelstein made a nazi salute to a group of Israelis. I wonder what a young paratrooper whose grand-parents perished in Holocaust would do to him.
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09/03/2010 7:59:00 AM
ADL has not been taken seriously for years, well at least since their inauthentic concern for Jewish and Israeli extremism is all but muted now. If credulity is key to a human rights organization having any power whatsoever in the public sphere, the ADL might as well be publishing their opinions on defamation in the National Enquirer, it would find a more sympathetic audience than it has now.
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olga 07/28/2010 5:44:00 AM
Saw the film the other day on DVD.
American Radical clearly deserves an oscar buzz if one reads Cineaste magazine review and many others.
This review here is too cryptic!!
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Mellin 04/28/2010 3:07:00 AM
We love finkelstein
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LanceThruster 03/14/2010 11:41:00 AM
I saw Dr. Finkelstein speak a few nights ago and he explained quite rationally why it was a good thing that Hezbollah makes Israel pay a price for its aggression. Their actions were primarily defensive or in direct response to Israeli attacks on civilians.
I thought he made his case rather effectively. People often talk about Dr. Finkelstein's style and less about the fact that he's right. In his recent lecture on the massacre perpetrated by the IDF in Gaza, he used many Israeli and human rights sources to support his contentions. He suggested for the students to check out goldstonefacts.org and the "Breaking the Silence" web site. There he said to do a search on the word "insane".
I view Dr. Finkelstein as a treasure. His detractors probably regret his not getting tenure as he now has more time for his activism. I look forward to seeing this film.
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F. Bacon 02/22/2010 5:16:00 AM
What kind of a review this is by Ella Taylor? Does anyone know who she is? There is no discussion of the movie about which she is supposed to write, but only some kind of a grudge she has and seems to take out on Finkelstein. She surely does not have a soothing (writing) voice of a Ella Fitzgerald, but an intemperate squealing howl of a rather hysterical feline creature. Several other readers have commented on her dishonesty, I know if she is truly dishonest, but one thing is clear, VV should get mature writers to review important movies such as this on, rather than bring an intellectual pre-adolescent to do this hatchet job. To ask this lady (being generous here) to talk about the intellectual stature, dissent, motivations of Norman Finkelstein, is like asking a pig to describe an elephant. Totally inappropriate.
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Thomas More 02/22/2010 4:57:00 AM
Ella Taylor's one sided review of the movie, her underlying dislike and contempt for Finkelstein,and finally her sucking up to the power cliques are all obvious. Why else would she use a sentence like "With the eyes of a suffering fanatic and the rising squeal of a voice augmenting his hysteria,.." seems like Ella is pretty hysterical herself. She cannot make the same point without these polemics. Of course she might say "oh I was only describing his voice when he is arguing.." what is squeal for her might seem like a passionate embrace of the underdog for others. This subtlety seems to elude her. And this is the person who is asked to review the movie. Is there some way we can convince the people in Village voice to hire less hysterical people than this woman?
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Scott Pellegrino 02/13/2010 2:06:00 PM
Abe Foxman is a worthless, racist creep though. A while back as a favor to KKK-ish radio host Bob Grant, he quashed an ADL study on hate radio. Abe is quite a beast. Anyone who gives money to ADL is meshuganah!!
Scott Pellegrino
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Rudy 02/13/2010 1:02:00 AM
Good memory, GiorgioNYC - I almost missed the delightful/inciteful "Serious Man" because of this critic's review.
However, it's not unusual for Voice writers to put their agendas before artistic judgement with the exeception of Feingold who always does his homework and has matured into being New York's most reliable theater critic.
But, yes, at bottom line a critic should be at least an honest reporter.
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Tamudjin 02/11/2010 9:19:00 PM
Not sure if the review really gives anyone "a rough idea of where political scientist Norman Finkelstein stands on the political spectrum." Finkelstein's conclusions in the Holocaust Industry was publicly supported by the founder of the field of Holocaust Studies, historian Raul Hilberg, a Conservative Republican, who was the first to study and examine the historical record of what took place and published it in his 3 volume book "The Destruction of the European Jews."
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GiorgioNYC 02/11/2010 9:00:00 PM
"This is a rather dishonnest[sic] critic."
You can say that again. Check her review of "A Serious Man."
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David Chou 02/10/2010 10:05:00 AM
I remember Professor Finkelstein from Hunter College and, of course, WBAI. He always seemed to me a very warm person despite his passionate convictions. Of course, those two qualities do not need to be mutually exclusive, but they often are where political activists are concerned, and I bring up the matter by way of rebuttal to this film critic's caricature of the Professor as being somehow shrill and high-pitched in his beliefs. I witnessed no such antics in the classroom, and I have no reason to imagine the Professor behaving any differently in a different context. I will always remember him for being the respectful, if controversial, public intellectual that he ever was.
And, oh, I'm actually a fascist politically because I have the personality of a nihilist. But I gotta give credit where credit is due. Professor Finkelstein was a real gentleman and a real mind - yes, he was a mind; that seems to me a really fitting description of him.
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david 02/10/2010 6:40:00 AM
This is a rather dishonnest critic. One film is about Norman Finkelstein, the other one is about a peacenic's thoughts about anti semitism today. Shamir's film features Norman only a few minutes. I think the film is really bold and raises many fundamental questions. Sad the reviewer did not seem to see one.
Maybe the only reason filmmakers are peaceniks in Israel is that if they were not the world would not give a damn about their films.
Think about it!! It is called opportunism or being smart and know where the wind blows.
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Louis Proyect 02/10/2010 5:24:00 AM
Ella fails to mention the upshot of Shamir's negative reaction to the Nazi salute. Norman reminds him that Israeli politicians call each other fascists and Nazis at the drop of a hat, even as much as Obama is called a socialist. Methinks that Norman's aversion to "peaceniks" is well-taken in light of their failure to do a single thing to forestall Zionist oppression of the Palestinians.
