Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful and inspiring.
Review: A very powerful and moving epic of the challenges faced by the founders of the State of Israel. It portrays the conflicting emotions of the various individuals, and the fear of annihilation. It does a very good job too of showing the ambivilance on the part of at least some of the British occupiers and Arabs towards the Jews of Palestine.
Rating:
Summary: The movie Exodus meant a lot to me
Review: I was in the 8th grade when I read the book and saw the movie. Exodus introduced me to an area of information that I had not been exposed to. I had never known a Jewish person. There was a lot of anti-semitism in my home and town. I read about the holocaust. This story led me to the greater world.
Rating: 
Summary: Well Intentioned But Unexpectedly Awkward
Review: Early in the film, while discussing the squabbling between Jews and Arabs over Palestine, an exasperated Eva Marie Saint sighs and asks "How is it all going to end?" How indeed! It is a question the world has asked for more than half a century, and to date there is no answer in sight.
Concerning the creation of the Jewish state of Israel, the 1958 Leon Uris novel EXODUS was among the great bestsellers of its era and remains widely read to this day. The 1960 film version was also widely admired at the time of its release--but it is seldom seen today. There is a reason for that. In spite of its reputation, the film is remarkably slapdash. The cinematography is poor, lacking arresting visuals and often so sloppy that the shadows of the boom mikes are visible here, there, and everywhere throughout the film. The sound mix is also quite poor, with post-production effects as much off the mark as they are on. But the great flaws here are the script and the cast.
Written for the screen by Dalton Trumbo, the script has a very artifical and very talky quality. This might be overlooked if Trumbo actually had anything to say in the process--but he does not, and a remarkably gifted cast struggles vainly against one artificial line after another. Paul Newman is horrifically miscast; Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, and Lee J. Cobb fare a bit better, but Jill Haworth is chiefly memorable for giving the single worst performance in the film. As for Sal Mineo's much lauded performance, today it seems extremely theatrical.
Even so, EXODUS would remain passable were it not for the incredibly niave brand of Zionism the film adopts. More than fifty years later after endless wars, waves of terrorism, and failed peace talks we all know that it was NEVER as simple as this movie would have us believe. When all is said and done, the most memorable thing about EXODUS is the Academy Award-winning score by Ernest Gold, which really is as good as every one says it is.
As for the DVD itself, it is truly a no-frills effort. The transfer is merely tolerable; the sound leans toward poor throughout. The only bonus feature is the original trailer; English, French, and Spanish subtitles are also available. Final thought: it has moments of interest and on rare occasions even brilliance, but those moments are few and far between. Best left to those who remember it fondly from its 1960 debut.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Rating: 
Summary: 1960 was a long time ago - still holds up however
Review: When viewing this movie it is important to remember that the events it mythologizes happened only a dozen years before. The Six-days war of 1967 was still in the future, as was the Yom Kippur war of 1973, the Camp David Peace Accords with Sadat (and Sadat's assassination), the 1972 Olympic murders, and the various Intifadas. So, it was a time of beginnings and hope with the horrors of the holocaust part of the life experience of everyone involved in the founding of Israel.
The book was amazingly popular, the movie had a strong cultural impact, and the theme music was part of the popular culture for years. Is it a great movie? Probably not. Certainly, it would be edited differently if made today. Like many popular pieces taken out of their time certain aspects of the story seem artificial, like the whole of the Eva Marie Saint character. She seems to be there to give the non-Jewish audience a romantic connection to the story. Not that Eva Marie Saint does a bad job; it is just that she seems unnecessary today.
However, it is an enjoyable movie. My eleven and thirteen year olds were captivated by it and holding their attention for over three hours is a testimony to the power the movie still retains.
I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the print transfer and that there was NO booklet about the movie in the package, nor any extras about the making of the movie. I remember the program that was sold in theaters that should be reproduced when someone gets around to making a higher quality DVD of this movie.
Rating:
Summary: 'With the help of G_d, I know I can be strong'
Review: Words from the theme song of Exodus written by Pat Boone.
I had heard instrumental versions of this song on some albums that my parents had and have always thought that it was the theme song for The Ten Commandments produced by Cecil B. DeMille. I first heard the actual words sung by Marty Goetz on a CD I recently purchased. When I realized Otto Preminger produced this film in 1960, I had to see it.
This modern day Exodus story, told in the novel written by Leon Uris, takes place in 1947 right before the U.N. voted on partitioning palestine into jewish and arab areas. (I've discovered that 75% of that land given to the jews was desert). The plight of the jews was so pathetic then following the holocaust they had so recently survived. This movie captures, however, the jews' indomitable spirit documented throughout scripture and historical records. I've not read the book but have been told it contains a lot more detail than the movie. Regardless of how you view events going on in Israel, past and present, one must realize how pivotal this time period was in the creation and survival of the nation of Israel.
Paul Newman plays Ari Ben Canaan, a Sabra, a palestinian born jew who falls in love with a vacationing American nurse played by Eva Marie Saint. (A sabra is a fruit endemic to Israel which has a prickly, tough exterior but a sweet interior). Ari's task is to smuggle jewish lives into palestine safely from Cyprus. To do so, he must sometimes rely on illegitimate means, for example, when he states they need a jeep and seeing one not far from the dock which belonged to a high ranking church official ordered that they "steal it, paint it, hide it".
This movie is one of the most moving, beautiful films I've ever seen, and actually I don't see it as being anti-palestinian, since one of Ari's close friends is a palestinian muslim. The words to the song could be seen that way since they begin with 'This land is mine, G_d gave this land to me'. However, realizing how tenuous their situation was, since noone wanted to accept them into their country, those words can't be understood to be threatening or aggressive. I can't believe this movie did not win more awards.
Rating: 
Summary: Where are the pompadours?
Review: This is one of the best films of all time. With Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, and Lee J. Cobb, and Sal Mineo, among the ensemble cast, it doesn't get any better than this. The movie tracks the crew of a ship which ultimately wants to go to Israel- they are Jews from Europe who want to repatriate, and Paul Newman is highlighted as the son of Lee J. Cobb, who represents Ben Gurion.There's lots of action in this movie, and the additional casting of Peter Lawford as an American attache is real interesting as well. There's intrigue, a prison break, romance, a great soundtrack, and an ending which points to the headlines of today. A marvelous film, and highly recommended!!
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