Exodus

1. This is a movie, folks. Yes, based on a novel, but it was just that - a novel. Uris didn't claim to be writing a history textbook. As with all memorable literature, he tweaked some facts and embroidered his landscape with memorable fictional characters (although yes, many were based on real-life people.) So it's not appropriate to criticize either the novel or the book for not getting every historical fact absolutely right.

2. This is a MOVIE, folks. Based on a novel, but it's still a movie. Which meant that the actors were cast for a variety of reasons, one of which was solid bank-ability at the box office. To those who complained that Eva Marie Saint is too old in this film, I'd like to remind them that she was only a few months older (in real life) than Paul Newman was. And having her a bit older than the character in the novel is fine, since she brings a different life perspective than someone in her 20s would have. Especially since she was playing a widow. just mho.

3. What has depressed me is that this IMDb discussion of a movie has brought out the Haters. I don't mean people who hated the movie; I mean people who hate Jews and the State of Israel. Apparently, no amount of art, or even actual history, will ever be enough for some people to stop hating, to get them to stop looking for every possible opportunity to malign any group of people they get something -- however perverse or destructive -- out of hating.

4. My personal opinion of this movie is that it's an excellent MOVIE. It entertains. It teaches us a few basic facts about the creation of Israel that most of us never learned in school. It is well-cast, well-acted, well-directed, and well-photographed. In addition, it has a great score throughout the film (not just the very memorable main theme.) I saw it at a movie theater when I was fairly young, and I've probably seen it on TV over a dozen times since then. I also read the novel (a long time ago), but if I've learned anything over the years, it's that movies and novels are different animals that can't fairly be compared page-for-page, so to speak. Heck - ever read "Gone With The Wind?" In the novel, Scarlett has one child with each of her husbands, but in the movie, she only has the one child, with Rhett. But no one complains about it because it's a damn good movie. And so is "Exodus." It's damn good movie.

Otto Preminger's presentation of Leon Uris' novel "Exodus" tried to evoke comparisons, in its trailer, to "Gone with the Wind" and "The Birth of a Nation". Those films overcome ideological flaws, and remain genuine, undeniable classics. Despite the starry cast and sweeping grandeur, "Exodus" fails to achieve its epic intentions. Mr. Preminger, coming off the superb "Anatomy of a Murder", gives it a long and dull direction. Paul Newman (as Ari Ben Canaan) and Eva Marie Saint (as Kitty Fremont) are quite unconvincing, in the leading roles. Still, there are some good characterizations, and nicely staged scenes.

The film offers two obvious, award-garnering career moves: Sal Mineo's masterful supporting performance, and Ernest Gold's beautiful musical score. Mr. Mineo (as Dov Landau) won a "Golden Globe" as "Best Supporting Actor"; and, arguably, he also deserved the year's "Academy Award". His subplot, played with pretty blonde newcomer Jill Haworth (as Karen Johansson), is far and away the most interesting story, thanks to Mineo's acting work. Mr. Gold's "Exodus" theme is also outstanding, selling well over a million copies of the Ferrante and Teicher version alone; it won not only an Oscar, but also a Grammy as 1960's "Song of the Year".

****** Exodus (12/15/60) Otto Preminger ~ Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Sal Mineo

This historical film is based on real events and Leon Uris'novel. By the late 1945, millions of bewildered and homeless Jews people were on the move-across Europe and the Far East. They were looking for somewhere to live and for many of them that meant a new country. Jews demanded a land of their own. Jewish refugees were at a British camp on their way to Palestine. The Jews on board hoped to sail to Palestine in the first 'exodus ship'. Jewish refugees struggle ashore from island of Cyprus. But the ship (led by Jewish leader Paul Newman, helped by an American widow (Eva Marie Saint) will be intercepted. On many of the refugees, by a famine-strike, the conditions were appalling , overcrowded, lacking food and water. The British troops (commanded by Ralph Richardson and Peter Lawford) guard the shipload of Jews in the port, they were rounded up, to be sent to the camp. This is an exodus that succeeded. In Palestine coming so soon after the holocaust, the homeless come home, but these traumatic echoes of Auschwitz and Buchenwald inflamed Zionist feelings. 1946,1947 and early 1948 were a years in which Zionist terrorist was at its height and Independent Israel still seemed heartbreaks away. In 22 July 1946, ninety-one people died when the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was blown up by Zionists. When one of the ringleader (David Opatoshu) of the Zionist anarchist group is placed under arrest, to be taken under close guard to the camp , the movement plans the breakout. The subsequent setting is the strife-ridden area of Palestine between Jewish and Arabs fighting cruelly each other. The state of Israel was born in war and spent its youth struggling for survival. The nearly established United Nations did what it could to help, establishing camps for refugees and the supervision of Great Britain over Palestine . And later a voting that declared the independence of Israel under Ben Gurion (similar role played by Lee J Cobb).

