Victory at Entebbe (1976) (TV)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Marvin J. Chomsky

Writer:

Ernest Kinoy (writer)

Release Date:

13 December 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History | Thriller

Plot:

An Air France airplane is hijacked by the PLO due the large number of Israeli and Jewish passengers...

Plot Keywords:

Airplane | Jewish | Captain | Hotel | Boyfriend Girlfriend Relationship

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Primetime Emmys. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Helmut Berger	...	German Terrorist
Theodore Bikel	...	Yakov Shlomo
Linda Blair	...	Chana Vilnofsky
Kirk Douglas	...	Hershel Vilnofsky
Richard Dreyfuss	...	Colonel Yonatan 'Yonni' Netanyahu
Stefan Gierasch	...	General Mordecai Gur
David Groh	...	Benjamin Wise
Julius Harris	...	President Idi Amin
Helen Hayes	...	Etta Grossman-Wise
Anthony Hopkins	...	Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
Burt Lancaster	...	Shimon Peres
Christian Marquand	...	Captain Dukas
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Edra Vilnofsky
Jessica Walter	...	Nomi Haroun
Harris Yulin	...	General Dan Shomron

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

David L. Wolper Productions

Trivia:

It was in production at about the same time as Raid on Entebbe (1976) (TV), another TV production about the same incident. The shows aired on American TV less than a month apart.

Goofs:

Continuity: The footage used to depict flight 139 on the ground shows a plane with the test color scheme Air France adopted only on its Airbus A300 (light blue line under the windows). All the other scenes show the older Air France colors (navy cheat-line on the windows).

Quotes:

Benjamin Wise: What are you reading?
Etta Grossman-Wise: Agatha Christie.
Benjamin Wise: You read that one in Tel Aviv!
Etta Grossman-Wise: Um-hum, I know. But fortunately, I have just gotten older and absent-minded enough to have forgotten who the murderer is!

Movie Connections:

Version of Mivtsa Yonatan (1977)

The terrors inflicted by Idi Amin would make an exceptional movie...but not the one here

In late June 1976, Air France flight 139--which had some 240 passengers on-board traveling from Athens to Paris--was hijacked by armed Arab terrorists who re-routed the plane to Entebbe, Uganda. All-star political adventure, filmed inexplicably on videotape (later transferred, with poor results, to film), was shown on ABC-TV just a few months ahead of NBC's version of the story, "Raid on Entebbe"; it was a rush job to beat the clock, and it shows. The harrowing facts of the ordeal have a tough time making an impact here, what with Ernest Kinoy's teleplay whipped up on the spot and Julius Harris stepping in for Godfrey Cambridge at the eleventh hour as dictator Idi Amin. The casting is certainly interesting; these stars must have had a vested interest in the proceedings and felt a great need to be a part of the experience, even if three-dimensional roles weren't exactly waiting for them (Kirk Douglas and Elizabeth Taylor, in particular, are poorly used). Some suspense and excitement near the finale, but it's long and talky when it should have been a gripping docu-drama.