Originally Posted by
Trooper224
Well, that was better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but not by much.
This is what happens when the movie industry takes an actual historic event, full of enough genuine drama and intrigue for anyone, and decides to "interpret the real truth" as they like to say. I can understand what the production team was attempting to accomplish, they just failed miserably at it. The objective was obviously to present a more complicated and nuanced version of the events. Something more than the, "evil hijackers, heroic commandos" treatment you'd get from a Steven Segal or Chuck Norris flick. Unfortunately, big fails on all fronts.
The problem is that by trying to delve into all perspectives of the issue, none of them are well served. The only two characters you get to know in even the most basic sense are the two German extremists, played by Daniel Bruhl and Rosamond Pike. Bruhl's character is rather feckless and naieve throughout. He really seems to think that Israel will capitulate to their demands and never dreams that violence could be necessary. Pike's character is far more committed, until the end. Then, she seems to have an inexplicable turn of character in which she then believes they'll be killed and it was all a mistake. This 180 degree turn of the character seems to rest on the weak plot device that she's popping quaaludes throughout the movie, until Bruhl throws them across the room and she's forced to come down from her trip. Then it's, "oh fuck, where are we?" for the rest of it.
All of the other characters are just place fillers and you never really get to know them at all. The Israeli officials are just a bunch of old men sitting around bitching and whining. The commandos are just clothes hangers for their uniforms. When Yoni Netanyahu is killed it's no big deal, because you have no idea who he is if you're not up on the actual history. The only commando with anything to say is a young Lieutenant who seems to be there to add emotional weight, by way of his relationship with his dancer girlfriend.
Now we get to what everyone's been wondering about: the dancing.
An Israeli modern dance troupe is featured throughout, from the opening credits through to the raid. The Lieutenants girlfriend is a member of the company who serves as the typical female at home trope. The one who's questioning where his priorities lie and if it's all worth it, thereby making him ask the same questions. She looks great in a pair of shorts and leg warmers, but that's all I can say for the character. The whole relationship and the inclusion of the dance is obviously done to impart emotional impact, but it fails horribly. It winds up being a severe distraction in a movie that's already weak enough without any help.
The raid itself is hardly covered. Scenes of the commandos deploying from the C130's are interspersed with scenes from Hebraic All That Jazz. A huge artistic boondoggle. The whole sequence probably lasts less than a minute and a half. The young Lieutenant, whos commitment was openly questioned before deployment, jumps up and takes charge when Netanyahu is killed, while everyone else freezes like deer in the headlights. Again, a tired trope ill used. Dora Bloch, an elderly woman sent to the hospital and later killed by Amin's troops in revenge for the raid, is nowhere to be found. The film fails to lend any sense of risk or immediacy to the raid itself. It completely fails to project what a risk the operation was for the Israelis all the way around.
The film has been criticized as being pro Palestinian and anti Israel. I didn't get that sense and unless you're in the camp of, "The Jews are God's chosen people and Israel is always above reproach." I don't think you will either. The film makers tried to present a more nuanced and complex approach to the subject. The result is an unfocused mess of a movie that comes off like an expensive History Channel Docudrama.
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