March 16, 2018, - 2:15 pm

7 Days in Entebbe – Disgusting Palestinian Propaganda

By Debbie Schlussel

Israel’s 1976 raid on the Entebbe, Uganda airport is one of the most daring, heroic, and successful rescue missions ever. And the trailer for the movie, “7 Days in Entebbe” (Rated PG-13)–in theaters today–pretends to agree with that assessment. But it’s a bait-and-switch, a cruel tease by a poisonous snake. The movie is actually a disgusting, boring exercise in bulls–t to the nth degree, and nothing more than anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian propaganda. This flick is simply a flat-out lie. Don’t support this tripe by going to see it.




A couple of years ago on this site, on its 40th anniversary, I wrote about the amazing Entebbe operation, known as “Operation Thunderbolt.” I wrote about the terrific American and Israeli movies (both for the silver screen and television) made about it, all of which were great. And I said that Hollywood would never ever make a movie like that again, or that if it did, the terrorists would be the good guys and Israel and the Jews, the bad. And I feared that with this, I was right. Well, sadly, I was right.

I had mixed feelings about screening this movie. The trailers made it look promising, but I know that Hollywood hates Israel and is filled with self-hating Jews, who are actually Jews in name only. I also saw that it featured left-wing Israeli actor Lior Ashkenazi, who never relinquishes the opportunity to defame Israel and the Jews. And I worried my prediction would come true on the silver screen. Worried because many Americans are too dimwitted to get that what is onscreen isn’t necessarily a true depiction of history. In fact, with this movie (as with many others), it’s the exact opposite of history.

I invited a friend of mine, an Israeli, to see the movie with me. The man was formerly high up in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and was in the unit that carried out the daring Entebbe raid. He knew many of the real people involved in the raid, and his ex-father-in-law was the late Moshe Dayan, Israel’s greatest and most legendary general. My Israeli friend was sickened by this movie. As was I.

7 Days in Entebbe is supposed to portray the Summer 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight from Israel, which is forced to go to Entebbe, Uganda, where the passengers are held hostage at the airport and the hijackers demand the release of Islamic terrorists in Israeli jails. The hijackers were from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group and the Marxist Baader Meinhof Gang of German terrorists. Uganda was at the time ruled by banana republic dictator Idi Amin (“Idi Amin Dada!”), a Muslim madman and mass murderer. Israel’s unparalleled Air Force masterfully flew into Entebbe, very close to the ground, used a Mercedes Benz limo made to look Amin’s limo, shot up the terrorists, and rescued almost all of the passengers held hostage. This was after the terrorists separated the Jews from everyone else and released the non-Jews to freedom.

This movie makes the Islamic terrorists and their counterparts from the Baader Meinhof Gang into humanitarians who want to be nice to the Jews. The Baader Meinhof terrorists are riddled with guilt about the Holocaust and don’t want to discriminate against Jews . . . which is exactly why they helped hijack a plane from Israel, right? I was especially repulsed when the movie portrays a woman waking up sick in the middle of the night, thinking she is back in Auschwitz. She has numbers inked onto her arm, and the sympathetic German terrorist comforts and takes care of her. Awww. This never happened. In real life, a male Holocaust survivor was yelled at and threatened after he showed his numbers on his arm to the German hijacker. Also in real life, the Jewish woman who woke up sick in the middle of the night, Dora Bloch, was taken “to the hospital” by the Ugandans and murdered by Idi Amin. When her dead body was finally discovered on a plantation, her face was so badly burned that she could not be identified and her corpse had a leg ulcer. None of this is depicted in the movie. Not even close. Nobody was ever comforted by the Baader Meinhof terrorists, who had no guilt whatsoever, or they wouldn’t have been involved in this in the first place.

The Palestinian Muslim terrorists are also “nice guys.” They feel for the Jews over the Holocaust. They let the children play in the parking lot of the Entebbe airport and lecture the German terrorists that they need to be nice to the Jews. The ridiculous script gives the Palestinian terrorists long filibustering monologues about how their children were murdered by Israelis and how the Jews, victimized by Nazis, are “now the Nazis” themselves against the Palestinians and have stolen their land. Reality Check: none of the Palestinian hijackers actually had children, let alone children who were “murdered” by the Jews or Israel. Yes, it’s all the same typical fraudulent grievances these murderous scumbags have been whining about for years, none of it true. But the filmmakers here give it credence as if it is the gospel and offer no opposing viewpoint or facts.

You’ve heard of grievance theater? Well, this is Palestinian grievance theater theater.

As a “counterpoint,” the scenes of Israelis are stupid and absolute bunk. There are constant scenes of an Israeli soldier’s girlfriend and her modern dance troupe dressed in tuxedos, performing to a Jewish religious song, which translates into “Who Knows One?” Yup, that’s the “Jewish response” to “the Nazi Jews stole our land and murdered our children.” Talk about one-sided and heavy-handed.

