Good story, Not enough for a whole film

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is the Soap Opera version of the Raid on Entebbe.About half of this movie is poorly written, a real shame. I couldn't believe that this all-star cast would sign up to make a movie of this low caliber.I have watched all 3 Entebbe movies. As others have commented, the "Raid on Entebbe" is strongly on point for the story at hand (the rescue of 101 Israelis held by terrorists)."Operation Thunderbolt" is also on-point, and has many of the actual players playing themselves, but it is largely unfocused.So, for the people who want to get lost in the background, "Victory" is the pick. I wish they could have taken this cast, and had them perform the Raid on Entebbe script ... it would be incredible.

Its difficult to dispute some or most of the obvious criticisms of this film, that it was made hastily ( for a reason, both 1976 films on the subject were) that it has 2-bit sets, as it would tend to, another thing I find which gives it an odd feel is the lack of score/soundtrack, it has a stage play look....what I find puzzling is that it is found to be far inferior to its rival in any way, which has most of the same faults -and more besides..."Raid has the charisma and presence of action-man Charles Bronson , c'mon, YOU have the late Chuckster in charge of rescuing you from Arabs, Germans and crazy Ugandan dictators if you are ever in that position, you know you want him to-(if the real Israeli government had had Bronson they could have dispensed with the Golani brigade and Paras, C130s and recoilless gun-jeeps and just sent in Chuck with his pump-gun and melon truck to house-fight the terrorists out of existence) But this film despite its TV look is a far better, more exciting, more involving, more colourful script than "Raid..Richard Dreyfuss is pretty matter-of-fact Jewish charismatic and some sort of substitute for Bronson and Woods.I think the criticism of the actor playing Amin is pretty unfair, that his antics were over the top, of course the real Amin was in no way over the top, was he? It may be played a little even-voiced, precise and shrewd sounding by Julius, but I would call it a professional job still, bear in mind in 1976 the outside world had not seen as much of the real Amin as it had later.I can tell you that there was total silence in the cinema as Julius/Amin spoke back in 1977. A good sign.The assault on the airport terminal is VERY exciting and realistic in its muzzle-flashing ruthless flesh-spattering gore,the shock sudden loss of Yoni to a Ugandan sniper's bullet, after the commandos have taken control , is shock and matter-of-fact heroic ...the role of the black Mercedes limo is explained and its ominous silent tarantula-like approach to the terminal is tense, as the commandos leap out blazing at the first of the terrorists lounging outside(yes, they did a number on that blonde Nazi bitch).People really seem to have it in for Linda Blair and her chocolates-it seems nitpicking and perhaps the chocolates reflect something that really occurred on the flight.Jeez, they were Kosha chocolates after all, as she said, but everyone wants to exorcise poor Linda and her sweets. There is the inevitable humanitarian armchair-expert attack on the 'bloodthirsty" Israeli soldiers who cut down 1 or 2 of their own people , after warnings to stay down-hilarious that this time, Israeli soldiers are dubbed monsters for killing their own people instead of the usual innocent Muslim terrorists these days. The humanization of one of the German captors is criticised-but this features even more in the films rival with Horst Bucholz.Perhaps this person actually was a little like this, or just seemed more decent compared to the German woman.If all the terrorists were shown brutal hateful & dehumanised, then the critics would rag on that.This film is the better more entertaining better-written more involving of the first two. Apparently the later Operation Thunderbolt eclipses both.Good for it.

It is not surprising that something as utterly dramatic and swift as Israel's lightning raid at Entebbe against a planeload of Palestinian hijackers holding over one hundred of their own should make for a movie. Instead, however, there were three, of which this is the first.This made-for-TV movie, which somehow bought together an all-star cast and was shot, edited, and aired within a mere five months of the Entebbe event, which happened under cover of darkness on July 4, 1976, shows some of the faults of being shot largely in a studio and on videotape (later transferred to film). But what we get, thanks to veteran TV director Marvin Chomsky and writer Ernest Kinoy, is a rather good account of perhaps the most dramatic anti-terrorist raid the world has ever seen. Burt Lancaster and Anthony Hopkins are matchless as Israeli leaders Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, with Richard Dreyfuss contribuing his usual best as Colonel Yonni Netanyahu, the only casualty the Israeli military suffered during the raid.The cast also includes Kirk Douglas, Linda Blair, Elizabeth Taylor, Helen Hayes, Christian Marquand (as the Air France pilot), and Harris Yulin, among others. The only performance that seems full of ham to me is Julius Harris' as the ultra-notorious Ugandan president Idi Amin; it is so over the top (though perhaps that is a bit harsh, as the real Amin was far, far worse).This is a somewhat imperfect version of the story, but nevertheless worth the 7-out-of-10 rating it gets from me.

The bargain-basement production values that mark this quickie shoot-em-up, filmed and released literally months after the dramatic Israeli commando raid, would be enough to consign this turkey to the dustbin of TV history. But it gets worse. The audience can play spot-the-star as Hollywood legends Liz Taylor, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Helen Hayes etc., turn in embarrassing cameos. Unintentional hilarity is the only possible response to the scene in which Linda Blair offers a box of chocolates to the flight crew and the terrorists holding them at gunpoint. Mirth gives way to anger, however, when the film depicts unruly hostages being deliberately shot down by Israeli soldiers during the rescue scene! With rescuers like these, who needs hijackers? "Raid on Entebbe," which came out a year later with Charles Bronson, is much the superior account of this operation.