Fresh and Exciting

Awesome Movie

A Major Disappointment

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

When Leon Uris's novel came out the American public was excited by the story it contained -- one that reflected historical truths placed into an equally romantic and exciting story.A handsome and daring male lead, a strong and beautiful woman whose ideas and ideals are constantly being challenged. A people struggling for survival against a myriad of enemies.Add to that beautiful location shooting all done in the actual locations of Israel and Cyprus, a memorable score and big name stars, this film has much to offer.But finding it today is difficult. (I had to search out a Blu Ray created for the Australian market -- but thankfully playable on a US player) One can only assume that the non-politically correct idea of seeing 'goodness' in the creation of a Jewish State and all that has followed it as the reason why.No, this is not a "great" film. Its length gets in the way of that - - and such with much cut from the original novel. But "good" it is. Definitely worth seeing. Well, if you can find it.

I had just read the book and did not remember the movie, so I watched it. Paul Newman was not very believable until very near the end. His portrayal of Ari Ben Canaan was not convincing. One of the characters who is important to the plot to embarrass the English into releasing the Exodus in the book, does not appear in the movie. Ari's sister, Jordana, has a adversarial relationship with Kitty that only comes out in an off-hand statement from Kitty about how Ari's sister talks to her. In addition to missing relationships and characters, the character development did not match the book and it seemed that movement from scene to scene was not smooth. A rating of 3 might be generous.

From director Otto Preminger (Laura, Carmen Jones, Anatomy of a Murder), I mainly wanted to see this film because of the leading actor and actress starring, and it was rated well by the critics, so I did watch it. Basically the Second World War has ended, and the United Nations may want to create a new Jewish nation and homeland in Palestine, as many of them are exiled from much of Europe, especially Germany, so they get sent to Cyprus. Palestinian Jew and Haganah rebel Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman) is determined to smuggle many of the Jews into Palestine, as this seems the easiest way to sway the vote for the United Nations by the number in the country. He manages to get a ship and fill it with six hundred Jewish people, and after many incidents on the journey they make it to the country, and his childhood Arab friend Taha (John Derek) joins them, but even when they reach their destination the UN vote will be difficult to sway. Also joining in the mission and what is essentially the founding of the state of Israel is widowed American nurse Kitty Fremont (Eva Marie Saint), who is for a while naive about the situation of conflict and hostility, and she ultimately falls in love with Ari. Alright, I will be completely honest, I didn't have a clue what was going on, other than the founding of a nation, and that's about it. Also starring Ralph Richardson as Gen. Sutherland, Peter Lawford as Maj. Caldwell, Lee J. Cobb as Barak Ben Canaan, Golden Globe winning, and Oscar nominated Sal Mineo as Dov Landau, Marius Goring as Von Storch and Golden Globe nominated Jill Haworth as Karen. Newman gave a good performance, as did Marie Saint and Cobb in their moments, Preminger does I suppose suit the piece, and there are some sweeping scenes of the cities and landscapes, and I can't say a bad word about the award winning music, the problem for me was not just the length of the film, at just over three hours, but I just didn't find myself drawn to everything going on, but it isn't a bad epic drama. It won the Oscar for Best Music for Ernest Gold, and it was nominated for Best Cinematography, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Original Score. Worth watching, in my opinion!

Someone above wrote "That, and the events that the Six-Day War led to, have eroded the moral assurance that many of the main characters of "Exodus" espouse about Israel and its founding, and would eventually lead to the moral quagmire found 45 years later in Steven Spielberg's "Munich." Today, "Munich" is much closer to the grayness of who is right or wrong in the modern-day Middle East than the black-and-white assumptions that drive the characters of "Exodus" in 1947 -- or its creators in 1960."What a pile of duki.The only "moral quagmire" is the one espoused by moral -equivocating enablers of jihad who see Israel as part of their stumbling block in "deconstructing" the Judeo-Christian West.It's very simple. The Jews were there before the Arabs, BEFORE Islam, the Jews were dispersed, they ALWAYS looked to return, they returned, they offered to share, the UN offered to share, the Arabs were not interested in sharing, only in exterminating the Jews, as most of them are even today.Spielberg's Munich is a perfect example of a guilt-ridden, successful JINO film-maker operating under the Stockholm syndrome, making the the Mossad agents who take out the assassins from the Olympics appear as evil as the PLO killers.Here's a hot tip - there IS good and evil in this world, and if you can't see it, then pluck out your eyes and don't bore the rest of us with your insipid, Howard Zinn-inspired, Marxist film critiques.We need MORE movies like Exodus, not like Munich.