But wait, there’s more. Yitzchak Rabin–then the Israeli Prime Minister (played by Ashkenazi)–is shown as unsure and in limbo about whether or not to rescue the hostages. He’s also shown as a guy who is, instead of worrying about a military rescue at this moment of crisis, demanding that Israel make peace with the Palestinians. WTF?! That never happened. Rabin was a decisive, brilliant Israeli former general, who was determined to get the hostages out of there alive. There was no equivocating, no uncertainty, and none of the inappropriate insistence on negotiating for peace with Palestinians for the long term, during this very harrowing crisis for Israel. There was none of the guilt-wracked self-flagellation that is depicted in this crummy movie.

The fictional attempt to pretend there was hesitation and hand-wringing on Rabin’s part is similar to the portrayal of Israeli then-Prime-Minister Golda Meir in “Munich” (read my review) as being unsure about whether or not to go after the Munich Olympic terrorists. Never happened. But Hollywood wants you to think so, because they love the “weak Jew” trope, which fits in better with their liberalism than what actually happened: determined, armed Israelis, who had the moral high ground, visited justice upon murderous Islamic terrorists and rescued their people from other Islamic terrorists holding them hostage in a foreign airport. Whatever is going on in Israel now, one thing is for sure, the Israeli leaders of the ’70s–Rabin and Meir included–were universally tough and driven to show that to the world (peace through strength always works).

And then there is Idi Amin. He is also portrayed very softly. He’s a flamboyant, nice egomaniac who doesn’t want to look like he’s mistreating the Jews. He worries what the world thinks of him. Really? The real Idi Amin was nothing like this. He was a brutal dictator, who perpetrated atrocity after atrocity. He tortured and murdered thousands of Ugandans and then fed them to crocodiles. He also beheaded victims and kept their heads in his refrigerator. A devout Muslim, he fled to Saudi Arabia in disgrace, and he died there, reportedly of AIDS. He got off easy. That’s not to mention that the actor who plays Amin in this is no match for the masterful portrayal by Yaphet Kotto in the 1976 TV Movie, “Raid on Entebbe” (starring my fave actor, Charles Bronson). (Kotto, ironically, came from a religious Jewish family.)

The movie ends with a BS on-screen caption, telling us that it’s all Israel’s, the Jews’, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fault that there is no peace with the Palestinians. Huh? The filmmakers clearly don’t want the world to know about the endless series of huge, suicidal, one-sided concessions Israel made to the Palestinians and other Muslims, including several large land giveaways. And look how much peace that got Israel: none. We know why there isn’t peace: because there are still Jews and Westerns in this world. When they all disappear, there still won’t be peace because the Muslims will do what they historically do: kill each other.

Aside from the absolute falsity of this silver screen screed, the movie isn’t entertaining. It’s long, slow, and boring. What could and should have been an exciting movie is a slog and a waste of time.

If you want to see a good depiction of the raid on Entebbe and what happened to the people on the Air France flight, see the movies I recommended on the 35th anniversary of the raid on Entebbe:

There are three terrific movies made about Operation Entebbe, all of which I recommend highly. There is the great “Raid on Entebbe,” starring the late Charles Bronson and many other famous actors, the entire video of which is posted below for your viewing pleasure. And, don’t forget, “Victory at Entebbe [VHS],” starring the late Elizabeth Taylor and many other big names. And, last but not least, there is “Operation Thunderbolt a/k/a Mivtza Yonatan,” starring Klaus Kinski, which is mostly in Hebrew with English subtitles. That one was made by the famous Israeli film producer duo of Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus, who made “The Delta Force,” “Bloodsport,” “Breakin’,” and a gazillion other American movie titles you’d recognize. Sadly, as I’ve noted on this site repeatedly, none of these movies–the two which were made in Hollywood and shown on American broadcast network television and the Israeli movie–would be made today. Hollywood doesn’t have the guts, and Israel makes mostly anti-Israel movies, today. Neither ABC nor NBC, which showed the movies, has the guts, either. They wouldn’t want to offend the Muslims and the Arabs by showing actual, factual history with Jews acting heroically and kicking Muslim and Arab ass. The same goes for all of the big name actors, today. Wimps and PC fools.

See these instead!:



If there is any lesson from the whole Entebbe story, it’s one I’ve already known for most of my life and have repeated here: when flying in and out of Israel, only fly El-Al, the most secure airline on Earth. The airline has never been successfully hijacked. And you are safer on one of those planes than you are in the Oval Office.

The real lesson from this movie is the one I predicted years ago: that Hollywood Jews hate themselves. And that everyone else in Hollywood takes their lead when it comes to the Jews and Israel on the big and small screens. So they would only make a movie in which the Entebbe terrorists were the good guys and the real good guys–the Israelis and the Jews–were evil. Nauseating.

The next time a movie about Israel or Israelis (and the Jews, for that matter) comes out of tinseltown, you know it’s going to be more of the same: best used to fertilize the lawn.

FOUR MARXES PLUS FOUR ISIS BEHEADINGS PLUS FOUR YASSER ARAFATS PLUS FOUR BIN LADENS PLUS FOUR OBAMAS PLUS FOUR MICHELLE LAVAUGHN ROBINSON HUSSEIN OBAMA IDI AMIN DADAS
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Watch the trailer . . .




