Exodus
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DVD details
Actor: Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Paul Newman, Peter Lawford, Ralph RichardsonDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Dubbed)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 208 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-10-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Exodus
DVD Review: Otto Preminger revisited...an excellent film....
Summary: 4 Stars
I saw this film a long, long time ago (in a VHS, pan and scan copy, ugh), but I recently saw Otto Preminger's The Cardinal, which I really liked. I usually don't like Preminger's work, as I found it too long and too self important. But after seeing The Cardinal, I went back and revisited his work, starting with Exodus.
I like this film a lot more the 2nd time around. It wasn't perfect. The romance between Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint's characters smacks of contrived Hollywood romance, and there is no chemistry between them at all. Some of the dialogue is silly as well. But there are many magnificent things about this film. It's very well acted and directed. Preminger shot a lot of the scenes in long takes, and it gives the film an excellent pace. Preminger's mise en scene is quite striking at times. There's a scene where Sal Mineo is talking to his girlfriend about how he wants to get to Palenstine and kill the British, and it's filmed all in one take. It's a medium close up of Sal, his girlfriend, and Paul Newman standing in the background. Otto lets it play out without a cut, and it all works. The scene where Sal Mineo is interrogated by a Jewish "terrorist/freedom" organization is one of the most powerful in the film. It goes on for a long time, yet it's necessary and it's beautifully acted and directed. The prison break out scene is done with minimal dialogue, and is very powerful as well. The scene where Sal Mineo escapes from British soldiers after blowing up the King David hotel is really strikingly shot as well. I also liked the scene where Lee J. Cobb announces that the UN has voted to give the Jewish people their own state in Palenstine. Otto doesn't show any generic crowd shots; he just shows the whole crowd (thousands of people), and it's pretty overwhelming. Ernest Gold's excellent music score is used sparingly. As with The Cardinal, there are no sledgehammer music cues in this film, which is a welcome change from most Hollywood films.
The film was shot on location in Israel in 1960. It wasn't really easy to do then, as Israel was still a young country with violence occurring every day, and all the equipment had to be imported from Hollywood, as Israel had no real film industry to speak of. Despite the logistics of the film, Otto shot the film in a mere 13 weeks. This is also the film where the McCarthy blacklist was broken permanently. The screenwriter was Dalton Trumbo, a known leftist and one of the Hollywood Ten. He was writing under a pseudonym, and Preminger had had enough. He announced that he was giving credit to Trumbo for his script. Contrary to popular belief, Preminger broke the blacklist first. Many have written that Kirk Douglas broke it on Spartacus (Trumbo also wrote that script), but it was Preminger who took the important first step, and Kirk took the 2nd step. I also admired the ending of the film, which is really dark, ambiguous, sad, yet realistic. It's not a contrived Hollywood happy ending, but an adult one, and one that, unfortunately, is still valid today. As for the DVD itself, it's a barebones one with a less than stellar transfer and muddy sound. There are scenes that looked washed out and grainy, and others that look superb. MGM didn't really do a good job here, and it's a shame, as this film deserves a deluxe treatment.
Aside from a few flaws, this is an excellent film, one that I am glad I revisited. It's worth checking out for anyone who wants to appreciate Otto Preminger and the ways of old Hollywood.
Description of Exodus
Inspired by Leon Uris' international bestseller, this "extraordinarily moving" (The New Republic) chronicle of the rebirth of a people and the establishment of a nation is the ultimate experience in human drama. Nominated* for three Academy Awards® and winner* for Best Score, Exodus is an "exciting, dramatic, scenic, panoramic and deeply moving" (New York Daily News) masterpiece. Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman), a commander of the Israeli underground, manages to lead 600 Jews from the detention camps of Cyprus onto a large freighter bound for Palestine. But British forces soon learn of his plan and insist that he turn back. Undaunted, Ari and his passengers refuse to give up, risking their lives for the greater cause of Israeli independence.Otto Preminger's 1960 adaptation of Leon Uris's novel is a sprawling 220-minute tale of the founding of modern Israel, starring Paul Newman as a Resistance leader. The film works best as an example of Preminger's estimable skill with all levels of drama and action, but as a reflection upon history it is compromised by stereotypes, unpersuasive relationships, and a certain moral ambivalence about issues related to the subject. There are good and exciting sequences, however, particularly one involving an effort to break through a British blockade and get to the homeland. --Tom Keogh
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