A Woman Called Golda

This is one of those rare films in which you do not see an actor or actress performing a role-you see only the character they become. For example, when you see Tom Cruise in a film, you never once see the character; all you see is Tom Cruise playing a role. In playing Golda Meir, Ingrid Bergman becomes the character, and all traces of Bergman disappear. Very few performers have that ability.

The fact that the film tells a real story about a real person and real events simply makes the movie all that much better.

I am old enough to remember some of the events portrayed in this movie, but I watched it with someone who was not, and who, moreover, had never learned anything about the history of the modern state of Israel in school. Which is why this film should be a must see for everyone.

It's sad to watch the miniseries biopic A Woman Called Golda, since Ingrid Bergman was suffering from breast cancer during filming and died before she could accept her Emmy award. She knew it would be her last role, and some of the scenes when Golda talks about her mortality and legacy are tough to watch.

If you're interested in Israeli history or want to learn about Golda Meir's life, from her life as a young girl to her retirement and death, this is an educational miniseries. Judy Davis plays young Golda (and she's a very good likeness to Ingrid), who gets romanced by Leonard Nimoy even though she's a feminist and doesn't want her eventual place to be the kitchen. The story is told in lengthy flashbacks narrated by Anne Jackson (who plays Golda's friend and colleague) as an elderly Golda gives a lecture to elementary school kids. It's a well made two-parter, especially when real footage is spliced in, but it isn't exactly enjoyable. For Ingrid fans, I'd recommend a movie when she's in better health.

In a life and a film of said life full of ironies, Ingrid Bergman who was suffering from cancer got to play the life story of another cancer sufferer, one who lived with the disease and did her best work with it hanging overhead. Judy Davis and Ingrid Bergman played a younger and older version of Golda Meir, first female Prime Minister of the state of Israel and a role model for the human race.

Before writing this review I checked the Wikipedia article on Meir and I can attest the film is a truly factual account of her life. It is told in flashback as Meir is appearing at her old grade school in Milwaukee where she immigrated to as a child, escaping the pogroms of Czarist Russia in Kiev where she was born. And the story begins there where a young frightened girl hides and forms the conviction that she would dedicate her life to Zionism. Stories like that are what made the backbone of the future state of Israel.

When Davis was playing the younger Meir, named Meyersohn then, she had been wooed and married to Leonard Nimoy who followed her to the territory of Palestine under British mandate then and lived on a Kibbutz. Her iron will and drive made her rise to the leadership of that Kibbutz and her career was on its way. She also had two children and eventually separated from Nimoy who resented taking second place to her vision. Israel, it's founding and preservation came first and always.

By the time of the Israeli independence and the war for its creation with five Arab neighboring states Bergman has taken the role. She is a regal and commanding presence as Golda Meir. Bergman and Meir almost blend in what turned out to be Ingrid Bergman's farewell performance. Some players sadly go out playing in some awful films like Bette Davis or Errol Flynn. In Bergman's case she got a part every bit as good as her Oscar winning roles in Anastasia, Gaslight, and Murder On The Orient Express. She's nothing short of magnificent and the Emmy she got for this made for TV film was well earned.

Israel still waits for the day that her Arab neighbors will decide whether they love their children more than they hate the Jews as Bergman so eloquently put it. Until that day comes may Israel produce such leaders as Golda Meir who I like to think of as the founding mother of Israel.

This film is living history and should be seen and reseen by all.

This story shows triumphs as well as tragedies. This is Ingrid Berman and Leonard Nimoy at their best. Young Golda spends her life inspired by the words of a Jewish sage. She takes these words to heart, and makes them the driving force for her life. She is stubborn, intelligent, and very human. Her early years in Russia make her more enlightened than other American Jews of the day. She has a first-hand knowledge of persecution in Europe that few American Jews can understand. At a time when American Jews prefer to "blend-in" and avoid the J word in public; Golda is driven to go to Palestine and build a homeland in a simple way. She has no way of knowing that her talents and intelligence will catapult her to the center of the world stage from the rebirth of a small and poor country in a very rough part of the globe.

If ever there was a prime example as to how a woman should conduct herself,in both private and political life;it is Golda.The integrity,selflessness,humanity and dignity is supreme. She was the finest modern example of Rightiousness I have seen in my (almost) 70 years of life.Golda and Miss Bergman herself were dying of cancer as the movie was being made,and I can only imagine the difficulties of the demands of just filming a movie while in "good health" can draw from an actor/actress;what a Woman they both were.Both will always be my "Heros" and the most shining example of what a woman can do to better Life itself for humanity.May G-D Bless both there souls and give them their JUST rewards.