Entebbe (film)

Entebbe
Theatrical release poster
Directed by José Padilha
Produced by
Written by Gregory Burke
Starring
Music by Rodrigo Amarante
Cinematography Lula Carvalho
Edited by Daniel Rezende
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • February 19, 2018 (2018-02-19) (Berlinale)
  • March 16, 2018 (2018-03-16) (United States)
  • May 11, 2018 (2018-05-11) (United Kingdom)
Running time
 107 minutes
Country
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
Language English
Box office $8.7 million[1]

Entebbe[2] (titled 7 Days in Entebbe in the U.S.) is a 2018 crime thriller film directed by José Padilha and written by Gregory Burke. The film recounts the story of Operation Entebbe, a 1976 counter-terrorist hostage-rescue operation. The film stars Rosamund Pike and Daniel Brühl. It was released in the United States on 16 March 2018 and in the United Kingdom on 11 May 2018.

Plot

In 1976, two Palestinian and two German terrorists hijacked Air France Flight 139 en route from Tel Aviv to Paris. They held the passengers and crew hostage at Entebbe and demanded a ransom of $5 million for the airplane and the release of 53 Palestinian and pro-Palestinian militants, 40 of whom were prisoners in Israel.[3] When all diplomatic efforts failed, the Israeli government decided not to negotiate and approved a counter-terrorist hostage rescue operation by IDF commandos.

Cast

Production

On 11 February 2016, it was announced that José Padilha would next direct Entebbe for Working Title Films and StudioCanal, from a script by Gregory Burke.[4] On 29 July 2016, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl and Vincent Cassel joined to play the lead roles in the film, with Cassel ultimately not participating.[5]

Principal photography on the film began on 14 November 2016 in Malta, and production also took place in the U.K.[6][7] A real hijacking took place during filming at the Malta International Airport.[8]

The film features extensive footage of the noted Batsheva Dance Company, dancing to a modern version of the traditional Jewish song Echad Mi Yodea. One of the characters in the film is a dancer in the troupe, and the dance is shown as the film opens and then throughout the film, intercut with portions of the narrative.

Release

The film premiered on 19 February 2018 at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. It was released in the United States on 16 March 2018, and received a release in the United Kingdom on 11 May 2018.[9]

Promotion

An initial trailer for Entebbe was released on 7 December 2017, using the 1971 song "I'd Love to Change the World" by the band Ten Years After.[10]

Reception

Critical reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 25% based on 103 reviews, and an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "7 Days in Entebbe has a worthy story to tell, but loses sight of its most compelling elements in a dull dramatization of riveting real-life events."[11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."[12]

David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a "C" and called it competent but pointless, saying: "When all the dust settles, we’re left right where we started, and with nothing to show for it but a fleeting reminder that peace is impossible without negotiation. It’s a lesson that history has failed to teach us, filtered through a movie that doesn’t understand why."[13] The Chicago Sun-Times's Richard Roeper gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing, "All too often in 7 Days in Entebbe, primary characters on all sides of this 1970s period-piece political thriller state the obvious — and then state it again, and then have to stand around while someone else states the obvious one more time, just in case the folks in the seats have yet to grasp the stakes at hand and the dilemmas in play."[14]

Liel Leibovitz of Tablet criticized the film's downplaying of violence, such as the final raid being "shot in infuriating slow-motion and cross-cut with a modern dance performance", writing that the lack of violence eliminates the possibility of "catharsis" and renders the film a "vapid and vacuous statement".[15]

Commentator Daniel Greenfield called Entebbe "covertly anti-Israel" and compared it to another film about an Israeli counter-terrorist operation, 2005's Munich, in that, while neither showed Israelis in a negative light, they were both "hostile to the idea of fighting terrorists".[16]

Historical accuracy

The film puts Yonatan Netanyahu's death much earlier in the raid on the airport than had been portrayed in previous films on the subject or in the Netanyahu family's version of events.[17][18] Director Padilha said that this placement was based on interviews with participants in the raid.[19] Although the production had commissioned British historian Saul David's 2015 study Operation Thunderbolt as a guide, the director opted to subordinate historical accuracy to dramatic effect in a number of scenes.[20] Most notably, the division of the hostages and the Air France crew staying with the hostages are presented in a way that contradicts eyewitness accounts gathered by David.[21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "7 Days in Entebbe (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  2. ↑ "Entebbe: Home". Entebbe official website. Entertainment One. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  3. ↑ Dunstan, Simon (2011). Entebbe: The Most Daring Raid of Israel's Special Forces. New York: Rosen. pp. 17–18. ISBN 9781448818686.
  4. ↑ Jaafar, Ali (11 February 2016). "Jose Padilha In Negotiations To Direct 'Entebbe' For Working Title, Studiocanal – Berlin". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  5. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (29 July 2016). "Rosamund Pike, Daniel Bruhl & Vincent Cassel In Talks To Board Jose Padilha's 'Entebbe'". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  6. ↑ "Filming of Entebbe begins". Saul David official website. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  7. ↑ "Filming starts at the Civic Centre. Yes, you read that correctly". iHarrow. 13 January 2017. Archived from the original on 14 January 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  8. ↑ "Entebbe hijack film shoot stopped by real-life Libya plane hijack in Malta". The Ugandan. 24 December 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  9. ↑ Siegel, Tatiana (17 February 2018). "Berlin: '7 Days in Entebbe' Questions Benjamin Netanyahu's Version of History". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  10. ↑ Evans, Greg (7 December 2017). "'7 Days In Entebbe' Trailer: Daniel Brühl, Rosamund Pike In Rescue Mission Thriller". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  11. ↑ "7 Days in Entebbe (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  12. ↑ "7 Days in Entebbe Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  13. ↑ Ehrlich, David (21 February 2018). "'7 Days in Entebbe' Review: Rosamund Pike Stars in a Hijacking Docudrama that Never Takes Off — Berlinale 2018". IndieWire. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  14. ↑ Roeper, Richard (14 March 2018). "'7 Days in Entebbe' turns audacious rescue into a listless thriller". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  15. ↑ Leibovitz, Liel (16 March 2018). "A New Entebbe Movie, Hijacked by Bad Ideas". Tablet. Nextbook. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  16. ↑ Greenfield, Daniel (19 March 2018). "If You're Pro-Israel, Skip 7 Days in Entebbe". FrontPage Magazine. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  17. ↑ Bachner, Michael (20 February 2018). "In new film, Jewish director challenges Israeli version of 1976 Entebbe rescue". Times of Israel. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  18. ↑ "Berlin: '7 Days in Entebbe' Questions Benjamin Netanyahu's Version of History". The Hollywood Reporter. 17 February 2018.
  19. ↑ Brown, Hannah (20 February 2018). "'7 Days in Entebbe' film plays down Israeli heroism". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  20. ↑ "Historian Saul David Discusses Israel's Famous Entebbe Operation And How He Tracked Down A German Fugitive". The New York Blueprint. 15 March 2018.
  21. ↑ "The True Story Behind the Movie '7 Days in Entebbe'". Time. 16 March 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
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