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46 Responses

I was always impressed with the heroism of the soldiers in the Entebbe raid. The older movies were much better then today’s trash. While in the service I was deployed to Entebbe and after visiting the old terminal I said to myself How were they successful? Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu has always been one of my heroes and I followed his leadership principals when I was an Infantry officer. He was a great leader and has been missed.

JFahey on March 16, 2018 at 7:00 pm

Well, I did have an interest in seeing this movie this morning but not after reading your review, Debbie. Sounds like total trash.

Harwood518 on March 16, 2018 at 8:14 pm

Thank you for reminding me of the movie, “RAID ON ENTEBBE”!

I’ve bookmarked it on the YOU TUBE web site.

The AMAZON web site advertises it, but then says it’s unavailable.

In August of 1971, when I was touring Israel, our bus stopped at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where some ladies came aboard soliciting donations and selling souvenirs.

I bought a keychain with a medallion depicting Moshe Dayan and Yitzchak Rabin on one side, and on the reverse, the Western Wall of the Temple Mount.

John Robert Mallernee on March 16, 2018 at 8:26 pm

Waiting to read this before deciding if it was a waste of time and money-it is both. I had read Indiewire review and it moaned and groaned about how it made Palestinians look bad and Israelis look good. Lol

Gdaddy on March 16, 2018 at 8:51 pm

Debbie, Debbie facts don’t matter. History doesn’t matter.
Hollywood has far greater truths to concern itself with.

Mochizuki Koga on March 16, 2018 at 10:35 pm

Liberals magically are able to portray the NRA as a terrorist organization and then in the next breath declare a real terrorist organization as peaceful.

Two hundred years from now when historians are looking back at our culture trying to decide why it fell, the real question they will have is how our civilization was able to stay afloat for so long with so many of its inhabitants actively trying to destroy it.

Steve G on March 16, 2018 at 10:55 pm

    YES

    DinaK on March 17, 2018 at 10:18 am

When I first heard the previews Debbie’s reviews came to mind. Sadly it is exactly what I thought it would be. Had the feeling it would just be more of the same old Hollyweird propaganda and they sure as hell didn’t let me down.
Watched an old Black and White movie recently BTW and in comparison I’ll have to say Hollywood died a long time ago.
That sign on the hill is just a tombstone.

theShadow on March 17, 2018 at 4:40 am

Thank You so much for posting this – you just saved me an hour’s drive each way – to be disappointed not just with my waste of time – but that I dropped any money financially supporting this carp !
Greetings from LaBelle Fl 33935 aka Mayberry !

BubbaChip on March 17, 2018 at 9:19 am

I was surprised when I saw Hollywood made a movie about this, especially since it’s been done before; I thought there’s no way it was going to make a movie portraying Islamists in a negative light. Well, obviously Hollywood didn’t. Thank you, Debbie, for this review. I wish theaters would show the other movies which depicted the actual events so that this generation can learn the truth .

DinaK on March 17, 2018 at 10:16 am

Do NOT plan to see this movie. To demean what has been called one of the greatest rescue operations in military history is an insult to Israel and Jews. Israeli heroism lies in the fact that Israel sent aircraft and soldiers to the other end of the world, flying over enemy territory, to free Israelis. Many military analysts around the world still teach these tactics. It was a brave act on the part of Israel that proved to the world the level of their dedication to life and to Israel and the crack creativity to make it happen. It is still taught at West Point.

PaulaMalka on March 17, 2018 at 10:19 am

Practically everything Hollywood turns out is left wing trash.Why should this movie be different? This country is in a cultural revolution with Hollywood in the lead trying to destroy a rich, vibrant wonderful culture and replace it with a Marxist road to nowhere. And we can thank the Hollywood JINOs for helping.

Jerry G on March 17, 2018 at 10:19 am

    Exaggerating a bit. Every year there are dozens of brilliant and imaginative American movies released to the general public. One cannot draw wild generalizations from a single misleading one.

    Primetime on March 22, 2018 at 11:44 am

Great review.
Thanks

Paul Gleitman on March 17, 2018 at 10:32 am

Wish I read your review before I saw this truly horrific, biased movie. Every word you’ve written is accurate in describing this basically anti-Jewish, anti-Israel piece of fiction. I’m sending your review around to everyone on my huge list. Thanks for a great job, as usual!

Joan Swirsky on March 17, 2018 at 10:50 am

I am SO glad I didn’t go see it. I had a feeling they’d “Law and Order” it.

Thanks for saving me the few hours I’d never get back.

Carol B on March 17, 2018 at 4:58 pm

    Carol or they’d “Blue Bloods” it.

    Ken B on March 22, 2018 at 7:34 am

The role of documentaries in giving legitimacy to movies such as this should not be underestimated.

With a few exceptions, documentaries have been dumbed down to the point of distortion, falsification and oversimplification. There will be one or two pondorous-sounding statements followed by a minute of grave music (to add to ‘legitimacy’) followed by another grave-sounding statement. Meanwhile the screen will show some type of meadow or other scene which adds really, no substantive content to anything.

