The Gatekeepers (2013)
Average Rating: 8.3/10
Reviews Counted: 104
Fresh: 97 | Rotten: 7
Strikingly stark, brutally honest, and rivetingly assembled, The Gatekeepers offers essential perspective on a seemingly intractable war from some of the men who fought it.
Average Rating: 9/10
Critic Reviews: 31
Fresh: 30 | Rotten: 1
Strikingly stark, brutally honest, and rivetingly assembled, The Gatekeepers offers essential perspective on a seemingly intractable war from some of the men who fought it.
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 8,936
Movie Info
Charged with overseeing Israel's war on terror-both Palestinian and Jewish- the head of the Shin Bet, Israel's secret service is present at the crossroad of every decision made. For the first time ever six former heads of the agency agreed to share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions. The Gatekeepers offers an exclusive account of the sum of their success and failures. It validates the reasons that each man individually and the six as a group came to reconsider
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Cast
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Ami Ayalon
Ami Ayalon -
Avi Dichter
Avi Dichter -
Yuval Diskin
Yuval Diskin -
Carmi Gillon
Carmi Gillon -
Yaakov Peri
Yaakov Peri -
Avraham Shalom
Avraham Shalom
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All Critics (104) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (97) | Rotten (7)
There is a powerful moment in [the film] when Diskin, head of the Shin Bet from 2005 to 2011, candidly remarks that for the Palestinians he is himself a terrorist. That is not relativism but realism, and the welcome sign of an empathetic imagination.
Top CriticThe film and its talking head participants paint the picture in both broad strokes and fine detail.
Whatever one's political stripe regarding Israel, it's hard to dispute the impressions and perspective of the film's six eyewitnesses.
The level of candor here may not satisfy hard-liners of either stripe, but it can help viewers begin to formulate new questions about the philosophical, strategic and moral challenges of conflict, in particular "wars on terror."
Ultimately the movie feels evasive, and its flashy, digitally animated re-creations of military surveillance footage unpleasantly evoke the Call of Duty video games.
It offers startlingly honest insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from some of those who called the shots.
The film bravely pulls focus on Israel's behaviour as an occupying power, the treatment of the Palestinians and joins the growing list of recent films that cast a critical eye over a subject that was once deemed too thorny to question.
This is unprecedented stuff right here, on a topic so volatile it feels like it's just waiting to explode. And as a film, it's effective - for the most part.
Dror Moreh's documentary is remarkable not for stylistic innovation but for the very fact it exists.
The film is detailed and requires concentration, especially for those who need to read the subtitles. But the effort is worth it for anyone vaguely interested in the subject. And of course the subject goes to the heart of the human condition
A candid, revelatory and at times disturbing documentary that represents one of the 'must-sees' of 2013.
THE GATEKEEPERS doesn't want to function in binaries, it immerses you into the moral and ethical 'grey' quandary of Israel/Palestine.
What's extraordinary about The Gatekeepers isn't just that these guys have agreed to speak on camera - which is remarkable in itself - it's how utterly, astonishingly open and candid they are.
The Gatekeepers shines as both an excellent history lesson and a remarkably in-depth look at one of the world's most important covert agencies.
The Gatekeepers is a fascinating, often shocking, look into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of some of the men who would know it best.
Moreh's interviewees span generations, from elder statesman Avraham Shalom (mastermind of the 1960 Adolf Eichmann grab) to most recent spook-in-chief Yuval Diskin. Each displays a disarming mix of even-voiced candor and respect for talk-it-out diplomacy.
As you listen to these six former chiefs of one of the world's most secretive organizations, it's hard not to have your jaw drop in awe, or surprise at their sudden candor.
Dror Moreh's terrific documentary can stand beside Errol Morris's The Fog of War as a cinematic illustration of how human psyches bend beneath the pressure of terrible actions.
A powerful cautionary tale about the concept of security, and how illusory it really is.
In the end, the accumulated stories in The Gatekeepers offer tremendous insight about the Israeli-Palestinian situation. It feels more like it was prepared as a history document for Shin Bet rookies than a documentary.
...a riveting and sobering documentary about Shin Bet that raises important if unanswerable questions about the morality of state-sanctioned violence in the name of internal security.
[Moreh] asks just the right questions, never prodding these understandably private men too far but getting what he needs.
A riveting but depressing history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It's a depressing movie, yet there is encouragement to be found in the manifest decency and reasonableness of these six honest, articulate men ...
The former heads of Israel's military anti-terrorism agency Shin Bet break their silence in this unnerving, eye-opening documentary.
Audience Reviews for The Gatekeepers
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Avraham Shalom: The future is dark because if you put most of our young people in the army, they'll see paradox. We have become cruel to ourselves and mainly to the occupied population.
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- Avraham Shalom: Even if they answer rudely, there's no alternative to talking. It's a trait of a professional intelligence operative to talk to everyone.
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- Yaakov Peri: You can't see the mother's tears.
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- Carmi Gillon: We are making the lives of millions unbearable into prolonged human suffering.
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- Carmi Gillon: For Israel, it's too much of luxury not to speak with our enemies. When we refuse to talk, we make a mistake.
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- Avi Dichter: Peace must be built on a system of trust. As a person who knows Palestinians well, building such system, a genuine one, won't be a problem on them.
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Foreign Titles
- The Gatekeepers (Shomerei Ha'saf) (DE)
- The Gatekeepers (UK)
Even the archival footage is fascinating in itself as it documents incidents those of us living outside of Israel have probably never heard of and form a continuing part of the narrative that starts with Israel's triumphant victory in the 1967 Six Day War, followed by it assuming custody of new territories and new peoples. Ironically, that is the beginning of a perpetual headache that as can be seen here can only be managed, not solved. In the end, the only solution these hardened military men can find is to talk with their opposite numbers, even as the conversation is currently dominated by fanatics.