Six smart, tough guys, tightly framed and talking to the camera: Israeli filmmaker Dror Moreh's compelling Oscar-nominated doc The Gatekeepers gives the voice of experience a human face.

| Feb 22, 2019

With such incendiary opinion on offer, it might have been a temptation for Moreh to lay out these testimonies end to end... What makes the film so satisfying, though, is the appreciable craft with which the material is organized and presented.

| Jul 31, 2018

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.

| Jul 1, 2013

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.

| Jun 13, 2013

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.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 5, 2013

[Moreh] asks just the right questions, never prodding these understandably private men too far but getting what he needs.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5.0 | Apr 24, 2013

The film, though based on the exploits of Shin Bet, gives us reason to think about the drones that take out more than just terrorists.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 12, 2013

Makes for truly bracing viewing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 11, 2013

A compelling overview of a modern security agency - bred in a moral grey area, organising state-sanctioned violence, but uncertain of the strength of its political safety net.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 11, 2013

While memorable in sometimes unexpected ways (1980 head Avraham Shalom's long unwashed nails), there is always the nagging feeling that any revelations are being pushed or sold a little too hard.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 11, 2013

Insightful, revelatory and profound, Moreh's Oscar-nominated documentary combines riveting interviews, archive footage and - yes - state-of-the-art photographic effects to offer a unique perspective on the Israel-Palestine issue.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 8, 2013

The rule of surveillance is to keep quiet and let others do the talking. The Oscar-nominated documentary The Gatekeepers flips the script, to astonishing effect, giving voice to the retired directors of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 22, 2013

The film and its talking head participants paint the picture in both broad strokes and fine detail.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 22, 2013

Whatever one's political stripe regarding Israel, it's hard to dispute the impressions and perspective of the film's six eyewitnesses.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 14, 2013

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."

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 8, 2013

Ultimately the movie feels evasive, and its flashy, digitally animated re-creations of military surveillance footage unpleasantly evoke the Call of Duty video games.

| Mar 8, 2013

It offers startlingly honest insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from some of those who called the shots.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 7, 2013

As a political testament, the result is revealing and important.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 1, 2013

A monolith crumbles in The Gatekeepers, and it's a sight to inspire awe.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 1, 2013

As a clear-eyed examination of a conflict that seems to have no end, The Gatekeepers is powerful, provocative stuff.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 28, 2013