Exodus (1960)

OTTO PREMINGER, OPUS 27

**** 1960. Based on Leon Uris's Exodus and produced and directed by Otto Preminger. One Academy award (Music) and two other nominations. Paul Newman is Ari Ben Canaan, one of the leaders of a Jewish independence movement. He manages to force the British forces to let the boat Exodus leave Cyprus with more than 600 Jews on board and reach the port of Haïfa. When Otto Preminger directed EXODUS, he was detached from the Hollywood studios and independent for some years. After Bonjour Tristesse, Anatomy of a Murder and PORGY AND BESS, he chose to adapt to the screen another bestseller: EXODUS. If everybody agrees that this 210 min. film isn't a masterpiece, I didn't yawn once during the projection however. I particularly liked the way Otto Preminger paralleled Israel's destiny and Eva Marie Saint's psychological evolution. I'm more confused in front of Preminger's handling of the extremisms: between the blonde and passive Karen and the wild Dov Landau, between smooth integration and armed guerrila warfare, the director favoured the latter. Art and Life can't obviously meet. Highly recommended. July 20, 2008

Okay, but not up to book

This story is both long and complex. Unfortunately, it is too long and complex for one full-length movie. The movie, overall does as good a job as can be done, for the excellent Leon Uris story.

As for acting, Paul Newman does an okay job. Eva Marie-Saint does her normal exceptional job, as well as the rest of the supporting cast. Cinematography has both great and bland areas, but this edition limits the great areas by not being wide-screen.

Overall, I recommend the movie, I just don't think it is 5-start caliber.
July 5, 2008

Otto Preminger revisited...an excellent film....

I saw this film a long, long time ago (in a VHS, pan and scan copy, ugh), but I recently saw Otto Preminger's The Cardinal, which I really liked. I usually don't like Preminger's work, as I found it too long and too self important. But after seeing The Cardinal, I went back and revisited his work, starting with Exodus.

I like this film a lot more the 2nd time around. It wasn't perfect. The romance between Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint's characters smacks of contrived Hollywood romance, and there is no chemistry between them at all. Some of the dialogue is silly as well. But there are many magnificent things about this film. It's very well acted and directed. Preminger shot a lot of the scenes in long takes, and it gives the film an excellent pace. Preminger's mise en scene is quite striking at times. There's a scene where Sal Mineo is talking to his girlfriend about how he wants to get to Palenstine and kill the British, and it's filmed all in one take. It's a medium close up of Sal, his girlfriend, and Paul Newman standing in the background. Otto lets it play out without a cut, and it all works. The scene where Sal Mineo is interrogated by a Jewish "terrorist/freedom" organization is one of the most powerful in the film. It goes on for a long time, yet it's necessary and it's beautifully acted and directed. The prison break out scene is done with minimal dialogue, and is very powerful as well. The scene where Sal Mineo escapes from British soldiers after blowing up the King David hotel is really strikingly shot as well. I also liked the scene where Lee J. Cobb announces that the UN has voted to give the Jewish people their own state in Palenstine. Otto doesn't show any generic crowd shots; he just shows the whole crowd (thousands of people), and it's pretty overwhelming. Ernest Gold's excellent music score is used sparingly. As with The Cardinal, there are no sledgehammer music cues in this film, which is a welcome change from most Hollywood films.

The film was shot on location in Israel in 1960. It wasn't really easy to do then, as Israel was still a young country with violence occurring every day, and all the equipment had to be imported from Hollywood, as Israel had no real film industry to speak of. Despite the logistics of the film, Otto shot the film in a mere 13 weeks. This is also the film where the McCarthy blacklist was broken permanently. The screenwriter was Dalton Trumbo, a known leftist and one of the Hollywood Ten. He was writing under a pseudonym, and Preminger had had enough. He announced that he was giving credit to Trumbo for his script. Contrary to popular belief, Preminger broke the blacklist first. Many have written that Kirk Douglas broke it on Spartacus (Trumbo also wrote that script), but it was Preminger who took the important first step, and Kirk took the 2nd step. I also admired the ending of the film, which is really dark, ambiguous, sad, yet realistic. It's not a contrived Hollywood happy ending, but an adult one, and one that, unfortunately, is still valid today. As for the DVD itself, it's a barebones one with a less than stellar transfer and muddy sound. There are scenes that looked washed out and grainy, and others that look superb. MGM didn't really do a good job here, and it's a shame, as this film deserves a deluxe treatment.

Aside from a few flaws, this is an excellent film, one that I am glad I revisited. It's worth checking out for anyone who wants to appreciate Otto Preminger and the ways of old Hollywood. July 3, 2008

Never forget!

Most people don't think of Exodus when they think of epic movies. And, maybe it's not a true epic, maybe a mini-epic.

The re-foundation of Israel in 1948 was nothing short of a miracle. The film does a nice job of showing the struggle of post-WW2 Jews re-founding their nation.

Enjoy. June 25, 2008

Watch Out! Non-Anamorphic!

Just a warning: as if a bad transfer wasn't enough, it's not anamorphic. In times of widescreen TVs that is just plain stupid. Stay away until proper treatment of this movie is accorded to it. 3 stars for the movie; 0 Stars for the DVD. May 31, 2008

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