Inspired by Leon Uris’ international bestseller, this “extraordinarily moving” (The New Republic) chronicle of the rebirth of a people and the establishment of a nation is the ultimate experience in human drama. Nominated* for three Academy Awards® and winner* for Best Score, Exodus is an “exciting, dramatic, scenic, panoramic and deeply moving” (New York Daily News) masterpiece. Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman), a commander of the Israeli underground, manages to lead 600 Jews from the detention camps of Cyprus onto a large freighter bound for Palestine. But British forces soon learn of his plan and insist that he turn back. Undaunted, Ari and his passengers refuse to give up, risking their lives for the greater cause of Israeli independence.Otto Preminger’s 1960 adaptation of Leon Uris’s novel is a sprawling 220-minute tale of the founding of modern Israel, starring Paul Newman as a Resistance leader. The film works best as an example of Preminger’s estimable skill with all levels of drama and action, but as a reflection upon history it is compromised by stereotypes, unpersuasive relationships, and a certain moral ambivalence about issues related to the subject. There are good and exciting sequences, however, particularly one involving an effort to break through a British blockade and get to the homeland. –Tom Keogh
March 16, 2008
#1
As wonderful as the book and movie Exodus are, they are very biased and unfair, and written by Leon Uris, who has very skewed views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israelis when fighting for their heroic independence forcibly drove the Palestines then living in Israel out, primary source documentation shows specific examples of this, such as when 60,000 Palestinians were ordered out of Lydda and Ramleh by David Ben-Gurion’s wave of a hand and “drive them out” (testified by Yitzak Rabin), the Irgun massacre at Deir Yassin with the cooperation of the Haganah, and numberous testemonies of soldiers and officers who admit to ordering, and being ordered to run the Palestinians out. In addition, the Israeli government has forbidden the return of these refugees, despite UN resolutions demanding it, and the millions of Palestinians suffering in the West Bank and Gaza, to say nothing of the millions of Palestinians forced to scatter all over the world. The entire case of the Palestinian plight can’t be recorded in a movie review, so in conclusion while the movie is enjoyable it is first and foremost fiction. For a real, documented explaination of what happened supported by proof, I recommend reading books by Benny Morris, for a view of the life the Palestinians live, books by a well respected Israeli historian, Normal G. Finkelstein, a Jew who spent time in the occupied terrorities, and Thomas Freidman, the well respected journalist who wrote From Beirut to Jerusalem. Also of note is Gloria Emerson’s book Gaza.
March 16, 2008
#2
It gets harder and harder to watch this movie, especially the young Paul Newman’s final screed on the death of Karen (relax, Butch! Jill Haworth’s only pretending to the dead!). As a document of the transition from Gandhi’s hunger strike, intended to embarass the British into behaving decently, to the Irgun’s ruthless bombing of the King David Hotel, intended to bloody the British into leaving Israel alone and unprotected in the exact middle of her traditional blood enemies (Arabs? what Arabs?), it’s informative. The movie barely scratches the surface of hatreds that have festered in the Middle East for millenia, and the glossy Hollywood overcoat has peeled away from the history over the years, but as a faithful reflection of a naivete we Americans will have to overcome to have any hope of surviving nuclear armageddon on Ariel Sharon’s cattle ranch, it’s pretty good. In today’s hip-hop world, Sal Mineo’s deep dark secret that he was raped by Nazis in Dachau seems laughable — these days, you can hear that kind of gangsta rap from the Toyota next to you at a red light. As a call to menschlichkeit in a harsh world, 4 stars.
March 16, 2008
#3
Leon Uris masterfully tells the story of the millenia old Jewish struggle for independence and freedom from repression, anti-semitism, attrocity, terror, and the creation of the Israeli state in Exodus. Otto Prettinger butchers this with his 1960 film adaptation of the historical fiction novel. The film loosly holds true to the story. Right from the opening scene you know immediately that this is nothing like the novel in which Kitty Fremont states she has already been to Palestine. One of the key pieces of the novel is her inability to cope with life in Israel and her desire to take Karen Hansen to America. The stories of Ari Ben Canaan, his father and uncle, Dov Landau, and David Ben Ami are poorly developed. Other main characters such as Zev Gilboa are not even included. The depiction of British rule is lackluster at best. The timing is even completely off. The 612 (300 in the book, and all children) adults and children who board Exodus are told already that the U.N. in Flushing is already meeting to decide the fate of the state of Israel. Huh? The characters, timing, scenes, and story itself in no way resembles the book. They even managed to rename the Macabees the Irjun (which is what, anyone know?). Even the prison break at Acre was off. If you haven’t read the book, you will be unable to follow the movie at all. If you have read the book, you’re in for such a disappointment words alone cannot express it. I made a terrible mistake in purchasing this film and I’ll have to reread the novel to erase it from my mind. Please don’t by this movie if you enjoy literature at all. I’m not angry, I’m terribley disappointed that such a wonderful novel based on actual events was told so well on paper, yet translated to poorly to screen. C’est la vie. Maybe someone will remake this film into something spectacular. In the meantime, stick with the novel.
March 16, 2008
#4
This movie was uninteresting and I felt like I wanted to fall alseep during the entire time. The way everything and everyone was portrayed was very intriguing but all put together it was terrible!
March 16, 2008
#5
I have not yet seen the movie, but hope to soon. I read the book it was great.