Posted on 02/05/2006 8:56:19 PM PST by Cinnamon Girl
"Raid on Entebbe" the 1977 made for t.v. movie is on DVD and I just saw it for the first time. Yes, it looks made for t.v. and features Charles Bronson as an Israeli general (who keeps calling Yoni Netanyahu "Yanni"), but like "Exodus," it is a film that Hollywood probably wouldn't touch today.
The star of this true story about Israel's daring rescue of the (Israeli) Air France passengers kidnapped by a German/Palestinian joint terrorist effort, is Bibi's brother Yoni, played by Stephen Macht, with friend an expert marksman Sammy Berg played by James Woods.
While James Woods may remain Hollywood Incorrect (remember his rant about muslim terorists? Hollywood has moved in shame away from its not entirely leftist past.
In "Raid on Entebbe" the Israelis were clearly the good guys, carefully planning a raid into the airport of Uganda, blowing up migs and shooting every single terrorist, while Edi Amin, played by Yafet Kotto, looks like a bumbling fool, preaching to the Israeli hostages to let the Palestinians have their land back. Would Spielberg stand for such a demeaning depiction of Amin today? Or not show us the families of the German and Arab terrorists the Israelis took out, so we could see they're just regular folks, like the Israelis?
How is it that Hollywood, and the American public were able to tolerate the Israelis back then, let alone celebrate them?
"Exodus", discussed on an earlier post, was made in 1960 and stars Hollywood hero Paul Newman as an angry leader of the Haganah, who, along with the Irgun, fight for the state of Israel, but go back even farther in time and you'll find "The Best Years of Our Lives." Made in 1946, this Oscar winner for Best Picture follows the lives of three veterans returning home. One of them, real veteran Harold Russell, takes on a critic of the war during a powerful exchange in a soda shop:
Homer (noticing that a man is staring at his hooks): Pretty cute hey?
Man: You got plenty of guts. Terrible when you see a guy like you who had to sacrifice himself and for what?
Homer: And for what? I don’t get you mister.
Man: We let ourselves get sold down the river. We were pushed into war.
Homer: Sure, by the japs and the Nazis so we—
Man: No, the Germans and the japs had nothing against us. They just wanted to fight the limeys and the reds, and they would have whipped too, if we didn’t get deceived into it buy a bunch of radicals in Wash.
Homer: What are you talking about?
Man: We fought the wrong people, that’s all. Just read the facts, my friend. Find out for yourself why you had to lose your hands. And then go out and do something.
Homer: Look here mister, what are you selling anyway?
Man: I’m not selling anything but plain old fashioned Americanism.
Hmer: some Americanism. So we’re all a bunch of suckers, hey? So we should have been on the side of the Japs and the Nazis, hey?
Man: Again I say, just look at the facts.
Homer: I’ve seen a couple of facts. I’ve seen a ship go down and over 400 of my shipmates went with it. Were those guys suckers?
Man: That’s the unpleasant truth, and the sooner we get wise to it--
If this dialog would be in a film today about the Iraq war, Roger Ebert and company would tear it to shreads. And where is that film about the Iraq war anyway?
I strongly recommend all three of these films and I'm looking for more.
Did I read that Richard Dreyfus played the part of Yoni in a British version of the Raid?
THX for da ping.
James Woods is one of my favorite actors, and not because he's a strong consevative. He's just good. I've seen this movie many years ago. It's worth watching.
Click the Pic J
One of the best made-for-tv films ever made, bar none, with an absolutely stellar cast. It was directed by Irvin Kershner, who directed many regular films, including the 2nd Star Wars film. Top-notch acting all the way around. Yaphet Kotto was a very frightening villain as the sociopathic Idi Amin Dada, and he did it all with a smile.
James Woods is also a GI Brat, umgud.
As well as an extremely good actor. I've been following Mr.Woods since small parts in TV and "The Choirboys", "Raid On Entebbe" and "The Onion Field".
Jack.
I thought James Wood was good in the Indictment movie about the McMartin child molestation trials in Ca.
It was directed by Oliver Stone but it was still a good HBO movie.
A couple years later, Iranian fanatics (one of them is now President of Iran) shamed America, and our gutless President Carter did not stand up to them.
I was too young at the time to appreciate Ronald Reagan's presidency. But today, having gone through the 1980s as a teenage and twenty-something 'rat, I'm more than aware: Reagan made a positive change on the world. Thank God he took over the reigns, as Carter was weak and ineffective.
HA! I bet "Munich" did increase the demand for "Sword of Gideon". It was pretty good, saw it by mere chance on TV not too long after 9/11, you'll like it when you get to see it.
I've never seen "Exodus", but I remember it was a blockbuster at the time. I was just a little kid then.
Your point is well taken, when did Hollywood, of all places, turn against the Jews?
It is wonderfully "politically incorrect."
In her "special features" commentary, Maureen O'Hara admits John Wayne really did spank her and made her butt black and blue for a week.
What happened to such cherished old-time traditions and why can't we have them back in our movies?
Yes, Dreyfus did play Yoni. I still haven't seen Munich, but I do want to see it. SoG was pretty good.
"it is a film that Hollywood probably wouldn't touch today"
--- Not sure that I'd want them to, given how they altered Clancy's book a few years ago
No rational person takes Hollywood serious anymore. What these flakey people say or think rarely makes sense if they are not reading a script.
I would be willing to bet that not one movie actor in every thousand has ever read a book on economics, history, government or anything else on which they are forever pontificating.
Back then, Israel was generally supported by the Left, except for the hardcore Communists who took their directions from the Soviet Union and therefore backed various Islamic "liberation movements." Jews were identified as heroes because the Holocaust was perpetrated against them by Hitler, whom the Left characterized as a rightist. The foundation of Israel was seen as a kind of victory over Hitler.
Now, Israel is hated by the left, even though perhaps the majority of Israelis are still leftists. How this came about is complicated. But it's not as if Hollywood used to be conservative and now are liberal. They were always liberal. But there was a time when it was considered correct for liberals to be patriotic.
That changed with Vietnam.
Interesting point.
Maybe that is what people mean when they say that the definition of liberal has changed.
JAMES: I’m more of a Rumsfeld guy than a Powell guy, you know. I mean, I like the Rumsfeld approach to things, you know. If they're not right, shoot ‘em. I’m not about appeasing any of these crappy little Arab states that want to hold us hostage with oil, you know, and decide they’re going to use terrorism or state support it.
If I had any evidence that any of these countries were supporting one ounce of terrorism I would say ‘wipe them off the face of the earth.’ That’s how I feel and I’ll never change it, and it’s blatantly obvious to the most casual observer that that is the correct position to take, you know. But these other guys want to negotiate and placate and appease and do all that and there’s only one thing you get from eating a bowl of sh-t, and that’s a bigger bowl of it the second time around. Okay?
SAM: So where do you think it’s ultimately going to lead for us?
JAMES: I think it’s going to lead to the fact that probably eventually one of these terrorist diaperheads is going to come around and do something more horrible at which point we’re going to say ‘oh, we finally get it, now let’s finally have a response that means something, which means take out the guys behind it, whether it’s Sadam Hussein or Saudi Arabians or whoever else and take them out BIG TIME.
Get the message across. There’s only one thing these people understand; one thing, and one thing only: abject, unbelievable, horrifying, terrifying fear, and until we’re ready to strike that deep in their hearts and souls, we are going to be at war. Once we realize that they have to understand how powerful we are, not in our actual physical power, but in our heart and soul commitment to that power, only then will this terrorism stop. The only way to stop a terrorist: CUT HIS HEAD OFF.
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