Movie Review- O JERUSALEM
HEADLINE: ** Anachronistic Agenda? **TITLE: O JERUSALEM
Quality: * * Acceptability: -3
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: L
Violence: VV
Sex: None
Nudity: None
RATING: PG-13
RELEASE: October 24, 2007
TIME: 100 minutes
STARRING: J. J. Field, Said Taghmaoui, Daniel Lundh, Mel Raido, Maria Papas, Ian Holm, Patrick Bruel, Peter Polycarpou, Tovah Feldshuh, and Elie Chouraqui
DIRECTOR: Elie Chouraqui
PRODUCERS: Elie Chouraqui, Andre Djaoui, Jean-Charles Levy, Jean Frydman, and Andy Grosch
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: David Korda
WRITERS: Elie Chouraqui and Didier Lepecheur
BASED ON THE BOOK BY: Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
DISTRIBUTOR: Samuel Goldwyn Films
CONTENT: (PaPa, RHRH, BB, C, FRFR, PC, H, L, VV, A, D, M) Somewhat liberal, mixed multicultural worldview with some strong revisionist history, strong moral elements mixed with some positive mentions of God and a positive reference to Jesus Christ's crucifixion by a Muslim, but Muslims are the ones who mostly speak about God or religion in the movie, sometimes in an anachronistic multicultural way that seems a bit politically correct, plus some minor humanist tones or attitudes; one hell, three hecks and three or four light profanities, such as My God; war violence such as explosions, people shot, soldiers fight, snipers, battles; no sex; no nudity; some alcohol use; smoking; and, Arab pogroms against Jews and a probably false liberal, left-wing, pro-Muslim portrayal of the alleged massacre in Deir Yassin by some Jews against some Arabs, that falsely claims all of the Arabs killed there were just innocent victims.
GENRE: Historical Drama/War Drama
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Teenagers and adults
Please address your comments to:
Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., Chairman/CEO
Meyer Gottlieb, President
Samuel Goldwyn Films
9570 West Pico Blvd., 4th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Phone: (310) 860-3100
Fax: (310) 860-3195
SUMMARY: O JERUSALEM is an historical drama about the fight for Jerusalem between Jews and Arabs after the United Nations voted in 1947 to partition Palestine into two separate homelands for the Jews and the Arabs. O JERUSALEM recognizes the Jews' right to have a homeland in the Middle East among the sea of Arab Muslims there, but it has a slightly liberal multicultural agenda that distorts some of the period's political, religious and moral history.
IN BRIEF:
O JERUSALEM is an historical drama about the fight for Jerusalem between Jews and Arabs in 1947. The fight occurred after the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two separate homelands for the Jews and the Arabs. The story focuses on a Jew, Bobby, and Said, an Arab Muslim from Jerusalem, who become friends in New York City after World War II. Bobby and Said move to Jerusalem, where the new U.N. partition of Palestine brings conflict between the two friends. Said begins fighting for the Arab Muslims. And, Bobby begins fighting for the Jewish forces led by David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, the two future leaders of the new country Israel.
O JERUSALEM gives a modern multicultural spin that asks people to follow Psalm 122:6 and "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." Though it recognizes Israel's right to exist, the movie also adopts some of the false revisions to the period's political, religious and moral history. Also, only the Muslims in the story seem to make any positive references to God or religion. These anachronistic distortions are unacceptable, though not completely abhorrent. Therefore, MOVIEGUIDEŽ cannot endorse the movie's representation of history.
