Load of rubbish!!

Admirable film.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

What I am writing is intended for those considering purchasing this movie on DVD from Warner Archive. Do not mistake this movie for Raid On Entebbe which is a first class film. A first class cast deliver poor performances down to the last man woman and child. Although not annoying there certain scene changes with gaps intended for placement of commercials. a The plot is slow to develop and tends to drag painfully. Filmed in academy aperture on either poor film stock or the print is bad. There are frequent focus errors and audible camera noise. There are numerous technical and historical errors including piston engine sound for the turboprop C-130s. As digitized by Warner Archive has shutter type sound track partially visible to the right of the picture.

Two films came out in the wake of the successful Israeli rescue of a lot of Jewish passengers on an Air France flight that was hijacked to the Ugandan capital of Entebbe that year. This one, Victory at Entebbe, had a lot more star power to it if you look at the cast list.The Seventies began the years of terrorism starting with the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. For reasons I can't explain, the left took up the cause of the Arabs and of Islam, societies which wouldn't let them operate, no way, no how. Maybe it's psychological or pathological, it sure ain't rational.The group that took the Air France passengers hostage were Germans, members of the Bader-Meinhoff gang which was a militant German leftist crowd. The idea these folks had was to trade their lives for the lives of Arab terrorists in Israeli and other western power's jails. To do they had the tacit cooperation of another loon who ran a country for a while, Idi Amin Dada of Uganda.All you need to know about that one you can see in Forest Whitaker's portrayal in The Last King of Scotland. Here though is the Idi Amin played by Julius Harris whose antics nauseated the civilized world. It's the Idi Amin I remember from the news.Anthony Hopkins plays Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who ironically would fall victim to extreme Judaism some 20 years later. This was his first time as Prime Minister and he's ably assisted by Burt Lancaster as Shimon Peres as Defense Minister. These two guys must have been flattered all to heck because they sure don't look like Hopkins and Lancaster.Working on a five day deadline the terrorists imposed, the Israeli military crafted a rescue that stunned and delighted the civilized world. 103 innocent Jewish lives were rescued from barbarism and death, there was no meek resignation in that generation of Jews. This film technically speaking was the fourth Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas joint project. They have no scenes together. Douglas and his wife played by Elizabeth Taylor play the parents of Linda Blair who is one of the passengers on the plane and who are part of a small group representing the families of the hostages meeting with Hopkins.One of the stories that got world attention was the murder of Dora Bloch played by Helen Hayes here. She was taken ill and removed to a Ugandan hospital and she was killed by the Ugandans in retaliation for the Israeli rescuers killing Ugandan troops who were protecting the terrorists.The best one I thought in the cast was Bibi Besch who played the only female among the terrorists. She looked every inch the part of a German whose antecedents were no doubt proud Hitler youth members. She practically is salivating when the Jews are separated out from the rest of the passengers for what she knows will be annihilation.Victory At Entebbe should be required viewing for anyone who has romantic notions about the nature of terror and the need for a state of Israel.

If one is a history buff and enjoys reading about and viewing films made about historic events then they will read and view everything they can find on the subject. This film is an account of the Israeli commando rescue of Jewish hostages who were hi-jacked in July of 1976 and flown to Idi Amins Uganda. While this film which boasted an all star cast is clearly inferior to the one which came out a year later and starred Peter Finch and Charles Bronson it still makes for good viewing. It also makes one wonder with the talented cast had more time and perhaps more money been spent on making this version it might have been the best of the lot.

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.