I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

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

Most Americans are most likely unfamiliar with the creation of Israel after WW II. This series offers some historical perspective to what is usually seen as a single point of view: Jewish refugees trying to establish a homeland after surviving the Nazi death camps (the good); the Arabs (Palestinians) trying to keep them out (the bad); and the British troops trying to maintain a tenuous peace (the ugly). As usual, the real story is various shades of grey. This series is presented somewhat through the eyes of Erin Matthews, a twenty year old who is spending part of her gap year--year between finishing what we think of as high school and starting college--with her friend Eliza who is a British Jew who returns to Israel to begin her national service. Erin discovers before leaving England her grandfather's diary which tells his story as a sergeant in the British army serving in Palestine during the 1940's. The story moves back and forth between the story of her grandfather, Len Matthews, and her experiences in Israel as she reads and tries to follow through on his story as related in the diary. In this telling it is made clear that the Jewish refugees are intent on creating a homeland regardless of the cost in life to the Palestinians or British troops. As a result, Len Matthews who began his service in sympathy with the Jews finds his feelings change as a result of his experiences. And Erin also finds that in the present day the assumptions she has been brought up with are now being challenged by experience. I personally found Len's story quite compelling and in part due to the fine acting of Christian Cooke as Len; and while Erin's story is also arresting, Claire Foy's Erin is a somewhat irritating and an unsympathetic character. Almost obnoxious. However, the large cast does an excellent job and there is no way you can watch one segment of the series and not feel compelled to watch the subsequent episodes. While I find the story well balanced in trying to show the larger picture, I am sure some will be upset to find that the Israelis are not depicted as the completely good guy underdogs of history. But if you want a better understanding of the current unrest in the Middle East then this is both an entreating and illuminating series.

I have lived for a longish time in the Israel, but I am not Jewish or arab. Even though the reason I was in the area was actually that I'm so interested in history.There are so many points in this mini-series that I ponder about. The biggest one before watching the series was if this was yet another pro- zionist or pro-jihadist series.Well. I got my answer. The other questions I came up while and after watching it.1. Why do they comment the wall on west bank as "disgusting" but fail to mention how much bombings & suicide attacks against Israel have decreased after it was built?2. I do agree that Irgun and Jewish attacks against British government were acts of terrorism, but still the series brings the happenings out of proportions: "Oh my, the Irgun did a few bombings, so they're more evil than jihad terrorists that have made hundreds of such attacks, and not just against military but in fact mostly civilian targets". If you're military, you might be a target. But if you're civilian, any civilized soldier will leave you alone. 3. Lots of small things. Blackpainting of Jewish civilians (the counter- protest part), IDF soldiers who seem like Nazis (contrary to my own personal experiences), taking comments about forcing arabs to move contrary to the reality, arabs were told and encouraged to stay in their homes, etc.I have been personally to / close the locations where the modern day events take place. This did bring me back a lot of memories. I've seen conflicts similar to what the series described, but both sides were throwing rocks, palestines threw even bottles and molotov coctails until IDF came in and the ran away. It ain't as black & white as the series shows. It tries to show Jewish and IDF as evil Nazis. Unfortunately.The series had its potential, lost by a very one-sided view.

I have never seen such an inaccurate and ridiculous portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I was really disgusted by most of the scenes involving the Israeli army. The IDF has never used Palestinian children as "human shields", no alcohol can be found on an IDF bases as is shown in one scene, and IDF soldiers do not open fire without direct orders from their superiors. These are all well known facts. Obviously this mini-series sought only to smear the IDF, which it effectively does. I was also disgusted with the analogies made between the Holocaust and the Occupation. I don't think there is any reason for further explanation on that subject. It seems that the 11 months it took the director to research was in vain, he obviously had an agenda from the beginning. I urge those watching this mini-series to pick up a history book. There are many ways to tell a story and this one was clearly biased.

I very much enjoyed parts of the Promise, but thought a great deal of it was basically crap.The immediate post war aftermath in Palestine is a very good setting for a film/TV series and is a little known period in history for the general public. I thought the story set there was very compelling, with a good protagonist and remained balanced until the final episode.In contrast the framing device of the girl reading her grandfather's diary was poorly constructed and meant we had to spend far too much time in the company of a girl whose only expression was a sullen pout. At times this became absolutely ludicrous, like her reason for wanting to visit Hebron 'to see how her grandfather's story turned out'. It's not that big a diary, unless you are the world's slowest reader you could read it cover to cover in a few hours. It was also a far less balanced story, with characters presenting as fact only one side of deeply controversial issues. Take the security barrier, condemned as useless for security reasons, and yet suicide bombings plummeted after its construction.Talking about bias, we then come to the final episode, which presented the start of the arab-israeli war of 1948 as purely of poor helpless Arabs being slaughtered by Israelis. Both sides committed atrocities against civilians in the build up to the war and the war itself saw 2,400 Jewish civilians lose their lives. A far more interesting story might how a militia of only 30,000 Jews (at the start of the war) held back the armies of the Arab world.In conclusion a good historical drama let down by its bias and framing device.