This historical film well written by Dalton Trumbo was efficiently directed by Otto Preminger. Good performances from Paul Newman as an obstinate Israeli leader, Ralph Richardson as a commandant of British forces in Cyprus and Sal Mineo as a young terrorist , the latter won the Golden Globe for support actor. Furthermore , the sensitive and emotive soundtrack by Ernest Gold won Oscar 1960 for Original Dramatic Score . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Sam Leavitt, filmed in Israel and Cyprus with spectacular production design by Richard Day. Over budgeted, as cost more than five million dollars , an incredible amount of money at the time .This chronicle about the post-WWII partition of Palestine will appeal to historical events enthusiasts.

The title really fits, because in the first half Jewish refugees (mostly Holocaust survivors) are trying to escape a British detention camp and they get blockaded in a harbor while their leaders try to convince the British to let their people go. It then follows the struggle in Palestine to establish a Jewish state. I especially liked the arc of Ari and how he goes from hardline "we can never trust anyone but ourselves" to eventually falling in love with a non-Jewish woman.

It's a great historical epic, although the subject matter is admittedly extremely controversial. Nevertheless, I really liked it, and I got really invested in the outcome of the characters. One criticism I see is that it drags on for too long, although I didn't think even its long running time was enough to tell all of the stories and do them justice. So perhaps this would have been a better mini-series than movie, as other Leon Uris books were, but then there would be no such thing as the mini-series until the 1970s.

One comical moment is when Paul Newman's character, Ari Ben Canaan, is listening to Peter Lawford, playing a British officer, talk about how he can spot a Jew a mile away. Ben Canaan asks Lawford to look in his eye for a cinder, Lawford's character obliges as he continues to go on about Jewish stereotypes. Of course, blonde blue-eyed Paul Newman is Jewish, as is his character.

There's great tragedy here too though, particularly at the end. There's also the fact that the refugees' own lives having been made cheap during the Holocaust has made others lives seem cheap now. This is especially true of Dov Landau (Sal Mineo) who witnessed unspeakable horrors during the Holocaust, and that experience has made him hard enough that he can blow up 83 people who are guests in a British hotel in Palestine and consider it a job well done.

I'd recommend this one, but if you have time to read the book that is also time very well spent.

Adapted from one of the best books of the last century, Otto Premenger's "Exodus" (1960) had all the components of an exiting, deeply moving masterpiece. It was made by a very talented and celebrated director ("Laura" , "Anatomy of a Murder"); most scenes of the film were made in locations where the original events had occurred; one of the best ever American actors(Paul Newman) played the main character, Jewish hero, a fearless Freedom fighter, Ari Ben Canaan; Sal Meneo gave an absolutely compelling performance as Dov Landau, a young man, a boy really who had survived the horrors of Auschwitz, the only survivor of a big family from Warsaw. Ernst Gold won an Academy award for his truly magnificent musical score. Sadly, "Exodus" is not a masterpiece – it is an overlong, heavy handed, and rather unimpressive movie that caused satirist Mort Sahl to say, "Otto, let my people go" as he watched the film's 220-minute preview. Ironically, with all this running time, the best, the most inspirational parts of the book did not make it to the film. Among them are historical events dealing with the origins of ghetto system, pogroms in Russia, the long and fascinating journey of two brothers from a small Russian town to Palestine by foot, the ideas of Theodor Herzl, the birth of kibbutzes in Palestine, and enormous labor of kibbutznicks to make the land fertile, to grow plants and trees where the desert, rocks, and swamps had been, as well as the tragedy of European Holocaust and dramatic story of United Nations voting for partition of Palestine in 1947 and the war of the infant state against its multiple and hostile neighbors for the right to exist and be an independent country. I watched the movie just before I left for my trip to Israel a few weeks ago and I took the book with me there. Reading the book while be able to see the places it describes with such passion and love, to see the land that is called "promised land" or "Holy land" WAS one of the most emotional and unforgettable experiences in my life, watching the movie was not. It is just an illustration to the fantastic book – no more, no less. IMO, the book deserves the same treatment that Puso's "Godfather" had received – it should've been adapted into several movies, not just one. Like in Godfather, Part II, the scenes of the past and present should've alternated, given the viewers deeper insight in the events and the passions and politics behind them. Or even better, perhaps "Exodus" should've been adapted into TV mini-series format where every important character would've had enough time for his/her story.