Opération Thunderbolt : L'Esprit d'Entébbé

Golan & Globus at their best, which is to say it's a mediocre movie. A one and a half hour movie crammed into two hours.

I was surprised they didn't have an epilogue, since it's history it would have been nice. Not nearly as good or as historic as "Raid on Entebbe."

It's only bad enough to be entertaining in a few spots. Klaus Kinski is wasted and Sybil Danning is dressed with HUGE sunglasses and a potato sack for a dress.

Not that I've seen all that many Israeli action movies, but it's definitely the bets one I've seen. Yes, this movie is dated. It relies on stereotypes and is full of cliches like the "oh-no!" quick-zoom. The dialogue is sometimes silly and there are a variety of flubs, both in continuity and historical accuracy. But, it's fun! From the music (which is so wonderfully 70's) to the memorably cheesy lines, and of course the sheer audacity of the mission that gives the movie its title, it all makes for an exciting and surprisingly emotional film. It's also the only film I know of where most scenes were shot twice so it could be released in two different languages. There is a Hebrew version out there (recently released on DVD, but hard to find) and an English version (first released on VHS and Beta in 1984, after which there may or may not have been a subsequent 1991 VHS re-release). And neither version is dubbed! Gotta love it.

This 1977 Oscar nominated film in the category of "Best Foreign Film" is based on the true story of the rescue mission led by a young Israeli Army officer, Jonathan "Yoni" Netanyaho that astounded the world. Yoni's brother, Benjamin Netanyaho would go on to become the Prime Minister of Israel. This film still stands today with the other films about the Entebbe rescue as an inspiration of what can be accomplished when heroic people of honor and determination, the Israel Defense Forces, come face to face with the forces of evil, in this case German and Palestinian terrorists. There is no fluff in this movie, just an honest portrayal of heroism by the innocent civilian hostages, the Air France flight crew and the IDF soldiers, pilots and flight crews. To truly define this film I would like to quote in part a letter from Benjamin Netanyaho which come with each 25th Anniversary DVD. "........The story of Yoni and his comrades in Entebbe sheds light on the other heroes of Israel, known and unsung alike, who through their sacrifice and courage delivered our people time and again from the abyss of disaster, in the wars of Israel as at Entebbe. I can only hope that their great spirit, as captured in this film, will serve to meet the great challenges that still await us."

Following my recent viewing of Israeli director Moshe' Mizrahi's French movie MADAME ROSA – the 1977 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film – I decided to watch the only remaining contender in that category sooner rather than later. As it turned out, the official Israeli entry was the weakest of the five final selections and I am guessing that its sheer topicality – being based on a very recent hijacking episode that had grabbed world headlines – was what made it jump ahead of other notable competitors among the 24 international Oscar submissions, namely Larisa Shepitko's THE ASCENT, Wim Wenders' THE American FRIEND, Bo Widerberg's THE MAN ON THE ROOF (1976), Paul Verhoeven's SOLDIER OF ORANGE and Krzysztof Zanussi's CAMOUFLAGE.

For the record, my relative disappointment with OPERATION THUNDERBOLT has just been exacerbated by my discovering that I had acquired and watched the U.S. Theatrical Version (culled from a TV screening on the MGM channel) – which has characters mostly speaking their lines in English, barring the occasional lapses into French and German – rather than the original version which has characters (be they Israeli, German, French or African) rightfully speaking in their native tongue...and which is available as a "Full Movie" video on "You Tube" and on a renowned torrent download site! Having said that, craggy-faced chief hijacker Klaus Kinski's equally distinctive voice can be heard in both versions but, apart from his trigger-happy cohort Sybil Danning and nemesis Assaf Dayan (as the Israeli commando second-in-command), he is the only recognizable name in the cast...that is, if one is to discount the personal, silent appearances of the Israeli politicians that faced the crisis in real life, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres; in any case, the acting honours here are stolen by Yehoram Gaon as the ill-fated commando leader Yonatan Netanyahu (who, at one point, is amusingly seen reading Alistair MacLean's "Circus" - a novel I also read myself as a kid). This sharply contrasts with the contemporaneous, star-studded, rival re-enactments of the events for U.S. TV, namely VICTORY AT ENTEBBE (1976; which I had intended watching last year for Burt Lancaster's centenary but had to jettison it due to time constraints) and RAID ON ENTEBBE (1977) – both of which, incidentally, also exist in longer and shorter edits.

While the fact that the viewer is aware from the outset of the narrative's outcome can perhaps lead to the film feeling rather predictable, the presence of a surprisingly restrained Kinski (billed "Kinsky" in the all-English opening credits!) and Danning make up for that; on the other hand, while the final assault on Entebbe airport occurs towards the very end of the film and can thus appear to be a long time coming, the swift depiction of it is quite electrifying (especially the sight of Kinski's twitching body as it expires early on in a hail of machine-gun bullets). Seeing the names of commercial 1980s Hollywood entity Cannon Group founders Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus among the makers of this film somewhat undermine its proposed authenticity (shot with the full co-operation of the Israeli government and Air Force); indeed OPERATION THUNDERBOLT (which, decades afterwards, also became the name of a video game!) succeeds more as an action movie than a psychological or political thriller which might not have been congenial to this particular subject but serves as a veritable template for the later Cannon Group star-studded blockbuster THE DELTA FORCE (1986; also helmed by Golan and easily Chuck Norris' most prestigious star vehicle) complete with overblown rousing music throughout.

Mivtza Yehonatan (or as it is better known around the world, Entebbe Operation), in which the Israeli army managed to take over the Entebbe airport in Uganda, to free all hostages of the kidnapped Air France plane and to bring (almost) everybody home in one piece, is a story told a million times over, was made into a very bad Hollywood action movie and was used as the basis for countless B-movies. This version, however, is unique. To begin with, many of the key characters of the operation (Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin and Yigal Alon, all of whom played key rolls in the decision making process of this operation) were acting as themselves. Secondly, the Israeli army actively participated in the making of the movie, thus making the level of realism higher than most other action movies ever made. Third, Yoram Globus, in his break-through movie (that opened the gates of big-time Hollywood for him) proves that he can direct a good action movie, based on a great story, and coming out on top of his game.

All in all, a great movie to watch.

9 out of 10 in my book-keeping.