Exodus (1960 film)

Exodus

Theatrical release film poster by Saul Bass
Directed by Otto Preminger
Produced by Otto Preminger
Written by Dalton Trumbo
Based on Exodus 
by Leon Uris
Starring Paul Newman
Eva Marie Saint
Ralph Richardson
Peter Lawford
Sal Mineo
Jill Haworth
Lee J. Cobb
John Derek
Music by Ernest Gold
Cinematography Sam Leavitt, ASC
Edited by Louis R. Loeffler
Distributed by United Artists
MGM (DVD)
Release dates
  • December 16, 1960
Running time
 208 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $4.5 million[1]
Box office $8,700,000 (US/ Canada)[2]
$20 million (worldwide)[1]

Exodus is a 1960 epic war film made by Alpha and Carlyle Productions and distributed by United Artists. Produced and directed by Otto Preminger, the film was based on the 1958 novel Exodus, by Leon Uris. The screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo. The film features an ensemble cast, and its celebrated soundtrack music was written by Ernest Gold.

Widely characterized as a "Zionist epic",[3][4][5][6] the film has been identified by many commentators as having been enormously influential in stimulating Zionism and support for Israel in the United States.[7][8][9] Although the Preminger film softened the anti-British and anti-Arab sentiment of the novel, the film remains controversial for its depiction of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and for what some scholars perceive to be its lasting impact on American views of the regional turmoil.[10][11] It would also be famous for the hiring by Preminger of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted for being a Communist: he was hired and was later sought for other scripts by other studios.

Plot summary

The film is based on the events that happened on the ship Exodus in 1947 as well as events dealing with the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948.

Nurse Katherine "Kitty" Fremont (Eva Marie Saint) is an American volunteer at the Karaolos internment camp on Cyprus, where thousands of Jews - Holocaust survivors - are being held by the British, who won't let them go to Palestine. They anxiously wait for the day they will be liberated. Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman), a Hagannah rebel who previously was a captain in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in the Second World War, obtains a cargo ship and smuggles 611 Jewish inmates out of the camp for an illegal voyage to Mandate Palestine before being discovered by military authorities. When the British find out that the refugees are in a ship in the harbor of Famagusta, they blockade it. The refugees stage a hunger strike, during which the camp's doctor dies, and Ari threatens to blow up the ship and the refugees. The British relent and allow the Exodus safe passage.

Meanwhile, Kitty has grown very fond of Karen Hansen (Jill Haworth), a young Danish-Jewish girl searching for her father, from whom she was separated during the war. She has taken up the Zionist cause, much to the chagrin of Kitty, who had hoped to take young Karen to America so that she can begin a new life there.

During this time, opposition to the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states is heating up, and Karen's young beau Dov Landau (Sal Mineo) proclaims his desire to join the Irgun, a radical Zionist underground network. Dov goes to an Irgun address, only to get caught in a police trap. After he is freed, he is contacted by members of the Irgun and is interviewed by Ari Ben Canaan's uncle Akiva (David Opatoshu). Before swearing Dov in, Akiva forces the boy to confess that he was a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz and that he was raped by Nazis. Due to his activities, Akiva has been disowned by Ari's father, Barak (Lee J. Cobb), who heads the mainstream Jewish Agency trying to create a Jewish state through political and diplomatic means. He fears that the Irgun will damage his efforts, especially since the British have put a price on Akiva's head.

Karen has gone to live at Gan Dafna, a fictional Jewish kibbutz near Mount Tabor at which Ari was raised.[12] Kitty and Ari have fallen in love but Kitty pulls back, feeling like an outsider after meeting Ari's family and learning of his previous love interest, Dafna, a young woman tortured and murdered by Arabs, who is the namesake of the Gan Dafna kibbutz. Leaving Kitty, Ari promises to help find Karen's father, who is eventually found ill in hospital in Jerusalem and does not recognize Karen.

When Dov Landau successfully bombs the King David Hotel in an act of terrorism, leading to dozens of fatalities, Akiva is arrested, imprisoned in Acre fortress, and sentenced to hang. Seeking to save Akiva's life, as well as to free the Haganah and Irgun fighters imprisoned by the British, Ari organizes an escape plan for the prisoners.

Dov, who had managed to elude the arresting soldiers, turns himself in so that he can use his knowledge of explosives to facilitate the Acre Prison break. All goes according to plan; hundreds of prisoners, including Akiva, manage to escape. Akiva is fatally shot by British soldiers while evading a roadblock set up to catch the escaped prisoners. Ari is also badly wounded. He makes his way to Abu Yesha, an Arab village near Gan Dafna, where his lifelong friend, Taha, (John Derek) is the mukhtar. Kitty is brought there and treats his wound and Ari and Kitty's romance is rekindled.

