Sunday, January 26, 2025

Paul Newman @ 100: Exodus

Today marks Paul Newman’s centennial (1/26/1925-9/26/2008), but aside from tonight’s TCM programming, the occasion seems strangely under-heralded. Maybe this film is a partial reason why. Throughout his lifetime, Newman passionately advocated for liberal causes, but if he tried to speak on an Ivy League campus today, he would probably be shouted down and possibly physically attacked, because he appeared in Otto Preminger classic historical drama chronicling the founding of the state of Israel. Ironically, Newman was probably attracted by the film’s old school liberal themes, condemning anti-Semitism and championing indigenous people (the Jews) rebelling against their colonizers (the British and Arabs). Plus, Newman was also half-Jewish. This epic (at 208 minutes, “epic” is the right word) has only grown more controversial, for reminding the world why the Jewish people needed a homeland and how the Arab world immediately waged war against them. Preminger’s Exodus is also a stirring, old fashioned Hollywood crowd-pleaser that deserves rediscovery—and today would be the perfect day for it.

Initially, Kitty Fremont is no Zionist. She rarely thought about the Jewish people and when she did, it was not particularly edifying. To be fair, she still grieves her war correspondent husband—or rather she has rather avoided moving on with life. The nurse just finished a tour of duty at an American military hospital in Greece, so she stops in Cypress as a tourist before returning home. There, she visits her late husband’s friend, Gen. Sutherland, who administers the Jewish refugee camp. Sensing she needs purpose, he recommends she volunteer in the short-staffed camp clinic. First she declines, but when she recognizes her prejudice reflected in Sutherland’s subordinate, Maj. Caldwell, she agrees out of shame.

In the camp, she meets blond haired, blue-eyed fifteen-year-old Dutch refugee Karen Hansen Clement, who defies her preconceived image of Jewishness. Fremont is determined to bring Clement to America. However, the teen still hopes to find her missing father, the only other member of her family not confirmed dead in the concentration camps, in what the British call the Mandate of Palestine.

As it happens, Haganah commander Ari Ben Canaan has a plan to ferry hundreds of Jewish refugees like her to their homeland—and hopefully send a message to the United Nations in the process. The British steadfastly oppose any further Jewish immigration, out of deference to the neighboring Arab nations. Consequently, Sutherland will approve no such transfers, despite his reputation. Frankly, officers like Caldwell consider the Colonel so sympathetic to the Jewish refugees, they assume he must be secretly part-Jewish.

Of course, all the Jews Ben Canaan successfully shuttles into Israel will face violent reprisals after the historic 1948 UN vote. Fremont will see it all for herself, when she joins Clement and Ben Canaan in the future Israel.

Exodus
was filmed on location in Israel and Cypress, where the ancient backdrops give it a sense of historical authenticity and visual splendor. Encompassing the events of the Exodus Blockade (which was admittedly given a much happier ending), the Acre Prison escape, UN Resolution 181, and the subsequent Arab pogroms targeting Jews (while the Brits sat on their hands), Exodus is a true epic, sent against a sprawling canvas.

Newman is also terrific as Ben Canaan, even though many critics argued he was miscast, because he was too handsome to be Israeli (again, he was half-Jewish). Frankly, this is one of his toughest, steeliest performances of his Hollywood heartthrob years.
 His closing eulogy serves as an acting master-class that both perfectly expresses his character’s grief and the aspirations of the Israeli people, to finally live in peace and security.

He also has potent chemistry with Eva Marie Saint, his co-star in the 1954
Our Town, which was a breakout vehicle for them both. Arguably, Fremont has the greatest character arc and shows the most growth amongst all the characters, which Saint quite bravely depicts.

You can tell this is classic Hollywood prestige picture from the stacked cast of movie stars. For instance, Sir Ralph Richardson is a standout as the morally conflicted, deeply humanist Gen. Sutherland, who really deserved awards consideration. On the other end of the acting spectrum, Sal Mineo’s school of James Dean acting approach applies quite well to tormented Holocaust survivor and Irgun guerilla Dov Landau. As his love interest, in her first credited film appearance, Jill Haworth is acutely poignant as Clement, the teen survivor.

The quality of John Derek’s portrayal of Ben Canaan’s Arab Muslim friend Taha is so shocking, it should make viewers wonder what might have been, had he not shifted to directing questionable films for his wife Bo. Fortunately, Preminger kept him at arm’s length from Alexandra Stewart, who shows early star power as Ben Canaan’s kibitzer sister Jordana.

Surprisingly, there are a lot of capery thrills during the extended Acre escape sequence. Preminger and blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (who campaigned against American entry into WWII, at the behest of the Communist Party) soften the anti-British bias of Leon Uris’s source novel. They also do their best to humanize Muslim and Druze characters, such as Taha, with whom Ben Canaan and his comrades hope to live side-by-side, in peace and harmony. Somewhat appropriately,
Exodus is uplifting and tragic in equal measure. It holds up extremely well and it is timelier than ever. Highly recommended, Exodus currently streams on Tubi, Pluto, and the Roku Channel. Happy Birthday Mr. Newman.