A História de Hanna

I'm sorry to disagree because I really love the story and the heroine. The movie tells a spectacular story. It's hard to make a movie as good as the story of Hannah Senesh, so it is understandable that it falls a bit short. It is worth watching and could be a good tool to teach children with. There is a scene or two of brutality but the honor of this young paratrooper, a model for feminism decades before there was such a thing as politically correct, comes through despite the failings of the director and writers.

Hannah's War is a compelling historical drama based on the true story of Hannah Senesh, a Hungarian Jew, who was parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe in WW2. After being captured in the almost as soon as she entered Hungary, she was executed after being tortured to reveal certain Allied codes (which she did not do). The film captures her sacrifice very well.

The actors generally portrayed their roles well.

Great storyline, although with a dark theme.

Well worth a view!

The cinematography is brilliant, some of it (the seashore scenes in Israel) visual poetry. Donald Pleasance is superb as the smiling villain, a character he has done so well in other films. But on the whole, this movie is overwrought, overly long and a bit over the top. I've seen operas where people don't take as long to die as they do here. Are these real people and is this a true story? The closing credits lead you to believe that. But I was a little suspicious. It wouldn't be the first time Hollywood has used phoney "what happened to them" capsules in the closing credits to enhance a fictional story. I'm also impressed how Hanna keeps her lipstick perfect right through basic training, a parachute jump into enemy territory, riding with the partisans and being tortured. But then thats Hollywood I guess. Overall it's quite a watchable film despite these criticisms.

Schlockmeister Menahem Golan must have been real passionate about this project, because he not only produced the movie, he directed and co-wrote the screenplay. However, I am pretty sure the movie would have been a lot better had he simply stuck to producing. Although the movie runs about 150 minutes, in all that time I never got a good idea why Golan felt the central character had a story worth telling. She's just shown in one guerrilla mission before getting captured and spending about half of the running time in jail. Plus, the movie never gets into the head of this character, revealing what she really feels and thinks. It doesn't help that the musical score is awful, an electronic score that at times sounds like it's ripping off the song "What A Feeling" from the movie FLASHDANCE! I guess the movie looks okay for a limited budget, but acceptable production values will only take you so far.

This is one of the best war movies I've seen. This movie shows how much some people had to fight for their people during the war. Good movie to watch.

-MICHAL