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MOVIES / ON DVD / O JERUSALEM
O Jerusalem

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O Jerusalem (2007)

30%
25%
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30 %
Reviews Counted: 20 Fresh: 6  Rotten:14 Average Rating: 4.6/10
 
Consensus: Though a noble effort, O Jerusalem fails to combine this history lesson and human drama into a coherent cinematic piece.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for some war scenes

Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins

Theatrical Release: Oct 24, 2007 Limited

Box Office: $179,057

Synopsis: In 1947, two friends--one Jew and one Arab--find their friendship tested as the state of Israel is being formed. O JERUSALEM is adapted from the book written by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. In 1947, two friends--one Jew and one Arab--find their friendship tested as the state of Israel is being formed. O JERUSALEM is adapted from the book written by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Said Taghmaoui, JJ Feild, Maria Papas, Patrick Bruel, Mel Raido

Director: Elie Chouraqui
Screenwriter: Didier Le Pecheur, Elie Chouraqui
Producer: Andre Djaoui, Elie Chouraqui, Jean Frydman, Andreas Grosch
Composer: Stephen Endelman

Reviews

 
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Full Review | comment Comment
04/03/08
Boxoffice Magazine
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C

O Jerusalem is as overstated and expository as a historical pageant, from the drippy music to a sputtering, running gag involving funky old jalopies to clichéd speeches and teary-eyed deaths and a final voice-over crying out for peace.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/07/07
Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun
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C

Good intentions often make bad movies.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/21/07
Nell Minow
Chicago Sun-Times
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1.5/4

The filmmakers split time between history and personal drama in ways that do full service to neither.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/15/07
Tasha Robinson
Chicago Tribune
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3/6

Its heart firmly in the right place, O Jerusalem proves an uneasy mix of history and fiction.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/15/07
Joshua Land
Time Out New York
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1/4

I felt as though I could have gathered the same information about Israel's beginnings from a pamphlet, and saved myself the film's forthright baggage

Full Review | comment Comment
10/28/07
Jordan Hiller
Bangitout.com
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3/5

A hopeful and helpful movie that depicts the friendship between a Jew and an Arab that outlasts the winds of war and the culture of revenge and racial hatred surrounding them.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/28/07
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice
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2/4

In trying to be sensitive to such a controversial issue, O Jerusalem glazes over important events settling for mediocrity while giving a history lesson more appropriate for high school.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/26/07
Marta Barber
Miami Herald
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2/4

It aspires to be an epic drama but suffers from an acute identity crisis: It can't decide if it wants to be history, drama, or a cry for peace in the Mideast.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/26/07
Linda Matchan
Boston Globe
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N/A

The need to touch on pivotal events makes this at times seem like history's 'greatest hits,' although the personal stories provide a narrative thread tying it all together.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/26/07
Daniel M. Kimmel
The Jewish Advocate
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N/A

It's hard to take the film seriously with [its] contrivances, including a hokey music score, dialogue designed solely to give us historical information.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/25/07
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
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N/A

Director Elie Chouraqui and co-writer Didier Lepecheur [fall] prey to a fatal evenhandedness that reduces a complex battle for the loveliest, most fought-over city in the world to a pile of heroic clichés.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/25/07
Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly
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N/A

Even with its flaws, the film finds many moving moments as it surveys the ravages of a perpetually divided country.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/24/07
Stephen Farber
Hollywood Reporter
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1/5

As a history lesson, the film is so elementary and silly that you'd half-expect to find Mr. Peabody and Sherman peeking around the Wailing Wall.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/24/07
Phil Hall
EDGE Boston
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2/4

Such fictionalizations are the stuff of TV miniseries, and only serve to add confusion and melodrama to a history that, as Collins and Lapierre's book proves, hardly needs further dramatization.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/19/07
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide
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1.5/4

Unfortunately, French director Elie Chouraqui settles for speed and cliché.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/19/07
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
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1.5/4

Hammers away at its Arab/Jewish variation on the chicken-or-the-egg debate ad nauseam.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/17/07
Rob Humanick
Slant Magazine
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1/5

It's not easy to turn one of the most controversial events of the 20th century into a movie that makes your eyes roll, but O Jerusalem does this and worse.

comment Comment
10/17/07
Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
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B

In its struggle to present an unbiased portrait that balances Jewish and Palestinian viewpoints evenly, the film loses some narrative focus. Nevertheless, it presents a valuable history lesson that points out the dire effects of British occupation in the

Full Review | comment Comment
10/17/07
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
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2.5/4

The performances are all good, and there's enough history in O Jerusalem to float a boat of refugees.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/11/07
John Anderson
Newsday
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