Since most of the public believes that documentaries are always true, this spills over to ‘non-fiction’ movies such as this.

Little Al on March 17, 2018 at 5:06 pm

I love the stuff you write – keep it up!

ssorleahcim on March 17, 2018 at 6:02 pm

Love you!
But that was Geoffrey Holder, not Yaphet Kotto in the commercials.

A: I stand corrected, and I have removed that reference. Thank you. DS

Alan on March 17, 2018 at 10:17 pm

My huge problem with this scenario, is,”Where was Jerry?!” There were American hostages. This would have been a great time to assert American power! He could’ve threatened devastation of Uganda! Where was Mr. Ford?!!!

Tov Klein on March 17, 2018 at 10:20 pm

Like Debbie, when I first learned about this movie “7 Days in Entebbe” being released, I immediately asked myself “Why was a movie about the success of the Israelis over their enemies even made, since excellent movies already exist on this subject, and why is it being released as Passover is soon to begin?” My answer was just as immediate. Being a natural skeptic about such things, I regrettably had to anticipate that what was really being sold here was leftist propaganda, which, of course, meant that history had to be rewritten to fit that narrative.
Thus, I’m far from surprised by what this movie is really about, though I appreciate all the details that Debbie has integrated into her critique to show exactly why the movie is really leftist propaganda that not only distorts history, but lies outright about it, as it must. It couldn’t be leftist propaganda otherwise.

This movie review is also a perfect example demonstrating that Debbie does not always want to be right about her assessments. I sense in her review that a part of her wished and hoped going into the theater that she would be wrong about the movie and that she would be pleasantly surprised. This is the enduring battle between the head and the heart, so to speak. But, as I’ve long noted from experience, when you have such a conflict in such matters, always go with your head and you will seldom be wrong.

Debbie review, though, inspired me to look back again into the actual event and how this particular movie lying about the actual event came about. The lies in this movie don’t start with the screenplay writer Gregory Burke, though I’m sure that he’s added many of his own. The lies actually start with a book entitled “Operation Thunderbolt,” by “historian” Julian Saul David, and this book was optioned by the producers to make this leftist propaganda movie. To give you a sense of the David’s position on the raid, he characterized Menachim Begin as a “silver-tongued demagogue” and depicted Yonatan Netanyahu (an actual hero of the raid and brother of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahi) as far from admirable. David also wrote that Bibi Netanyahu made political hay out of his brother’s death. In short, the book itself, which was used for some of the source material, is also leftist propaganda.

But if you really want to see the leftist media in operation, read how they build lie upon lie in their publications, such as Time Magazine, which I’ll get to shortly.

But before I do, if you’ve been following the official leftist agenda, you know that the leftists will claim that their “beef” is with Israel, not Jews, when they falsely attempt to paint the so-called Palestinians as “Davids” versus the “Goliath,” Israel, much as they take that lie to an entirely new absurdist level of hypocrisy by calling Israel the modern “Nazi Germany,” while themselves following the Nazi big-lie principle: i.e., “the bigger the lie and the more it is repeated, the more it will be believed.”

So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at how Time Magazine addresses the leftist propaganda to promote more lies. Here’s an excerpt from Time’s review of “7 Days in Entebbe.”
“The movie, which has been met with mixed reviews, shines a light on an important event in Israeli-Palestinian relations, the details of which have been historically murky. As many such retellings do, it takes some liberties with history for dramatic effect. To sort the fact from the fiction, TIME spoke to the historian [Julian] Saul David, whose account of the Entebbe raid, Operation Thunderbolt, was optioned by Focus Features and used as a guide for the movie.

“Although the movie suggests that the terrorists distinguished between Jews and non-Jews, this was not strictly the case. According to David, the division was actually between the Israeli passengers and a few visibly orthodox Jews.”

[Time then includes the following excerpt from David’s book, “Operation Thunderbolt”:]

“It’s long been trotted out that there was a deliberate policy to separate the Jews from the non-Jews, but that was frankly not true,” he [David] says. “That there were a very high number of French Jews who were released and not kept is fact. I interviewed a couple of them and they said many Jews were released. It wasn’t about being Jewish — it was about being Israeli.”

Time Magazine’s first lie here, based on Debbie’s assessment of the facts conveyed, is that the movie “takes some liberties with history for dramatic effect.” The lies in this movie cannot be characterized as “liberties,” and based on how ponderous the movie’s story evolved, it cannot be said the lies were done for “dramatic effect” either.

Then, we have what might be Time’s second lie (based on author David’s statement above) in which they claim that the movie “suggests that the terrorists distinguished between Jews and non-Jews.” Although Debbie’s article isn’t 100% clear on this point, based on her factual details, the movie appears to frame the issue as “Palestinians” vs. Israel, rather than Jews.
But, in any event, David is lying in his statements to Time about the movie where he says that “[i]t wasn’t about being Jewish — it was about being Israeli.” The terrorist hijackers were indeed targeting Jews and it was about the Jews. The only issue for the terrorists was how to separate the Jews from the non-Jews on the flight. That is not always easy, especially if the individuals down have visual clues with them (such as yarmulkes and Stars of David) or have names that might commonly be thought to indicate Jewish heritage. But the evidence definitely shows that this was exactly how the terrorists tried to separate the Jews from the non-Jews.

