Review of Exodus (1960) by Scott K — 06 Jun 2008

Exodus is the story of the founding of the state of Israel. The film stars Paul Newman as Ari Ben Canaan and Eva Marie Saint as Kitty Fremont, an American woman who gets involved in the struggle for Israel almost by accident.

Newman and Saint give good performances but this film is more noteworthy for the performances of its supporting cast. Sal Mineo plays Dov Landau, a young man trying to make amends for his past deeds. David Opatoshu plays Akiva Ben Canaan, Ari's uncle. Both of these actors give very strong performances.

The screenplay is based on the novel written by Leon Uris. The book is a long novel, coming it at about 640 pages and it seems like the director, Otto Preminger, wanted to get as much of it on the screen as possible. The film runs for 3 hours and 30 minutes. This is one of the main weaknesses of the film as the story has a number of flat spots that are uninteresting and could have been easily clipped out of the film. It is also surprising that given the film's long running time, that the characters were not more developed.

This film's main interest is telling the story of the historical events that led up to the United Nations declaring Israel as a distinct state. The film is not a literal interpretation of these events but some of the characters are based on real people. The film is worthwhile for the context it gives these events but you had better set aside a whole evening.