7 Dias em Entebbe

I think I saw the trailer for this once in recent months so it definitely wasn't on my radar at all. Had some time to kill today, so guess what? Was hoping for a solid thriller based on a real life event. Sadly, the film fails to tell a rather interesting story with the spark it probably deserves. I can see why this film sort of just snuck into theaters without a lot of promotion. Its just not very good, and is a forgettable film about an event that could have been adapted better.

The film follows the real life events of two German terrorists (Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann) who along with a group of Palestinian terrorists, hijack an airplane in 1976 in Entebbe, Uganda. Their hopes are to receive a ransom of 5 million for the passengers on board and the freedom of Palestinian soldiers captured in Israel. The film follows negotiation efforts and the ultimate retrieval of the hostages by the Israeli operative forces.

I'm not very familiar with a lot of Jose Padilha's work but his Robocop remake was a definite misfire. Even here we have an interesting event and two very talented co-leads but a story that is just so dull and boring. While the film is shot well, the merits of the writing fall very short. Its hard to care for what goes on when the film doesn't really attempt to entice you with any thrill, action, or moments to make it memorable.

The relevance of the film and incident is that it mirrors the hostility between Israel and Palestine today, a conflict that has stretched for decades. Other than that, Entebbe has good intentions but fails. It doesn't exactly have a voice or make a statement but just recreates the event in a half hearted way. The best part was that weird dance sequence performance that kept going on during the film.

5.5/10

Really intrigued by this rescue and also read books related to this hijacking. But the dance really created nonsense metaphor drama. Sorry but very pretentious. Anytime the dance comes on I just check my phone or use restroom except the last scene.

A completely good film ruined by intermixing a pathetic dance routine (and the music) into the main assault. What was the director thinking.

Most of us (including me), when we heard about the new film 7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE, thought to themselves "didn't they just make this film a few years ago...?" The answer is yes. A similar film to this - RAID ON ENTEBBE - was a TV movie made a few years ago - 42 years ago, to be precise. It starred Peter Finch, Martin Balsam, Jack Warden and good ol' Charles Bronson. Made a mere few months after the true events, this slapped together movie was an old-fashioned "shoot 'em up."

This film is most definitely not.

7 DAYS IN ENTEBBE tells the true story of the 1976 Air France Hijacking of (mostly) Israeli citizens that settle in Entebbe, Uganda (under the leadership of crazed dictator Idi Amin) - refusing to negotiate with terrorists, the Israeli government plan, stage and execute a daring rescue mission.

Sounds like a pretty good plot for a Charles Bronson shoot-em-up.

In this version, Director Jose Padilha (the 2014 remake of ROBOCOP) decides to focus most of his attention not on the hijacked Israeli citizens, but rather, a pair of German hijackers juxtaposed against the political infighting in Israel between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shimon Peres. The Israeli governmental infighting was interesting to watch with intriguing characters and cat-and-mouse back-stabbing politics while the plight of the kidnappers was underwritten and underwhelming. Consequently, this film was "just okay".

Oh...and it had about an hour-fifteen minutes of content stretched over an hour-forty-five minutes, so to stretch things out, Padilha decided to cut back and forth between the action (what there was of it) and a modern dance recital. Clearly he was trying a metaphor of the dance punctuating the emotions and actions elsewhere. It just didn't work for me.

Neither did this film. Skip this one and check out the Charles Bronson shoot-em-up.

Letter Grade C+

5 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)

In July 1976, an Air France flight from Tel-Aviv to Paris gets hijacked on a stopover in Athens. The leaders of the group are Brigitte Kuhlmann (Rosamund Pike) and book publisher Wilfried Böse (Daniel Brühl). They are German revolutionaries trying to reclaim the initiative after their group faced setbacks at home. They are joined by Palestinians looking for revenge against the Jewish state. They force the plane to fly to Entebbe, Uganda where they have friendly unstable dictator in President Idi Amin. In Israel, defense minister Shimon Peres (Eddie Marsan) pushes for aggressive action while Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is cautious in the face of overwhelming odds.

This true crime thriller is 2/3 great and 1/3 meh. Certainly, the hijacking is compelling and the two Germans are fascinating in their naive radicalism. They are over their heads as they slowly drown in the pool of their own making. Even a minor character like Idi Amin is terrific. The second great thread is the Israeli political leaders. Eddie Marsan is a great actor in a juicy role. The least compelling is the Israeli soldier and his dancer girlfriend Sarah. While her concern is still life and death, it pales in comparison to the other threads. The modern dance show is a disruption in the story flow especially in the climatic action third act. Cutting back and forth between the airport and the modern dance is simply a failed attempt at an artistic flourish. Doing the airport straight would be more intense and more compelling. Also, Netanyahu should probably be the leading soldier character in the movie rather than the kid with his girlfriend. Overall, I really like the 2/3 and the 1/3 doesn't sink it.