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?
These TV movies: Victory at Entebbe (1976) "Plot Summary: An Air France airplane is hijacked by the PLO due the large number of Israeli and Jewish passengers..."
Raid on Entebbe (1977) "Plot Outline: Second of a series of dramas about a daring Israeli commando assault on the Entebbe Airport in Uganda."
There were also many movies made for TV and series that stressed evil of the Berlin Wall and people doing desperate things to escape communism and other movies showing the Soviet gulags. Even sci-fi was pro American. If anyone remembers the day the Earth Stood Still, it was the evil Soviets and dictators who died.
How different it is today. Black is white, etc. The small movie summaries come from http://www.imdb.com/
I saw it when I was 13 (45 years ago!), when Paul Newman was in his prime and Hollywood made movies about heroes.
The theater was full and the audience erupted in cheers at several scenes.
Not only do they not make movies like this anymore, they don't even show this on TV.
I also read Uris' book and his book about the Warsaw Ghetto, "Mila 18".
Very informative interview. Thanks for sharing that.
There was a time that Hollywood actually researched history to make a movie. Now they just rewrite history.
BTW, Sal Mineo had a promising career that was cut short when he was stabbed to death in an unsolved (?) common crime.
When Exodus was made in 1960, the socialist dream still existed in Hollywood and the USSR was not overtly anti-Israel. This started changing after the 1967 war, when Israel kicked Arab ass... and it just wasn't fair!
There's a good snippet of Hollywood and lefties war support at RedneckoBlogger: http://redneckoblogger.blogspot.com/
I just noticed that myself.
Yeah, that's the sequel by Kushner. Ari chains himself to a shul in Gaza while Kitty gets busy protesting the border fence. The new Odd Couple.
'Cast a Giant Shadow'.. great story, but the movie was alittle cheesy
Awesome movie and the book was even better. Doesn't that usually happen? Think I shall blow the dust off and re-read it..........and then make my older grandchildren read it. It won't be too difficult to convince them. They are all readers. (and they read the good stuff) Must be in the family genes.
You may be thinking of either Red Planet Mars or The 27th Day. TDTESS, my all-time favorite movie, is unfortunately pro-UN (i.e. pro-communist) propaganda.
This shows the power of propaganda.
The only people that can legitimately be called "palestinian" are the Jews. But Israelis have always been bad in the propaganda war and allowed arabs to steal the term
Now I've been told by someone close that it really wasn't like that; he had an agenda. It didn't seem so to me, but then naturally he could have been a little biassed.
I do think in his "Trinity" he wrote against the Catholics in northern Ireland. It's been so long since I read it, but the gist of it was the Protestants were more prosperous because they didn't have so many children. Don't want to start an argument about that; it's just what was in the book.
I don't know if I could see Karen getting shot again, but it was such an uplifting feeling when the hunger strike ended and they were finally allowed to leave the boat and stake out their small portion of the land. They have never been able/allowed to live in peace since that time.
I remember back in the 40's and 50's the Arabs/Palestinians were blowing up Jewish kids on school busses, like in the paper and Time magazine. There was probably more ugliness on the other side I don't know about.
My oldest daughter is named after the character Deborah in "Mila 18" (and is a biblical name as well) which was about what the Jews suffered in the Warsaw ghetto.
He also wrote QBVII which I finally got around to reading, but don't remember too much what it was about, think it was war trials.
The truth is almost as sad. Ari is Yitzhak Rabin. Does a lot of good but at the end tarnishes himself by signing OSLO.
I thought the Ben-Canaans were supposed to be the Ben Gurions.
Will also be looking for Cast a Giant Shadow and Exodus.
Thanks Freepers, if it wasn't for you guys I would never have heard of these movies.
The Brits did a lot of crappy stuff in Israel. It was a bleak time.
Do you remember the scene when Sal Mineo has to explain what he did in Auschwitz to the Irgun leaders?
From the time I saw it as a teen, it has been one of my favorite movies of all time, only topped by Gone with the Wind, and these days the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have read that Newman was embarassed that he made it. Don't remember where I read it, but if that is true, I can't understand it. I've wanted to go to Israel ever since I saw it.
There is a reason.
Jews/Israelis just couldn't/can't accept that anyone would ever believe the Arab lies. To this day, as anyone honest can see the truth- who wants peace, who doesn't, who bends over backwards, who kills kids on purpose- Jews/Israelis can just not grasp that "truth" is susceptible to constant unending well funded lies.
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