Naturally, some individuals made it to the designated non-Jewish group because they had neither emblems symbolizing Judaism nor “Jewish” sounding names. But the terrorists failure to precisely separate all Jews from non-Jews does not change their intent. And the intention to separate the Jews from the non-Jews was clearly evident in this case, despite the leftists’ false revision of history.

A critical example of individual who managed to be included in the non-Jewish group was a woman named Ninette Morenu, who was released by the terrorists, thanks to her non-Jewish sounding name. And what a wonderful thing it was that the terrorist were fooled in her case. She was another hero of the operation in my opinion. Ninette Morenu’s extraordinary powers of observation enabled her to help the Israeli authorities to construct a detailed diagram of the layout of the airport terminal. With the help of this detailed diagram, the Israeli planners of the raid could much better plan their raid. Was Ninette Morenu’s character included in “7 Days in Entebbe?” I doubt it.

And the heroism of the Morenu family doesn’t end there. Some thirty years after the Entebbe raid, Emmanuel Morenu, Ninette’s grandson and an Israeli Lieutenant Colonel of one of the Israel Defense Forces’ most elite units, Sayeret Matkal—the Israeli unit that rescued his grandmother—fell in combat at the end of the Second Lebanon War. According to a Mossad source, Emmanuel Morenu was “one of the best officers in the history of Sayeret Matkal.” Zikhronah livrakha. (May his memory be a blessing.)

Ralph Adamo on March 17, 2018 at 11:20 pm

And of course the encoded message is that maybe Iran is not so bad after all. Let’s keep the treaty, and above all, let’s not attack them.

Little Al on March 18, 2018 at 9:06 am

Hearing about how the hostage takers yelled at a Holocaust Survivor, that made me feel sick to my stomach. I may be a Liberal, but I’m a pro Israel liberal, and I’m a Jew who loves Israel.

Robyn Neibauer on March 18, 2018 at 9:26 am

    Unfortunately liberals like you don’t make films any more.

    Mochizuki Koga on March 18, 2018 at 11:03 pm

Hoolywood has been severly ill since at least the late 60s

Pancake rachel corrie on March 18, 2018 at 9:53 am

Tired of anything to do with jews, Israel, the holocaust, Nazis etc.
Hollywood is controlled by the cabal, what do you expect?

Semitically incorrect on March 18, 2018 at 9:47 pm

Another thing I’m sure didn’t inform Daniel Bruhl’s performance of Wilfried Böse which I’m sure is sensitive and complex is the following.

“One of the Jewish passengers, a Holocaust survivor, apocryphally showed the number tattooed on his forearm by the Nazis to Wilfried Böse, one of the German terrorists involved in the plot. “I’m no Nazi! … I am an idealist,” Böse is said to have responded.”

Mochizuki Koga on March 18, 2018 at 10:33 pm

This was a great success for Israel. I have no time for those who sympathize with terrorists.

Worry on March 19, 2018 at 3:10 am

Thank you Debbie for exposing the bait and switch which I had suspected. Jimmy Kimmel said during the Oscars that movies are produced to upset Mike Pence (and therefore conservatives, Republicans, etc.) and not to make money. Hollywood’s movies are propaganda but people will watch them and believe that they are relating truth and facts.

Concerned Citizen on March 19, 2018 at 9:04 am

Word of mouth is still an important part of the movie business and the good news about this movie is that the word of mouth is bad.

I learned first-hand how important word of mouth is when I ran into comedian/actor/director Kevin Pollack at a film festival event I was invited to. He told me he was in town to promote a movie that he had directed and how good word of mouth was so important to draw people into theaters. He said if a movie didn’t get that, even positive reviews won’t make a big difference.

The propaganda in 7 Days in Entebbe” is so transparent and even the “action” and “thriller” components of this movie are so dreadful, that it hopefully won’t get any traction whatsoever.

I hope Debbie won’t mind that I’m posting a review below from someone else. My reason for posting is that this review shows first-hand exactly how disgusting the filmmakers are.
—————————–

7 Days in Entebbe was presented at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival by director José Padilha and gave of an unpleasant impression. The film is based on real events of the hijacking of a passenger plane in 1976. The main character are the German hijackers portrayed by Daniel Brühl and Rosamund Pike. It is obvious that the director tried to evoke sympathy of the viewers towards the terrorists and to somehow explain their actions.

