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Exodus (1960)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
15 December 1960 (USA) morePlot:
The theme is the founding of the state of Israel. The action begins on a ship filled with Jewish immigrants... more | full synopsisAwards:
Won Oscar. Another 3 wins & 6 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(10 articles)
This Week On DVD and Blu-ray: September 22, 2009 (From Rope Of Silicon. 22 September 2009, 12:19 AM, PDT)
Mm@M: Joan Crawford, Caterpillar Woman
(From FilmExperience. 30 August 2009, 7:00 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
Hard to View Today as it Was in 1960; Best Remembered Now for its Score more (55 total)Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Paul Newman | ... | Ari Ben Canaan | |
| Eva Marie Saint | ... | Kitty Fremont | |
| Ralph Richardson | ... | Gen. Sutherland | |
| Peter Lawford | ... | Maj. Caldwell | |
| Lee J. Cobb | ... | Barak Ben Canaan | |
| Sal Mineo | ... | Dov Landau | |
| John Derek | ... | Taha | |
| Hugh Griffith | ... | Mandria | |
| Gregory Ratoff | ... | Lakavitch | |
| Felix Aylmer | ... | Dr. Lieberman | |
| David Opatoshu | ... | Akiva Ben Canaan | |
| Jill Haworth | ... | Karen | |
| Marius Goring | ... | Von Storch | |
| Alexandra Stewart | ... | Jordana Ben Canaan | |
| Michael Wager | ... | David Ben Ami |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
208 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
2.20 : 1 moreCertification:
Iceland:12 | West Germany:12 (f) | USA:Approved ( certificate #19611) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:PGFun Stuff
Trivia:
Sal Mineo actively sought the role of Dov Landau despite being told that he did not look Jewish or anything like the character. moreGoofs:
Plot holes: General Sutherland tells Kitty that Tom should not have gone on what became his fatal photojournalist assignment because it was a minor border incident where Jews blow up some bridges. Kitty shows the General the last photo taken by Tom of a fighter strafing the truck the General and Tom were riding in taken by Tom from an obviously dangerous vantage point. The Jews had no fighter aircraft. moreQuotes:
[first lines]Cypriot guide: The island of Cyprus, madame. World famous for beauty, and long, tragic history. Been conquered many times, conquered by Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians; also conquered by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Turks. Purchased from Turkey by your esteemed self, the British Empire. All Cyprus most wanted the British.
Kitty Fremont: [correcting him] I'm an American.
Cypriot guide: Fond of Americans, also; we Cypriots are fond of everybody.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Michael Palin/Eugene Record (#3.16)" (1978) moreSoundtrack:
The Exodus song moreFAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (55 total)
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Seeing "Exodus" early in the 21st century, one is robbed of the experience that moviegoers of the early 1960s would have had; it's impossible to see a movie about the birth of Israel now without the perspective of the Six-Day War of 1967, which changed the perception many non-Jews had of Israel. That, and the events that the Six-Day War led to, have eroded the moral assurance that many of the main characters of "Exodus" espouse about Israel and its founding, and would eventually lead to the moral quagmire found 45 years later in Steven Spielberg's "Munich." Today, "Munich" is much closer to the grayness of who is right or wrong in the modern-day Middle East than the black-and-white assumptions that drive the characters of "Exodus" in 1947 -- or its creators in 1960.
And it's likewise much harder to accept Paul Newman in the role of a Jewish freedom fighter; though he was already a big star in 1960 (which was no doubt the reason that he was chosen for the part), one cannot evaluate his performance here without recalling all the other high points of his career that were still ahead of him -- "The Hustler," "Cool Hand Luke," "Hombre," and of course his two big triumphs with Robert Redford, as Butch and Sundance and in "The Sting" -- not to mention a career that kept humming even into the 1990s. He's hardly remembered for this role at all today, and though even he isn't in every scene in a sweeping epic like this, it's hard to look at the movie without remembering all that would come later.
What stands out today more than Newman's performance, therefore, are the many secondary characters -- Sal Mineo as the tortured survivor of Auschwitz with secrets that lead him to the Irgun (and a performance that would earn him his second and last Oscar nomination); David Opatoshu as a Menachem Begin-like figure who believes violence is better than negotiation; and Jill Haworth, all of 15 at the time, and who would have a bevy of ingénue roles into the 1960s, but whose career would dribble out by the end of the next decade.
In particular, this was a great role for Opatoshu, who is probably best remembered today for his many guest shots on television (like Newman, most that came after this, in everything from "Twilight Zone" and "Mission:Impossible" to "Star Trek" and "Hawaii Five-O"). Though he is recognizable for those roles, it's worth remembering that he came out of Yiddish Theater and was a controlled, subtle performer who rarely got the kind of meaty role that he had here -- and one that no doubt was important to him.
So, while it's mainly remembered today for Ernest Gold's stirring theme music, "Exodus" is interesting as a window into a different time and a different way of thinking -- both about its subject matter and its main character . . . and the once and future star who played him.