Stereotypes and The Believer

Posted by Samuel Weatherly III
December 12, 2007

The readers who have seen this film may have an idea of what kind of article they are about to read. For those that have not, The Believer (2004) is not a film to be taken lightly. Violence, hatred, and death are frequent visitors to the story. On the other hand, this is a film that deals with the complexities of the human mind and soul. The Believer is riddled with ideas both internal and external, of both love and of hate, and of acceptance and violence.

The Believer is about a young orthodox Jewish man, Danny Balint, who despite his upbringing, becomes a member of a Neo-Nazi organization. His hatred is never fully explained, and allusions to events in his childhood only seem to raise more questions. Upon reading many movie critiques, and looking over discussion boards posted on the film’‘s official website, many people seem to find the subtleties in the plot too confusing, and argue that the story has holes (Parker). Maybe that’s how it is supposed to be though. Perhaps in writing The Believer, Henry Bean and Mark Jacobson didn’t want to answer questions about the darkest parts of human nature, but to ask them.

The cryptic and sometimes borderline offensive nature of the film seems to fit very well with the events upon which it was based. The character of Danny Balint is an analogy for the real life Daniel Burros. Daniel Burros was a former Nazi turned Klu Klux Klan member who, in 1965, was revealed by the press to be of Jewish descent. The night the article was printed, Daniel Burros committed suicide. The movie may not follow these actual events to the letter, but this is what the author cites as his inspiration, and many parallels are evident. The biggest of these parallels is the self hatred, but more resemblances follow, such as Danny and the real life Daniel being influential members of extremely right wing organizations, and the fact that they were both hiding everything about themselves from the people around them.

The BelieverOne of the questions that the writers could be raising is this: “How could an individual (in this case Danny Balint) hate and reject his own culture and people with so much passion?” The answer is not clear cut, but throughout the film he seems to point out Jewish stereotypes, especially that of the quiet mannered and submissive Jew. Danny hates the fact that Jews, in many people’s eyes, don’t ever stand up for themselves. He even used the story of Abraham to illustrate his thought on this point when he was still very young. his shows that he was aware, albeit subconsciously, of these stereotypes even as a child. It stands, though, that The Believer is a film grounded in reality, and the stereotypes present in the film are real issues.

It is interesting how stereotypes permeate the culture around us. But how exactly do they start, and what makes them popular enough to be passed down through generations? One idea is Henry Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory. He proposed that as a part of normal growth and development, people start to notice and stress differences. Because of this, people tend to glorify many of the traits groups they belong to posses, and tend to look down on groups of people that are different from themselves. This raises self esteem, but also causes prejudice and stereotypes to arise (Fukai 1). Most people will agree that we as human beings have persecuted each other throughout history, and this is definitely one possible source of stereotypes. Someone notices something small about another race, religion, or sex, and escalates it into something they can poke fun at. Others within the same social group would probably play along with the jokes, even if they are in bad taste, and as time passes, these “jokes” are heard so much they become a part of our culture. Others have argued that many stereotypes are created as a means of retaliation. For example, the persecuting race may feel insecure or dissatisfied about some aspect of of their own lives, and so they look for someone else to blame. Many psychologists have argued that scapegoating other groups helps us compensate mentally for our insecurities.

Regardless of their origin, it is a fact that stereotypes exist in many different forms, and for every single ethnicity. Italians, for example, are thought to have a very strong sense of family and community, and are wary of outsiders. Many believe that Asians are the smartest race, while other races may be less intelligent Blacks are foten thought to be more gifted athletically. While any one of these may be true about a number of people, not every member of those races adhere to those stereotypes. This article though, will deal primarily with stereotypes directed against the Jews.

One of the most common of the Jewish stereotypes is that all Jews inherently posses money making skills (Helmreich 13). This is a very old stereotype, which may account in part for its widespread popularity. Shakespeare even fueled this stereotype with The Merchant of Venice, indirectly stating that Jews are fueled by greed more so than other human beings. Danny Balint brings this up in The Believer in a scene in which he is asked what he hates about Jews. He claims that they sell themselves out for money and pleasure, and are, at heart, an a-moral people. Not surprisingly, there are no figures to show that Jews as a whole hold more money than any members of other races, and no one has proven that they guard the money they do have more greedily.

Another money related stereotype is that the Jews are in control of the financial systems and media (Helmreich 25, 33). The financial side of this may have stemmed from the middle ages, when many prominent Jewish men in society were encouraged to become money lenders, and therefore seemed to control much of the flow of money. The reason for this was that charging interest when lending money was frowned upon by the Christian church, and since the church was such a huge part of society in places such as Britain, going against the church’s teachings could easily get someone ostracized from society. Jews on the other hand, didn’t follow the same religion, and in a sense were already slightly separated from society. Monarchs, realizing this, and also realizing that someone in the society needed to take the position of a money lender, encouraged Jews to take up the positions. This way, the monarchs could keep society running smoothly while not blatantly violating integral parts of their beliefs. The media aspect could simply be an extension of this stereotype into more modern day times, since the media is something we see as in charge, just as money lenders have been in the past.

Probably the most relevant stereotype to this particular film is that Jews, as individuals and as a race, will not retaliate under attack (Parker). That many Jews are what we may call “push-overs.” Especially in today’s modern culture, with our notion’s of “looking out for number one” and standing up for personal freedoms, the thought of someone who can turn the other cheek in the face of oppression is almost a completely alien idea. Pertaining to the film, Danny seems particularly preoccupied with this stereotype. The opening scene depicts him following a young Jewish man and harassing him more and more openly. Finally, as the Jewish man appears to be leaving and escaping the situation, Danny confronts him in the street and punches him. Throughout this violent scene, Danny is begging the man to hit him back- to stand up for himself. When the man doesn’t, Danny furiously walks away. This seems to be one of Danny’s biggest problems with the Jewish culture, but ironically, it also seems to be a part of his life. For example, his father is not in very good condition, and needs people to take care of him;- weakness is one of the first things you notice about him. The only scene shown from his childhood is that of him fighting with a teacher about Jews being submissive, but, as stated earlier, the movie never truly clarifies where these feelings come from.

Danny

A final Jewish stereotype,- one that Danny himself possesses-, is that of the self-hating Jew. This one may have evolved simply from the creation of previous stereotypes and the stigmas surrounding being of Jewish descent. A lot of the feelings that seem to have influenced this stereotype are associated with Jews being indecisive and submissive. A particularly interesting sect born of this train of thought is the Zionists. Zionists are Jews that are “tired of being walked all over” and reject the submissive nature that seems to define them. They are called Zionists because they believe the Jews need to take back the holy land of Jerusalem, using whatever methods are necessary. Zionists would be much more open to the use of violence and military force in order to retaliate, or to hold what they consider to be rightfully theirs. There have even been reports of pro-Semitic graffiti in Nazi graveyards, supposedly by Zionists (“Nazi SS Cemetery“). Examples like this demonstrate that hate, directed inwardly or outwardly, can affect people from any background.

Danny Balint and Daniel Burros are both extremely bizarre cases, and because of this, are the subject of a large amount of interest. The human mind is an unbelievably baffling thing, and everyone’s is very, very different. We may never know why Danny and Daniel rejected their own cultures to the extent they did. We may also never know how they came to believe the stereotypes they did. In fact, we can’t even really tell how these stereotypes were created and ingrained in the minds of society. The fact remains though, that there are negative stereotypes about everything, from race to religion. Maybe the problem is not to deal with the origin of stereotypes, but to learn to deal with them today.

Works Cited:

Fall 2007

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