Daniel Brühl with his kind smile and positive charisma seemed out of place in the film. At the press conference, Daniel said that it was important for him that his protagonist did not kill the passengers. However, the fact that man did not kill the hostages does not alleviate the criminality of his deed. The terrorists hijacked the plane and only by miracle the airplane did not suffer a catastrophe which would have killed all the passengers aboard. These actions of the terrorists are the gravest crime which cannot be justified in any way. Any attempt to explain and to humanize the criminals are in my point of view are disgusting. The director tried to compare the actions of the Israeli army and the actions of terrorists. However terrorism concerning peaceful citizens, as with the hijacking, no matter which country is involved, is not justifiable.

The film is made in an ordinary, pseudo-documentary fashion, with some shaky-cam footage. However that such charismatic actors such as Daniel Brühl and Rosamund Pike played the terrorists made the film unbelievable and stupid. The dance sequences were non-organically integrated into the film.

At the press-conference the director said that he did not want to depicted the terrorists as zombies, he wanted to show their humanity. Nevertheless, it is a dangerous statement – many terrorists are in fact zombified, they are brainwashed and make horrible deeds against innocent people, under the influence of completely absurd ideas. With this they do lose their humanity, and there is nothing wrong in depicting them as brainwashed.

In modern times terrorism only continues to become more widespread, and in this situation any hint of compassion towards those who kill innocent people or hijack planes is a moral crime. The best response to 7 Days in Entebbe would be to ignore it completely, since it also does not have any artistic value.

Ralph Adamo on March 19, 2018 at 1:35 pm

I see that my participation on this site is limited by whatever whims the filters may have against me, . . .

or not. I say that because my one and only post on the previous article still hasn’t gone up. So, I have to type everything with the assumption that any post of mine probably WON’T go up.

Therefore, if it looks like I’m not around, that’s part of it, because I’m not going to be posting as much. I’ll still be reading, but just not posting as much. Or if it looks like I’m not around, I COULD have been, but may have put up a few that didn’t go through, as has recently occurred. Even MY time and patience is limited.

And, as I’ve said, with Debbie obviously on a rougher than ever schedule, it’s just not fair to bother her every time one of my posts, whether serious or schtick, doesn’t go up.

Having said all that, I find the discourse on this new movie to be quite interesting, and I thank all the people who have come to put up commentary. It is particularly refreshing to see some regulars who have not been here frequently of late, posting again. This site is particularly fascinating because of the detailed and intelligent discourse in the comments section.

And why now? Why another movie on this subject now? I was in the subway over the weekend and saw a poster for a new movie about Chappaquiddick, “The Untold Story.” Why are some of the seminal moments in the lives of Baby Boomers being told all over again in propaganda fashion? Is that what the new movie about The Swimmer is, as this one?

And THANK YOU to Mr. Adamo for his commentary on Steven Hawking in the previous article. I had no idea who he was until his name started being bandied about in the media maybe three years ago as though he were some kind of god.

I’ll tell you one thing about me. When the whole world is worshiping some dude like that, I’m running full speed in the other direction. I have suspected that this man and the interest in him were nothing but a cult, and Mr. Adamo provided MUCHO insight into that.

Alfredo from Puerto Rico on March 20, 2018 at 9:48 am

OH!!! One more thing. When Debbie says “Disgusting,” “Palestinian,” and “Propaganda,” . . .

isn’t that redundant?

ROTFLMAO!!!

Alfredo from Puerto Rico on March 20, 2018 at 10:06 am

Why do so many Jews hate themselves? This would be a fascinating portrait.

Primetime on March 20, 2018 at 12:57 pm

    Alfredo, please hang in there with your posts. You’re not alone. Debbie’s trying to improve the website so posts won’t temporarily go into hiding.

    Primetime, I don’t know if self-hatred is the driving force behind the tendency of many Jews to favor positions that are ultimately self-destructive. Everyone who has studied history in any depth should know that Jews (and everyone else for that matter!) best thrive in a free-market environment and do poorest in government-controlled environments.

    For a really insightful quotation on the foolishness of Jews supporting leftist agendas and appeasement of enemies, I offer the following from one of history’s most brilliant Zionists. It’s nearly 77 years old, but still valid today. Of course, the quotation does not refer to all Jews, but the Jews that choose unwittingly or not, the self-destructive path:

    “It is incredible what political simpletons Jews are. They shut their eyes to one of the most elementary rules of life, that you must not “meet halfway” those who do not want to meet you.” — Ze’ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky, “The Ethics of the Iron Wall,” May 9, 1941.

    Ralph Adamo on March 20, 2018 at 1:30 pm

    @Primetime; Growing up Jewish I had an advantage over many of my self-hating American-Jewish brothers and sisters… I grew up in Colorado. It gave me a much better perspective. I now live in Florida, the 6th NYC Borough.

    I have learned, it’s not so much the “Jew” as the northeast, NYC, NJ, Penn, or often left-coast person that the “Jew” tag is also assigned to. Jews from other parts of our planet have much better outlooks on reality. It’s the New England and West Coast limousine Liberal that generates the self-hate, much more than the Jewish part.

    Finally, I fear the next piece of propaganda to come out of bleeding heart Hollywood will be a ‘re-imagining’ of the 1972 Munich massacre where the “poor” Palestinians blew up 6 Israeli coaches, 5 Israeli athletes from the Israeli Olympic team.

