O Jerusalem (2007)
Average Rating: 4.6/10
Reviews Counted: 24
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 16
Though a noble effort, O Jerusalem fails to combine this history lesson and human drama into a coherent cinematic piece.
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 8
Though a noble effort, O Jerusalem fails to combine this history lesson and human drama into a coherent cinematic piece.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 695
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Movie Info
Alternating between the unique vantage points of the Jews, the Arabs, and the British, director Elie Chouraqui's historical drama re-creates the landmark struggle surrounding the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. From the concrete jungle of New York City to the desert paradise of the Holy Land, two young Americans -- one Jewish and the other Arab -- are forced to make an incredible series of life-altering sacrifices in order to fight for their dreams. As the struggle for control of
Cast
-
J.J. Feild
Bobby Goldman -
Said Taghmaoui
Saïd Chahine, Saïd Cha... -
Daniel Lundh
Roni -
Mel Raido
Jacob -
Patrick Bruel
David Levin -
Maria Papas
Hadassah -
Peter Polycarpou
Abdel Khader -
Ian Holm
David Ben Gurion -
Tom Conti
Sir Cunningham -
Tovah Feldshuh
Golda Meir -
Elie Chouraqui
Isaac Roth -
Shirel
Yael -
Mhairi Steenbock
Cathy -
Cécile Cassel
Jane -
Rafi Tabor
Ehud Avriel -
René Zagger
Golan -
Jamie Harding
Amin Chahine -
Daniel Benzenou
Daoud
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All Critics (26) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (16) | DVD (1)
Good intentions often make bad movies.
Top CriticThe filmmakers split time between history and personal drama in ways that do full service to neither.
Its heart firmly in the right place, O Jerusalem proves an uneasy mix of history and fiction.
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.
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.
It's hard to take the film seriously with [its] contrivances, including a hokey music score, dialogue designed solely to give us historical information.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Latest News on O Jerusalem
October 25, 2007:
Critical Consensus: Life Has Its Ups And Downs, Darjeeling Is TransportingThis week at the movies we have a lovelorn single dad (Dan in Real Life, starring Steve Carell and...
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Foreign Titles
- Oh, Jerusalén (ES)
