BEFORE: All right, I've confirmed 42 docs for the Doc Block - I'm going to make one last pass on my list to try to get the total up to 50, but I think it's a long shot. The chain is kind of telling me that it only wants to be 42 docs long - last year I did 49 and it sure felt too long, so I should probably take the hint. Still, I've got a couple more days off before I have to report back in to one of my jobs, so maybe...I know, just take the win and move on.
Helen Mirren carries over again from "The Duke". This one has surfaced at a time where it may have some relevance, after Israel has been in the news within the last year for starting a war, and of course once again there's no peace in the Middle East, so let's take a look back through history to another war, maybe I'll get some understanding.
THE PLOT: Focuses on the intensely dramatic and high-stakes responsibilities and decisions that Golda Meir, also known as the "Iron Lady of Israel", faced during the Yom Kippur War.
AFTER: I was alive during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, but honestly, this is the first time I'm ever hearing about it. I guess when you're only 5 years old you don't really pay attention to the wars around the world, and maybe your parents also protect you a little bit so that you don't. The first time I remember even thinking about the Middle East was probably around the time of the Camp David accords, where Begin and Sadat sat down with Jimmy Carter and a few things got worked out - but that kind of comes at the end of this movie, almost as a follow-up.
Golda Meir was the first female Prime Minister of Israel, to date the only female head of that country's government. But she was there at the start when Israel became a country in 1948, she was one of the signers of Israel's Declaration of Independence. She served as Labor Minister and then Foreign Minister, appointed by David Ben-Gurion, and retired in 1966 for health reasons. But then in 1969 she was back, becoming Prime Minister after the death of Levi Eshkol, and during her tenure she made many diplomatic visits to Western leaders to promote peace in the Middle East. The only thing that could possibly get in the way of her plan was some country like Egypt or Syria (or both) starting some kind of military campaign against Israel - I mean, come on, really, what are the odds?
According to this film, she received intelligence reports that Egypt was amassing a large force on the other side of the Suez Canal, and word was that a war would start by sundown. Israel's forces were largely caught off guard, and Golda Meir refused to launch a pre-emptive strike, because, well, how would that look? Israel could be seen as the aggressor in that scenario, and that really didn't fit in with the image of a country seeking peace, to strike first. However, a large portion of the country's forces were mobilized in response to the threat across the border, then Syria launched an attack as well, so the troops were ill-prepared, also throwing Meir and her defense minister, Moshe Dayan, for a loop. Egypt and Syria both infiltrated different parts of Israel, gaining land between October 7 and 8. Moshe Dayan proposed an air strike on Damascus, Syria, however Israel was short on planes, and had to ask Henry Kissinger, the U.S. Secretary of State, to send them some extra jets.
Kissinger was in a bit of a bind here, because he was trying to maintain good relations with all of the parties involved, like to keep the oil flowing from Egypt and Syria to the U.S., however he was also Jewish and had a relationship with Golda Meir, therefore he sent the jets, but I'm guessing it would have been a scandal if those other countries found out where Israel got them.
On the fifth day of the war, Major General Ariel Sharon proposed sending the 143rd Tank Division across the Suez Canal to challenge the Egyptian armies. Israeli intelligence learned that the Egyptians would not be able to cross the canal for two days, because that would leave Cairo undefended - then when they did, they were defeated by the Israeli tank forces waiting for them. A few day after that, Sharon's forces crossed the canal at an undefended point, and despite being ambushed, they held their position - meanwhile the Third Egyptian Army got barricaded and Egypt was forced into negotiations. Kissinger came back to talk Golda Meir into accepting a ceasefire, but she went ahead with her plans because Israel had the upper hand at that point.
What followed seems a lot like what we went through after the Israel-Palestine conflict - diplomatic talks, exchange of POWs, and a re-drawing of borders based on who won and who lost. History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes. Golda Meir got treated again for cancer, and maybe it's just who she was or maybe the times were different, but apparently, according to this movie, if you were the Israeli Prime Minister you could light up a cigarette right there in the hospital while you were receiving cancer treatments. I suspect times have probably changed, and you can't do this today, or maybe only the leaders of countries could do this.
A year later, Golda Meir testified before a commission regarding her conduct during the war - this film is rather non-linear, it's possible that the whole war is seen here during flashbacks while she is testifying, but I suppose other answers are possible, perhaps it just jumps around in time for artistic or confusing reasons. Anyway, Golda does not mention how her general's plan to monitor communications from Egypt failed to warn them of the attack - either the eavesdropping didn't work, or perhaps nobody was listening to the monitors at all. Either way, her generals dropped the ball, but she took the hit for not being ready to respond to the attack at first. Instead she chalks her delay up to resistance to retaliate, however she still maintained that she felt the Yom Kippur War was inevitable, even if nobody knew when it would arrive, they knew war was coming. Umm, OK, that's your defense, if you're comfortable splitting hairs like that.
And four years after that, Golda is seen dying in a hospital bed while watching footage of her meeting with Sadat in 1977. Still, she's chain smoking, so I guess some people never learn - I'm pretty sure that smoking in a hospital ward while using an oxygen tank is a recipe for disaster. But again, it was a different time and that's how addicted some people were to smoking in the 1970's.
Directed by Guy Nattiv
Also starring Camille Cottin (last seen in "A Haunting in Venice"), Rami Heuberger (last seen in "Schindler's List"), Rotem Keinan (last seen in "The Operative"), Emma Davies (last seen in "The People We Hate at the Wedding"), Lior Ashkenazi (last seen in "Norman"), Dominic Mafham (last seen in "Ophelia"), Dvir Benedek, Ed Stoppard (last seen in "Nanny McPhee Returns"), Ohad Knoller (last seen in "Operation Finale"), Liev Schreiber (last seen in "The Daytrippers"), Jaime Ray Newman (last seen in "Made of Honor"), Zed Josef, Henry Goodman (last seen in "Their Finest"), Jonathan Tafler (last seen in "Yentl"), Ellie Piercy (last seen in "The Dig"), Mark Fleischmann (last seen in "Enola Holmes 2"), Daniel Ben Zenou, Sara Matin, Dalia Librus, Kit Rakusen (last seen in "Jay Kelly"),
with archive footage of Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter (last seen in "The Iron Claw"), Henry Kissinger (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Golda Meir, Richard Nixon (last seen in "Rather"), Anwar Sadat,
RATING: 5 out of 10 aerial photographs
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