    Uncle Dave on March 25, 2018 at 1:16 pm

Little Al, yesterday’s leftists could only dream of the luxury of being able to make a movie that is 100% leftist propaganda. In the old days, one of the “Hollywood Ten” screenwriters said the following:

“As a writer do not try to write an entire Communist picture. The producers will quickly identify it and it will be killed by the front office. As a writer try to get 5 minutes of the Communist doctrine, 5 minutes of the party line in every script that you write.” — John Howard Lawson

Somehow, I liked it better when the primary motive of moviemaking was making money, rather than, as Jimmy Kimmel put it during the latest Academy show, “to upset Mike Pence” or anyone else who opposes the leftist agenda.

Ralph Adamo on March 20, 2018 at 1:49 pm

Remember that Darkness at Noon was never made into a movie, and anti-Communist movies were almost non-existent until the Cold War was in full swing. As I have mentioned in this column repeatedly, Communist personnel inserted anti-American propaganda in subtle ways so it would be accepted. For instance, they promoted film noir because it showed the seamy side of American life.

Lawson’s quote is apropos; five minutes here and five minutes there, and no anti-Communism. Incidentally, this type of sneakiness enabled some stars to pretend to be anti-Communist when they were very amenable to cooperating with the Commies. Gary Cooper is an example; he pretended to be anti-Communist, but was unable to tell HUAC of any specific instances where he opposed Communism, and during the 1950s, he starred in such Commie-inspired trash as High Noon and Friendly Persuasion.

And are you forgetting such World War II garbage as North Star, Mission to Moscow and Song of Russia? The Commies were always looking for openings, and had they had the chance during the 30s, they would have promoted the same claptrap that they successfully peddled during World War II. Lawson’s quote was tactical — he, like all commies was alert to expanding the Reds’ influence wherever possible.

Little Al on March 20, 2018 at 7:34 pm

One more thing — it would be a mistake to take celebrity quotes too literally. Yes, Jimmy Kimmel is a fool, who appeals to cretins, and the level of political discourse among celebs and many politicians has sunk so low that it shames our country. Nevertheless, their babbling should not always be taken to seriously.

Remember all the people who said they would leave the country if Trump was elected? Have any left? If so, only a very small number of those who declared they would leave.

And Kimmel spouting off? Can anyone seriously believe Hollywood does not try to make money? Yes, their views are impacted by politics, but not to the extent of canceling their desire for money. They just think they can get away with their infantile ravings like the one about Mike Pence.

Little Al on March 20, 2018 at 8:55 pm

Ahhhhhhh, I love it when the likes of Mr. Adamo and Little Al are educating me on . . .

The Indoktri-NATION of Amerika.

I was there when it was REALLY taking hold. But I was a little kid. And it was sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant. But it worked it’s way into the Amerikaan Kulture.

Here I am, an old man, now understanding it fully, TOO fully. Every day I feel more and more like the man who . . .

tried to get off at Willoughby.

And PLEASE, I love you guys, but no 1-800-HELP-HIM-PLEASE-SOMEONE CALL DEBBIE!!! stuff this time. I’m fine. And when it snows, that means I get work. I’ve been joking about having no work in January and February unless it was about snow. Come late March, April, May, I get more work.

But check it out, it’s March, and that’s all we’re getting here in NYC, as I observe Day 945 of being stuck here. So, I’ll be having a shovel in my hand real soon. I’m fine. Don’t call any 800 numbers, or send e-mails to Debbie.

But philosophically speaking, who WOULDN’T take a look at the world we’re living in, and . . .

want to get off at Willoughby?

Now back to the Mimosa Cookies, and NO, it’s NOT something you eat. ROTFLMAO!!!

Alfredo from Puerto Rico on March 21, 2018 at 12:53 pm

    Hang in there, Alfredo. As for Willoughby, who has not thought of Willoughby from time to time. What is Willoughby, some may ask? Rod Serling has the answer, or at least the possibilities:

    “Willoughby? Maybe it’s wishful thinking nestled in a hidden part of a man’s mind, or maybe it’s the last stop in the vast design of things—or perhaps, for a man like Mr. Gart Williams, who climbed on a world that went by too fast, it’s a place around the bend where he could jump off. Willoughby? Whatever it is, it comes with sunlight and serenity, and is a part of The Twilight Zone.”

    I sometimes confuse “A Stop at Willoughby” starring James Daly with “Walking Distance” starring Gig Young. They were filmed only months apart and have some similarities in theme and both feature an advertising executive as the lead character, both about the same age as Rod Serling was when these episodes were finally scripted and filmed, and both leading lives of “quiet desperation,” as Henry David Thoreau wisely put it. Serling definitely identified with the Gart Williams character in “A Stop at Willoughby, and I recall him saying once how the episode was inspired by the frantic pace at which he was required to produce those Twilight Zone episodes under pressure.

