| Created 007.11.16; Updated 2007.11.16 |
This article originally appeared in Hollywood Today.
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O Jerusalem...New York friends fight on opposing sides
in Israel 3 stars *** HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 10/24/07 — "The vast array of screenplays developed surrounding this project spreads out over three meters in my archives!" says best-selling 'O Jerusalem' book co-author Dominique Lapierre. Costa-Gavras, George Simenon, and John Briley, who had just written 'Gandhi' for Richard Attenborough, all tried. 'Exorcist' director William Friedkin and others took turns at it. It would be forty years before director and co-writer Elie Chouraqui could bring this story of the founding of the State of Israel to the screen. More... |
Photos Copyright Samuel Goldwyn Films
Chouraqui first read the book when he was 25, a few years after it was published in 1971. "I was bowled over by the book's approach to this great history, a human approach", says Chouraqui. "For once, in this type of story, this historical story, we lived through the conflict as close as possible to the characters. Men, women, Jews, Arabs, Christians...we were in their hearts. It was impossible to shoot in Jerusalem, in Israel or any Arab country, for security reasons you can imagine. I did not know what to do anymore when an Israeli decorator, a 70-year-old man who had had lived through the conflict, advised me to go to Rhodes. The island of Rhodes resembles the Palestine of the time. We reconstructed Jerusalem just as it was in 1948."
O Jerusalem is expertly lensed by DP Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci, who was the second unit DP on Under the Tuscan Sun. Although not as sweeping, O Jerusalem manages to evoke a sense of Lawrence of Arabia. It's really the actors' movie, with JJ Feild and Said Taghmaoui delivering stellar performances. Feild is Bobby Goldman, a New York "digger" or archeologist who goes to fight for Israel. Said Taghmaoui is Said Chahine, Field's Palestinian friend who returns home to fight. Both actors are charming, creating sympathy for both sides of the conflict.
The history is fascinating, as are the battles to relieve the beleaguered Israelis. Ian Holm, as Ben Gurion, vows to build a road to bypass the Arabs and take relief trucks through the mountains. That we never see that road is where the film's direction fails. A little too much is made of the personal lives at the expense of telling the sweep of history. Feild's tormented girlfriend Hadassah, played by Maria Papas, gives a moment of unintended irony when she puffs on a cigarette as she talks about how fiercely she clung to life in a Nazi concentration camp.
With such top notch actors, it's tragic that the director makes the cliché that they smoke after every dramatic moment in the film. The pro-tobacco message is inappropriate for a film that could otherwise be recommended for showing the dramatic history of Israel and Palestine.
Running Time: 1 hr. 30 min.
Release Date: October 24th, 2007 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for some war scenes
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films