Exodus is a 1960 epic war film made by Alpha and Carlyle Productions and distributed by United Artists. It was produced and directed by Otto Preminger from a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo from the 1958 novel, Exodus, by Leon Uris. The Super Panavision 70 cinematography was by Sam Leavitt. The music, including the frequently covered title theme, was written by Ernest Gold.
The film stars Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford, Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo, John Derek, Hugh Griffith, Gregory Ratoff, Felix Aylmer, David Opatoshu, Alexandra Stewart, Jill Haworth, Marius Goring, Victor Maddern and George Maharis.
Director Otto Preminger helped to end the stigma of the Hollywood blacklist by hiring Dalton Trumbo to adapt the screenplay for the film.[1] The movie was shot entirely on location in Cyprus and Israel.
The Genesis of Exodus
Arthur Stevens related in the 1985 book "The Persuasion Explosion" that the idea for the book came about when Edward Gottlieb, an American Public Relations man seeking to improve Israel's image in the US, decided to commission a novel about Israel's origin that showed Israel in a good light and hired Uris to write it. According to Stevens, "Uris' novel solidified America's impressions of Israelis as heroes, of Arabs as villains; it did more to popularize Israel with the American public than any other single presentation through the media.."[2]
According to Jack Shaheen "In the 1950s, when Americans were largely apathetic about Israel, the eminent public relations consultant Edward Gottlieb was called on "to create a more sympathetic attitude" toward the newly established state. And so, he sent Leon Uris to Israel to write a novel, which became the bestseller Exodus... Exodus introduced filmgoers to the Arab-Israel conflict, and peopled it with heroic Israelis and sleazy, brutal Arabs, some of whom link up with ex-Nazis. The movie's only "good Arab" becomes a dead Arab."[3]
Summary
The film is based on the events that happened on the ship Exodus in 1947 and dealing with the founding of the state of Israel around 1948.
Nurse Katherine "Kitty" Fremont (Eva Marie Saint) is an American volunteer at the Karaolos Internment on Cyprus, where thousands of Jews - Holocaust survivors - are being held, as they have no homeland to return to. They sit in anticipation of the day they will be liberated. Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman), a Haganah rebel who previously was a captain in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in World War II, obtains a cargo ship and is able to smuggle 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 the harbor. 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 real Irgun. Dov 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. Because of 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. When Dov successfully bombs the King David Hotel in an act of terrorism, leading to dozens of fatalities, Akiva is arrested and sentenced to hang. Meanwhile, Karen's father has been found, but he is suffering from clinical depression and does not recognize her. Karen has gone to live at Gan Dafna, a fictional Jewish kibbutz near Mount Tabor at which Ari was raised. (An actual kibbutz named Dafna is located near the Lebanese border.)
Kitty and Ari have fallen in love, but Uncle Akiva's imprisonment is an obstacle, and Ari must devise a plan to free the prisoners.
Dov Landau, who had managed to elude the arresting soldiers, turns himself in so that he can use his knowledge of explosives to rig the Acre prison and plan an escape route. All goes according to plan; hundreds of prisoners, including Akiva, manage to escape. (For the historical incident on which this is based, see Acre Prison break.) Akiva is fatally shot by British soldiers while evading a roadblock set up to catch the escaped prisoners. Ari, who was driving, is badly wounded. He makes his way to Abu Yesha, an Arab village where his lifelong friend, Taha, is the mukhtar. Kitty is brought there and treats his wound.
An independent Israel is now in plain view, but Arab nationals commanded by 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 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. The movie then ends with Ari, Kitty, and a Palmach contingent entering trucks and heading toward battle.
Cast
Paul Newman on
Exodus DVD cover
John Gielgud turned down the role of General Sutherland.[citation needed]
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 to ever receive that award to date. Oddly, the first notes of the great dramatic theme are identical to the opening theme of a somewhat obscure orchestral piece by Quincy Porter, New England Episodes, premiered in 1958 in Washington, DC.[citation needed]
- Cannes Film Festival
The film was screened at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the competition for the Golden Palm.[4]
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, 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"), techno-crossover pianist Maksim and T.I. as a sample for Bankhead. Trey Spruance of the Secret Chiefs 3 rescored 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 sample of the Exodus was used also in Ice-T´s song Exodus from the Album 7 Deadly Sin, and Nas's song "You're Da Man" from the album Stillmatic. A portion of the main title was included in a montage arranged by composer John Williams and performed at the 2002 Academy Awards ceremony.
Popular Culture
In "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" a Bob Dylan character says
To my knowledge there's just one man that's really and truly an American, that's George Lincoln Rockwell: I know for a fact he hates Commies 'cause he picketed the movie Exodus.[5]
Dylan performed this song in the early 60s, but it wasn't officially released until 1991's The Bootleg Series 1-3. El Da Sensei's song Crowd Pleasa uses the sample of Andy Williams-The Exodus Song
See also
References
- ^ Nordheimer, Jon (1976-09-11). "Dalton Trumbo, Film Writer, Dies; Oscar Winner Had Been Blacklisted". The New York Times: p. 17. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F7091EFE395C137B93C3A81782D85F428785F9&scp=3&sq=dalton%20trumbo%20exodus&st=cse. Retrieved 2008-08-11. "... it was Otto Preminger, the director, who broke the blacklist months later by publicly announcing that he had hired Mr. Trumbo to do the screenplay ..."
- ^ The Persuasion Explosion, Art Stevens, Acropolis Publishers, Washington DC, 1985, ISBN 0874917328 pp 104-5
- ^ Reel Bad Arabs, Jack Shaheen, Olive Branch Press 2001, ISBN 1-56656-388-7
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Exodus". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3241/year/1961.html. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
- ^ Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues, bobdylan.com
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