Exodus on DVD
By Jim Bray
The story of Jewish pilgrims trying to find a home in their
traditional homeland makes for a wonderful, powerful historical drama, but in
this case its captured on a lousy DVD.
Paul Newman stars as Ari Ben Cannon, an Israeli underground
commander who at films opening shows up in Cyprus to steer a group of
some six hundred refugees from a holding camp to a ship they plan to use to
sneak them into Palestine.
The time is the aftermath of World War II and all its horrors,
including of course the anti-Jewish Holocaust, and there is as yet no place for
the thousands upon thousands of displaced Jewish people to go. No one, it
appears, will have them.
Theyre desperately trying to carve out a homeland in
Palestine, their home in biblical times, so they can finally have a place where
they can live in peace without having to fear being rounded up and killed.
But it appears to them that the world seems to be conspiring
against them and, despite the fact that the fate of a Jewish state is being
considered by the United Nations (which, apparently, at that time had some
relevance), the Jewish people find themselves incarcerated in camps like the
one in Cyprus because the British who currently rule the Palestine area have no
place to put them.
With Ari as their leader, the 600 mount a hunger strike and force
and shame the British government to release the ship from their blockade and
let it head for Palestine. Once there, the fight for a homeland really
begins.
I have no idea how historically accurate Exodus may be, especially
since the movie is based on a novel, but it certainly feels right considering
my admittedly limited knowledge of events of that time. But its a moving
and at times gripping drama of a people who only want to be left alone, but who
throughout history have been victims of various haters and have had enough.
Not that the movie doesnt portray the Jewish people as
paragons of virtue - or all Arabs as bloodthirsty villains. Aris
childhood friend (played by John Derek) is an Arab - who ends up coming into
conflict with his own people over his love and respect for his friend and his
family. And a member of Aris family is a Jewish terrorist whose tactics
appear very similar to those being used today against the Jewish people by
Palestinians - and whose illegal and immoral tactics lead to him being
sentenced to death.
Dalton Trumbos screenplay imparts just the right feel to
Exodus, and Otto Premingers direction has crafted a three and a half hour
movie thats never slow and, though a lot of it is very talky, is
engrossing and involving. The performances are top notch, especially Sal Mineo
as an idealistic Jewish boy, Eva Marie Saint as a gentle gentile who becomes
Ari Ben Cannons love interest, Jill Haworth as a young Jewish girl who
becomes smitten by Mineo's character, and the late Sir Ralph Richardson as a
British commander with a conscience.
If you want to get a feel for how the middle East got to where it
is today, at least as told through Hollywoods filter (which is probably
no worse than the medias), Exodus fits as a piece of a set that would
include The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Lawrence
of Arabia, Schindlers List, with Exodus and
Cast a Giant Shadow at the end. It would be a movie marathon,
indeed, since none of these movies are particularly short, but it would be a
great one.
Unfortunately, for whatever dumb reason it may have, MGM has
inflicted a seriously substandard DVD onto an unsuspecting marketplace. Exodus
is, indeed, presented in widescreen, but it isnt anamorphic widescreen
enhanced for 16x9 TVs, so those whove bitten the bullet and shelled
out the cash for a new technology TV are going to be seriously disappointed.
Its a shame, too, because the images in this movie cry out for a large
screen presentation.
As such, if you watch it on a widescreen TV youll have to
zoom it to fill the screen and this will cost you resolution. The result is a
soft and pixilized picture with many artifacts. This is completely unacceptable
in a 2002 video release!
Likewise the audio, which is presented in its original
Stereo surround configuration, should have been remastered into
Dolby Digital 5.1. What we end up with here is a soundtrack that, despite its
use of the center front channel, has sounds all over the place, with lousy
localization and a general lack of acceptable quality for this day and age in
the video revolution. It also doesn't serve Ernest Gold's Oscar-winning score,
with its haunting theme, very well, either,
How can MGM do such a great job on some old movies (some of which,
arguably, dont deserve such treatment) while a widescreen epic like this
was ignored? Anti-semitism? Probably not, since the Jewish community is quite
large in Hollywood. More likely it was just boneheadedness, or a new executive
on board who doesnt understand the difference between
letterboxed and anamorphic.
Its a shame.
And the only extra you get is the theatrical trailer.
Exodus would make a fine special edition disc, with lots of
background material that can help put it into historical perspective - and
maybe MGM is planning one for down the road. I certainly hope so, because this
movie deserves to be seen but not on this seriously flawed DVD.
In the meantime, I can't recommend this as a "for purchase"
DVD.
Exodus, from MGM Home video
202 min. widescreen letterboxed (not 16x9 TV compatible), aspect ratio
2.35:1, Stereo Surround audio
Starring Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford,
Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo
Written by Dalton Trumbo
Produced and
directed by Otto Preminger
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