Playlist: American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein

Why? Interesting sounding documentary

And it was. Finkelstein is a professor and author who has made his career criticizing Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. Ok, more than criticizing. He compares them to the Nazis, his argument given a certain legitimacy by his being the son of Holocaust survivors. Surprisingly, some people disagree. This film does a good job of presenting both sides of the debate and not simply shooting the subject in a glowing light.

Unfortunately, it could have been about 25 minutes shorter. Like I said, Finkelstein is a complex personality and someone I didn't know anything about--the perfect docu mix. A tight hour would have done the job without all the filler that dragged this film down at times. It's a problem with a lot of documentarians. This may be a strange criticism, but I think they focus too much on "making a film" instead of simply tackling a subject as efficiently as possible. It's what gives good documentaries a bad name. So, no, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this film so much as I would suggest reading up on Finkelstein. Don't worry, online reading counts, too.