Posted on 01/02/2006 1:43:27 PM PST by Cinnamon Girl
Believe it or not, I only saw "Exodus" for the first time last night. Wow. I can't believe Hollywood ever had a kind word for Israel, especially considering the current prevailing attitude, as portrayed in Spielberg's "Munich."
"Exodus" was made in 1960, only 12 years after the U.N. voted to allow a separate state of Israel. Somehow, liberal revisionist history had not yet taken over Hollywood and here came a film that made the struggle for an idependent state a righteous battle, not a "mistake" as Tony Kushner, screenwriter of "Munich" has said.
"Exodus" stars the extremely good looking and masculine Paul Newman, who is saddled with the idiotic name Ari Ben -Canaan. The Ari part is fine (it means "lion" in Hebrew), but "son of Canaan?" No Jew has such a name because the Canaanites were idol worshippers and had to be conquered so that the Hebrew people could fulfill the commandment of taking over the land of Israel. Anyway, Newman is intense, driven, and hot as a leader in the Haganah who has to finagle his way past the British army to get Jews into Palestine. Interestingly, Newman refers to himself and other Jews born in Palestine/Israel as "Palestinians." This is historically accurate, but would probably be confusing to many people today who have bought into the arab/muslim claim on this term.
Another main character played by Sal Mineo, joins the Irgun and blows up the King David Hotel, a British military installation. The film makes clear that the British were warned repeatedly that the hotel would be bombed and still did not evacuate. Today, many people bring up this bombing to equate the Jews with the terrorist groups like hamas.
Eva Marie Saint plays the somewhat annoying Presbyterian from America who spends most of the movie not understanding why the Jews would want to go to Israel or fight for it, and even tells Ari (Paul Newman) "can't you just forget about being a Jew for a few mintues?" Then she makes a pass. It's understandable why she would find him so attractive, but why he would like her is a mystery.
The better romance was between Sal Mineo's character Dov Landau and the cute young refugee Karen, played by Jill Hayworth. These two understood each other, having both suffered during the war and now dedicating themselves to being part of the new state.
The film points out the relationship between the grand mufti of Jerusalem and the nazis, and also makes clear that the Jews wanted the arab residents to stay in their homes in Israel, but that the muslim leadership said they could not.
I recommend the film because it is very engaging (even though it's almost four hours!) and it has a lot of factual information going for it-- it was filmed on location in Israel and Cyprus. I've been to the Acco prison and well, the British military would probably like to forget about their ugly history there. Mostly, however, it was good to see something so politically at odds with Hollywood/European current sensibilities. The question is: could a film like this be made today?
Oh..... sorry, ozzymandus.
Colonel Marcus was buried at West Point.
OK, thanks, I had forgottten. Hundreds are too many. I know they did a lot of that; quantitatively I couldn't give a number.
He has a yiddishe punim to me.
pro-leper
Ha!
nay I add ppy New Year.
Read through the thread. You may see it mentioned.
Are you saying that the 'House Unamerican Activities Committee' was right about Hollywood?
There would have been few Jews at all in Palestine except for the British.
Israel was created jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Jews still run Hollywood. Remember Marlon Brando got into trouble by saying this aloud?
Here's a gripping bio of Leon Uris.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/uris.htm
I had a hint of you from your first post on this thread, confirmed by your last.
Israel was reborn when the Jews who lived and came to settle there there fought for it and defeated those who would keep it from them.
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