    Speaking of Serling and thinking of Michael Wilson, who I discussed in an earlier post, Serling wrote the original screenplay for the original movie “Planet of the Apes,” but Wilson was brought in to do the rewrite. However, the iconic ending of the movie is pure Serling, and that scene did not appear in the novel on which the movie was based. Wilson and the other filmmakers involved wisely left that part of Serling’s script as written.

    Ralph Adamo on March 25, 2018 at 11:08 pm

Will you be screening the new “Beirut” movie as well?

Ebayer on March 22, 2018 at 10:20 am

We’ll have to agree to disagree on screenwriters Michael Wilson (for “Friendly Persuasion”) and Carl Foreman (for “High Noon”). Those screenwriters exemplify that part of Hollywood that did not create leftist propaganda in their written works, regardless of the political beliefs or affiliations they may have held at the times of each script.

On the contrary, several of their movies have universal themes that resonate from generation to generation and have well stood the test of time. Their objectives were to create thoughtful, inspiring, moving, and entertaining movies that appealed to a large and diverse cross-section of the public.

Furthermore, there is no communist propaganda in the best of Michael Wilson scripts, such as “It’s a Wonderful Life (co-writer),” “A Place in the Sun,” “Bridge on the River Kwai (co-writer)”, “Lawrence of Arabia,” and “Planet of the Apes.” Nor is there any communist propaganda in Carl Foreman’s best writings, such as “Champion,” “Guns of Navarone,” “Bridge on the River Kwai (co-writer),” or “High Noon.”

As for “High Noon,” although some have tried to claim that there’s a leftist “theme” in it, specifically that the townspeople who were afraid to speak up for the Sheriff William Kane (played by Gary Cooper) represented those who were afraid to speak out against the House Un-American Activities Committee (“HUAC”). But even if that notion inspired Foreman, a closer examination of the movie reveals that the final product is far removed from propaganda.

If anything, a sound argument could be made that “High Noon” reflects conservative American values. The entire arc of the film’s core conflict is set in motion (and shown in real-time in the movie) when the news hits the town that a court “up North” has released three killers onto the streets and they now seek vengeance on the Sheriff who put them there, Will Kane, as well as to bring lawlessness to the town. The Sheriff, on the other hand, wants to keep the town crime-free and make sure that the town remains a safe a decent place for women, children, and families. What could be more American than that?

The writers of the iconic “Dirty Harry,” with Clinton Eastwood as Harry would emulate this same theme. The liberal “system” found a way to put the psychotic killer “Scorpio” back on the streets and Harry is the only one who can track him down and bring him to justice. At the end of “Dirty Harry,” Harry faces off with Scorpio, who is holding a child hostage at gunpoint. Harry takes him out, but before the movie ends, he throws his badge in the water. The shot goes long, showing Harry as a small figure, showing the hero alone, standing up for justice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKK93K1ykuA Certainly, the closing scene was inspired by “High Noon.”

The ending of “High Noon,” though, also has a larger message: If the townspeople want to keep their town safe for families, they’re going to have to fight for their rights and not give in to those who promote or take a permissive attitude toward lawlessness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxH8b0nnl4Y.

Another conservative theme in “High Noon” is shown with Kane’s wife, who is a Quaker and pacifist, against the use of guns. Yet, even she ultimately realizes that she must stand by her man and help him in any way she can in his fight against the evil forces in society. And, in the end, she uses the gun to kill one of them men trying to kill her husband and enables her husband to kill the lead killer Frank Miller, the final threat to the town.

As for the film’s star, Cooper, he was a Republican and a founding member of the executive board of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a group dedicated to rooting out communists. John Wayne and other conservative members of Hollywood belonged to this group.
Coop had many discussions with Foreman about his politics. According to Foreman, Coop told him, “You know how I feel about communism, but you’re not a communist now, and anyway I like you. I think you’re an honest man, and I think you should do what you think is right.”

Although it’s true that Foreman never criticized communism in any of his hearings, he did state for the record was that he wasn’t a communist, and hadn’t been one in 1950 when he signed the Screen Writers Guild loyalty oath. And it’s also true that Foreman left America, because of the blacklist.

Interestingly, when Foreman later returned to the US, Foreman ran into John Wayne at a popular LA restaurant. After an uncomfortable initial meeting, the two men soon warmed to one another as if they were old friends. According to the restaurant owner, the owner later asked Foreman why he had been so conciliatory with Wayne. According to the owner, Foreman answered, “You know, he was a patriot. He didn’t do it [want me blacklisted] to hurt me.”

In 1983, Foreman was diagnosed with a brain tumor. A year later, the Writers Guild announced that the screenwriting credits for “The Bridge on the River Kwai” were being restored to the film’s original, blacklisted writers, Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman. Foreman learned about it late in the evening. He died the following morning.

Ralph Adamo on March 23, 2018 at 2:47 am

The PFLP wasn’t islamic. They were founded by a christian and the women doing the hijacking was a christian.

Whoever wrote this garbage article deserves to get her head checked out for being such an apartheid loving fascist cancer on the face of humanity.

You are what is wrong with the planet you old delusional ugly ass boomer bitch

fjaoisjdf on June 17, 2018 at 4:53 am

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