Mivtsa Yonatan (1977)

Director:

Menahem Golan

Writers:

Ken Globus (dialogue)
Menahem Golan (writer)

Release Date:

27 January 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Tagline:

The world watched... The world waited... And then the world cheered

Plot:

In July 1976, an Air France flight from Tel-Aviv to Paris via Athens was hijacked and forced to land in Entebbe...

Plot Keywords:

Hostage | Uganda | Terrorist | Israel | Terrorism

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Yehoram Gaon	...	Col. Yonatan Netanyahu
Gila Almagor	...	Nurit Aviv
Assi Dayan	...	Shuki (as Assaf Dayan)
Klaus Kinski	...	Wilfried Boese
Sybil Danning	...	Halima
Arik Lavie	...	Gen. Dan Shomron
Shmuel Rodensky	...	Family Representative
Shaike Ophir	...	Gadi Arnon (as Shai K. Ophir)
Reuven Bar-Yotam	...	Avraham Ben-David
Gabi Amrani	...	Maj. Gen. Benny Peled (as Gaby Amrani)
Mark Heath	...	Idi Amin Dada
Henry Czarniak	...	Michel Bacos (as Henri Czarniak)
Rolf Eden	...	Air France Co-Pilot
Shoshana Shani	...	Alma Raviv
Oded Teomi	...	Dan Zamir

Also Known As:

Entebbe: Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Thunderbolt

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

Israel

Language:

Hebrew | English | German | Arabic

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Eilat, Israel

Trivia:

Col. Yonatan Netanyahu was the older brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, the future Israeli prime minister.

Goofs:

Continuity: Exterior shots of an actual Air France Airbus A300 are accurately used at the beginning of the movie. Once the plane lands in Benghazi and for the rest of the movie, a Boeing 707 in grossly inaccurate Air France colors is shown, supposedly depicting the same aircraft.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Medurat Hashevet (2004)

Soundtrack:

Eretz Tzvi

Accurately historically, keeps the rhythm to the very end

Accurately historically, keeps the rhythm to the very end. Seems even better than the two other versions of it. I liked it very much. It was a good idea and implementation the usage of real video of Israeli leaders. The film describes the Operation Entebbe, which took place on the night of July 3 and early morning of July 4, 1976. Originally called Operation Thunderbolt by the Israeli military who planned it and carried it out, and it was subsequently renamed Operation Yonatan after the raid commander, Col. Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, the only Israeli soldier to die in the raid. "Yoni" was the brother of the former Israeli primer minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of the Likud party. The Israeli singer and actor Yehoram Gaon played Col. Netanyahu and there is a good acting by the German actor Klaus Kinski as the leader of the terrorist gang. A good war film but more than that a must for those who like films on international affairs.