United Artists
Directed by Otto Preminger
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)
They somehow turned Leon Uris' novel about the formation of Israel into nearly 4 hours of complete boredom. Blue-eyed Paul Newman is unconvincing as the leader of Palestinian terrorists. Eva Marie Saint is a cold, one-dimensional nurse that falls in love with him. Sal Mineo has a few choice scenes as the young Jewish boy who hates the British so much that he turns terrorist as well. In fact that is my biggest problem with the movie, we are supposed to be rooting for the terrorists in their struggle against the British, but my feelings were for the other side. Of course it's hopeless, since the British are written as racist buffoons. Newman's final speech rings hollow after the passage of over 50 years, since the Arabs and Jews are nowhere closer to peace than the events portrayed. Instead, the main legacy is the violence to which many in the film so casually turn.
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