A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Release Date:
September 11, 2022
Original Title:
HaYoetz: Arthur Finkelshtein
Genres:
Documentary
Production Companies:
Hot
Production Countries:
Israel
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 71
Although the late Republican Party consultant Arthur J. Finkelstein was little known in his native US, his kingmaking powers had played a major role in the rise of right-wing populism around the world over the last two decades. In 1968, aged just 23, he helped Nixon get elected, and later masterminded the stunning victories of Reagan in 1980, Orbán in 2010 and Netanyahu in 1996, a mere few months after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Finkelstein’s ability to manipulate public opinion and the media – using it to advance his clients’ careers while zealously protecting his privacy – however, could not stop the leaks about his long term same-sex relationship. Attempting to square Finkelstein’s gay, urban and Jewish identity with the views of the politicians he worked with, this fascinating film sheds light on a life full of mind-boggling, moral contradictions.
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.