Golda

"The only man in my cabinet." David Ben-Gurion praising Golda Meir

Aided by an accomplished cast that includes Liev Schrieber as the redoubtable Henry Kissinger, whose secretary of state is also as brilliant as history has shown him, this docudrama, Golda, draws us into the machinations of a cloistered foggy war. It would be difficult to fictionalize the drama of fall 1973, when Egypt and Syria, seeing Israel becoming complacent after its victory over the Arabs in 1967, starts the Yom Kippur War to gain back The Golan Heights and The Sinai Peninsula.

What's new is Arab support by Russia, putting The US in a precarious position as a supporter of Israel and yet a customer for Arab oil. The moral ambiguity of the situation dogs USA to this day.

"Golda" is a biopic and docudrama from Israel's point of view and that of Golda Meir (Helen Mirren), Israel's 4th prime minister.

Director Guy Nattiv and writer Nicholas Martin keep the drama centered on Mirren, who interprets The Iron Lady with uncompromising integrity and rough beauty to let us know Meir was everything legend had of her, and more. She's a lady who agonizes over every soldier lost to the war yet barks, "Teach our enemies a lesson they'll never forget."

From the bun in her hair to chain smoking, Golda is a walking contradiction of smarts and weaknesses. Mirren keeps her eyes on Golda's subjects with piercing focus to make even the self-reliant Henry Kissinger uncomfortable. Her secret operations for lymphoma are emblems of her private life of suffering that promise she won't live past 80.

Just as Christopher Nolan did with Churchill in Dunkirk, while we all can learn the facts from historical accounts, little else can be as informative and insightful as a well-made docudrama.

And that's what Golda is!

Many of the negative reviews here focus on the historical inaccuracies this movie makes of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but the movie isn't really about the war itself. Instead it's about Golda's own personal struggle to overcome cancer, fear, old age, and the many stresses of war to become the leader her nation needed at that exact moment in time. It is a brilliant performance by Helen Mirren that should be enjoyed for Golda's own personal journey rather than for the accuracy of the battles portrayed in the movie. If you put these inaccuracies aside, you will watch a performance worthy of an Oscar and a story of triumph in the face of almost certain defeat.

Having experienced the Yom Kippur War living 10 minutes from Israel's border with both Syria and Jordan, I was very interested to see Golda. There is a lot in this film that captures aspects of Israeli mentality and culture, presented in such a subtle way that it is not until after viewing the film may become apparent to someone who reflects on what the film portrayed.

More than anything, however, Golda is about Golda. It might surprise some viewers to realize that much of her persona was shaped by having escaped the pogroms of what is now the Ukraine. She was only a child when her family came as immigrants to the US and the film shows a side of her haunted by what might have been had they not made it to a safer country.

Another interesting element of her story is illustrated by her exchanges with Henry Kissinger. To avoid a "spoiler" I will instead urge the viewer to pay close attention to the inter-actions between them, always behind closed doors.

Golda is a history lesson wrapped in a biography. It is solid film making with good writing, directing and an outstanding performance from Helen Mirren. It captures an amazing phenomenon: the experience of war time leadership born on the shoulders (and in the kitchen) of a woman who carried this burden with incredible courage, sensitivity, intelligence, and honesty.

I was around when all this took place, I was a young career man with wife and kids in 1973. I remember her well, from the news, but knew nothing of her.

This is not a bio-pic, it covers only a very focused part of her life, namely the 1973 Yom Kippur war. On October 6, 1973, an Arab coalition of Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur-the Jewish holy day of atonement.

Helen Mirren in full prosthetic makeup is almost a dead ringer for Prime Minister Golda Meir. At one point she says she is a politician not a military leader, in her frustration at not getting her head wrapped around the conflict and what they should do. But as the days advance she makes a number of tough decisions after her military leaders present options.

All this was going on while she was battling cancer at the age of 75, and receiving radiation treatments. And the year after a truce was reached, having to answer to an inquiry about the actions she took. She died in 1978.

This is a well-made movie that tells an interesting and important story in the history of Israel. And especially now, in the fall of 2023, when Hamas recently attacked Israel and a full-fledged war is in progress as I write this. Why can't everyone get along?

My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.

Greetings again from the darkness. More than forty years have passed since the great Ingrid Bergman portrayed Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir in the TV miniseries, A WOMAN CALLED GOLDA (1982). Fighting through cancer during filming, it was Ms. Bergman's final role, and she won a posthumous Emmy for a performance that left quite a mark on this young (at the time) viewer. Guy Nattiv won an Oscar for his excellent short film, SKIN (2018), and here he takes on a narrow, yet vital window in the term of Golda Meir ... a time when the survival of her country was in jeopardy. The screenplay was written by Nicholas Martin (FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS, 2016).

Under heavy make-up and facial prosthetics, Oscar winner Helen Mirren expertly captures the essence of Golda Meir at a time she was carrying an unimaginable burden. The opening shoots through a quick slideshow of history before settling into 1973 and the escalating conflict between the Arab states (led by Egypt and Syria) and Israel. Despite the presence of some intelligence warning of such, Israel was caught off-guard by the surprise attack, and found themselves scrambling for the next 3 weeks - the period that makes up the core of the movie. Slump-shouldered and chain-smoking (sometimes defiantly), we see Golda making huge decisions between trips for lymphoma treatments. Her decisions would be the determining factor on how many soldiers would die, and whether Israel would remain independent.

It's the level and question of that intelligence that provides the film's framing structure of Golda Meir appearing before the Agranat Commission - a commission designed to render after-the-fact judgment on her decision-making and war strategy. As we witness, some of that strategy involves gut feelings and instincts, yet what the film makes clear is that Golda understands war kills real people - these aren't just numbers in a report. Included in these meetings are the Minister of Defense, Moshe Dyan (Rami Heuberger), Chief of Staff "Dodo" Elazar (Lior Ashkenazi), and Field General (and future Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon (Ohad Knoller). Camille Cotton plays Golda's longtime personal assistant Lou Kaddar, and some of the best scenes are the private conversations between U. S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber) and Golda, as she pushes for assistance and support, with Kissinger in a tough spot.

This Yom Kippur War lasted barely three weeks, yet the profound stress of war-induced decisions is obvious in Golda, as is her stance as a tough leader. For her, this did not mean sacrificing human emotions, but rather being decisive, communicative, and surrounding yourself with a capable team ... although disloyalty in her administration is hinted at by some. Golda lived (just) long enough to witness the infamous Treaty signed by Menachim Begin and Answar Sadat, a treaty made possible through her leadership.

The film more closely resembles DARKEST HOUR (2017), with Gary Oldman's Oscar-winning performance as Winston Churchill during WWII, than THE QUEEN (2006), Ms. Mirren's own Oscar-winning turn as Queen Elizabeth. Actual newsclips are mixed in for historical perspective and the score by Dascha Dauenhauer leans heavily on dramatic stringed instruments. A final song by Leonard Cohen caps things off. While it's true that most of the storytelling doesn't reach the level of Ms. Mirren's performance, that performance is enough to convey the high stakes involved.

Opens on August 25, 2023.