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?
The character Azaria played in the Warsaw ghetto, were he to survive, would have joined the Irgun or LEHI, not Ari's Hagganah.
Today the Presbyterian character would be organizing a boycott of Israel.
People may be surprised at the Arab Sheik character in the movie, that would side with Israel, is based in fact on some Arabs, most prominently on those from a small village outside Jerusalem called Abu Gosh, who sided with the Jews against their fellow Arabs for the creation of Israel.
Dalton Trumbo, one of the infamous "Hollywood Ten", wrote the screenplay for this film.
as I recall it was, a huge book but a book that kept you reading and worth it.
I saw "Exodus" many years ago but I haven't viewed it recently.
We used to have a tape of the made for TV movie "Raid on Entebbe" which my kids loved to watch over and over and over.
Has anyone seen "Ushpizin"? I have heard that it is the first movie ever produced in Israel to actually portray religious Jews in a positive way.
"Exodus" is an excellent movie depicting the struggle by the Jews to establish the nation of Israel. A must see film, IMO.
You have to understand that in 1960, Israel was considered to be "good" by the American left for two reasons.
1. The original Zionists (Ben Gurian, et. al.) were economic socialists who were creating "cooperative" farms the Kabotizes (sp?) etc. that fit well with Marxist and Hollywood ideology.
2. In 1948, the Soviet Union supported the creation of the state of Israel at the UN because they saw them a.) fighting the British and b.) as fellow socialists.
The Soviet support did not begin to change until the mid 60s when they saw the opportunity to disrupt the growing flow of Mideast oil to the west by sponsoring terrorists like Arafat and corrupt totalitarian secular regimes in Egypt, Syria and Iraq, turning all three into client states. Additionally, the Israelis began to move away from overt socialism and embrace a more mixed economy, disappointing Hollywood socialists.
Once the Soviets finally changed their tune totally on Israel by the mid 1970s, Hollywood began to change their "scripts" too.
I worked as an usher in a theater in Pittsburgh (a reserve seat theater which of course no longer exists) when Exodus was showing. I saw it probably 20 times. It has left a deep feeling in me that has never left. Anytime I hear the Exodus theme all of the memories come back. Of course hollywood would never make a movie like this today.
I just reread it recently (found it packed away in a box with some other oldies but goodies like The Source and Hawaii and RF Delderfield and some others) and found it very powerful. It seemed very relevant in light of the last 4 years. My homeschooled kid is studying 20th century history this year and I added it to her literature reading list.
How many schooled kids will ever read that type of treatment of the origins of Israel ?
If the movie served only to get more people to read the book that'd be a good thing.
Good points.
If only hollyweird could make such wonderful movies again. Alas, they prefer trash like brokeback mountain now. *sigh*
Netflix says there's a "very long wait" to rent "Sword of Gideon."
It definitely wasn't pro-Roman!
You say '64... I say '65.
hard to believe but the old moguls treated Christians favorably too.
i miss them...nearly all of em were Jews...and not exactly religious Jews either....imagine
The book Exodus was one of my alltime favorites. It seems the further we get from WWII, it seems the easier it is for Hollywood and others to portray Jews as the source of all evil. That's when they aren't blaming Bush, of course.
They were decent people who loved this country and their fellow man. Sadly missing are these sorts in Hollywood today.
I'm glad SWORD OF GIDEON is getting a second look. It's really a fabulous movie.
I'm sick of hearing how innovative and couragous Spielburg is for tackling this subject.
Seeing some Jews toss Judaism out the window for Christianity is not "pro-Jewish" in my opinion. But maybe that's just me...
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