An independent Israel is now in plain view, but Arab nationals commanded by Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, plot to attack Gan Dafna and kill its villagers. Ari receives prior warning of this attack from Taha, and he manages to get the younger children of the town out in a mass overnight escape. Karen, ecstatic over the prospect of a new nation, finds Dov (who was out on patrol outside the town) and proclaims her love for him; Dov assures her that they will marry someday. As Karen returns to Gan Dafna, she is ambushed and killed by a gang of Arab militiamen. Dov discovers her lifeless body the following morning. That same day, the body of Taha is found hanging in his village, killed by Arab extremists with a Star of David symbol carved on his body. Karen and Taha are buried together in one grave. At the Jewish burial ceremony, Ari swears on their bodies that someday, Jews and Arabs will live together and share the land in peace, not only in death but also in life. The movie then ends with Ari, Kitty, and a Palmach contingent entering trucks and heading toward battle.

Cast

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Composer Ernest Gold won the Academy Award for Best Original Score at the 1960 Oscars.

The film was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Sal Mineo) and for Best Cinematography (Sam Leavitt).

Golden Globe

Sal Mineo won the Best Supporting Actor Award

Grammy Award

Ernest Gold won Best Soundtrack Album and Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards of 1961 for the soundtrack and theme to Exodus respectively. It is the only instrumental song ever to receive that award to date.

Cannes Film Festival

The film was screened at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the competition for the Golden Palm.[13]

Soundtrack

Main article: Exodus (soundtrack)

The main theme from the film has been widely remixed and covered by many artists. A version by Ferrante & Teicher went all the way to number 2 on the Billboard Singles Chart. Another notable version was recorded by jazz saxophonist Eddie Harris. Other versions were recorded by Mantovani, Peter Nero, Connie Francis, Davy Graham reinvented the main theme on his 1963 album "The Guitar Player", the 1960s British instrumental band The Eagles, and The Duprees, who sang the theme with lyrics written by Pat Boone. Other artists include Gospel pianist Anthony Burger (in the Gaither Vocal Band's "I Do Believe"), singer Edith Piaf (who sang French lyrics) and classical pianist Maksim Mrvica. Trey Spruance of the Secret Chiefs 3 re-scored the theme for "surf band and orchestra" on the album 2004 Book of Horizons. Howard Stern uses it for comedic effect when discussing aspects of Jewish life. A portion of the theme was covered live by 70's Southern Rock band Black Oak Arkansas, whose 3 lead guitarists used eBows to play the theme in harmony, embedded into a cover of the Buddy Holly song "Not Fade Away".[14] Different samples of the Exodus theme have been used in several hip-hop songs, including Ice-T´s song "Ice's Exodus" from the album The Seventh Deadly Sin, Nas's song "You're Da Man" from the album Stillmatic, and T.I.'s song "Bankhead" from the album King. A portion of the main title was included in a montage arranged by composer John Williams and performed at the 2002 Academy Awards ceremony. The artist Nina Paley used the entire theme song to satirical effect in her animated short, titled after the lyrics, "This Land is Mine" (2012).[15] Although not in an official film soundtrack, Chopin's Nocturne was played while General Sutherland and Kitty Fremont discussed the future of Jews and Palestine.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company The Changed the Film Industry, Uni of Wisconsin Press, 1987 p 133
  2. ↑ "All-time top film grossers", Variety January 8, 1964 p 37. Please note this figure is rentals accruing to film distributors not total money earned at the box office..
  3. ↑ Identity politics on the Israeli Screen. Yosefa Loshitzky page 2
  4. ↑ A new Jewry?: America since the Second World War. Peter Medding page 77
  5. ↑ Cinema and the Shoah: an art confronts the tragedy of the twentieth century. Jean-Michel Frodon, Anna Harrison. page 175
  6. ↑ Envisioning Israel: the changing ideals and images of North American Jews. Allôn Gal. page 297
  7. ↑ Said, Edward. Propaganda and War.
  8. ↑ Omer Bartov. The "Jew" in cinema. page 189
  9. ↑ Roland Boer. Political myth: on the use and abuse of Biblical themes. 2009, page 152. See also Weissbrod 1989
  10. ↑ Ira Nadel. Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller. 2010, page 116
  11. ↑ Roland Boer. Political myth: on the use and abuse of Biblical themes. 2009, page 152
  12. ↑ An actual kibbutz named Dafna is located near the present Lebanese border.
  13. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Exodus". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
  14. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkJKP3KQ93c#t=329
  15. ↑ Paley, Nina. "This Land is Mine". Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  16. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053804/soundtrack

External links