A Woman Called Golda

"A Woman Called Golda" is an excellent film, brilliantly told by her spokeswoman and Golda herself. It is a long film, being a miniseries, but there isn't one boring moment in the whole film. Ingrid Bergman, I so admired, as far as her acting goes, preferred to work on this film even though she was in a great deal of pain from the cancer that was ravaging her body at the time. I believe the film goes into almost every aspect of Golda's life and tells of everything she did to obtain peace for Palestine. She was always there whenever the people needed her even after her retirement - always raring to go, always ready to work to make peace. Ingrid Bergman was supreme in her role as Golda because, I feel, she was Swedish and she was playing the part of a Russian woman - in fact, she even looked exactly like Golda Meir. Excellent film and Ingrid Bergman won an Emmy for her performance posthumously. Hope you take the time to watch this one. A good family film that anyone can learn from.

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.

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.

Fine saga of a woman of great vision and fortitude. The picture doesn't sugar coat what Golda had to give up to become who she was and while it pained her to do it somehow she knew it was her destiny to have it happen. Ingrid is great as always, this makes it even more poignant that this was her final work it shows that had she lived there would have continued to be many years of extraordinary work ahead. Judy Davis' screen time as the young Golda is limited but she conveys the scrappy girl who became the indomitable woman. Also outstanding in his smallish role is Leonard Nimoy as Golda's husband. An excellent rendering of an important life.

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.