Exodus (1960)
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor/70mm 220m
Director: Otto Preminger
Cast: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford, Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo, John Derek, Hugh Griffith
Synopsis:
The widow of a news photographer, killed in Palestine during the troubles following WW2, meets a passionate Jewish agent smuggling detainees out of Cyprus and the compassionate British commander who ultimately facilitates the exodus. Drawn into the Jewish question, she conceives the notion of taking an adolescent girl back to America with her, and so accompanies her to Haifa in her search for her father. These and other characters become embroiled in the complex dynamics of the nascent Jewish state: Jew against British, Jew against Jew, Arab against Jew, culminating on the declaration of Partition in a fight for a kibbutz in the valley of Jezreel in which all are involved.
Review:
In attempting to synopsize this sprawling production one becomes more acutely aware of its dramatic limitations. The reach far exceeds the grasp, for in making accessible a very fraught piece of contemporary history to (American) audiences, the makers have fastened onto the most colourless, emblematic characters imaginable, so that even Newman appears drained of charisma. The results will, on the other hand, yield far too little history for the history-seekers, though the film makes a fair stab at adumbrating the factors underlying the first Arab-Israeli war, and all ensuing conflict. It's a handsome undertaking, with the benefits of location filming, and some individual sequences, such as the storming of the Acre prison, coming off well; but others come over as stilted, and the histrionics of such as Sal Mineo strike a jarring note.
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor/70mm 220m
Director: Otto Preminger
Cast: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford, Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo, John Derek, Hugh Griffith
Synopsis:
The widow of a news photographer, killed in Palestine during the troubles following WW2, meets a passionate Jewish agent smuggling detainees out of Cyprus and the compassionate British commander who ultimately facilitates the exodus. Drawn into the Jewish question, she conceives the notion of taking an adolescent girl back to America with her, and so accompanies her to Haifa in her search for her father. These and other characters become embroiled in the complex dynamics of the nascent Jewish state: Jew against British, Jew against Jew, Arab against Jew, culminating on the declaration of Partition in a fight for a kibbutz in the valley of Jezreel in which all are involved.
Review:
In attempting to synopsize this sprawling production one becomes more acutely aware of its dramatic limitations. The reach far exceeds the grasp, for in making accessible a very fraught piece of contemporary history to (American) audiences, the makers have fastened onto the most colourless, emblematic characters imaginable, so that even Newman appears drained of charisma. The results will, on the other hand, yield far too little history for the history-seekers, though the film makes a fair stab at adumbrating the factors underlying the first Arab-Israeli war, and all ensuing conflict. It's a handsome undertaking, with the benefits of location filming, and some individual sequences, such as the storming of the Acre prison, coming off well; but others come over as stilted, and the histrionics of such as Sal Mineo strike a jarring note.
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor/70mm 220m
Director: Otto Preminger
Cast: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford, Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo, John Derek, Hugh Griffith
Synopsis:
The widow of a news photographer, killed in Palestine during the troubles following WW2, meets a passionate Jewish agent smuggling detainees out of Cyprus and the compassionate British commander who ultimately facilitates the exodus. Drawn into the Jewish question, she conceives the notion of taking an adolescent girl back to America with her, and so accompanies her to Haifa in her search for her father. These and other characters become embroiled in the complex dynamics of the nascent Jewish state: Jew against British, Jew against Jew, Arab against Jew, culminating on the declaration of Partition in a fight for a kibbutz in the valley of Jezreel in which all are involved.
Review:
In attempting to synopsize this sprawling production one becomes more acutely aware of its dramatic limitations. The reach far exceeds the grasp, for in making accessible a very fraught piece of contemporary history to (American) audiences, the makers have fastened onto the most colourless, emblematic characters imaginable, so that even Newman appears drained of charisma. The results will, on the other hand, yield far too little history for the history-seekers, though the film makes a fair stab at adumbrating the factors underlying the first Arab-Israeli war, and all ensuing conflict. It's a handsome undertaking, with the benefits of location filming, and some individual sequences, such as the storming of the Acre prison, coming off well; but others come over as stilted, and the histrionics of such as Sal Mineo strike a jarring note.