Entebbe (2018)

Review

107min

Genre:     Fact-based, Crime, Drama

Director:  José Padilha

Cast:       Daniel Brühl, Rosamund Pike, Eddie Marsan…and more

Writer:    Gregory Burke

-Synopsis-

In the summer of 1976, two Palestinian extremists and two German ones hijack a plane and take the passengers hostage, forcing it to land in Idi Amin’s Uganda in a bid to further their cause in the Arab-Israeli conflict—prompting a dangerous rescue mission by the Israeli special forces in this dramatisation of the infamous ‘Operation Thunderbolt’ incident.

With a couple of 70s American TV movies and an Israeli feature film about the incident to draw from, not to mention its brief depiction in 2006’s ‘The Last King of Scotland’, and armed with new declassified information about the counter-terrorist hostage rescue mission, Brazilian director José Padilha takes his experiences of organised crime and tactical operations from projects like ‘Elite Squad’ and Netflix hit series ‘Narcos’, crafting a modern take on past events which remain depressingly timely—and adding a historical dimension to an intractable conflict which continues to fuel ideological fires across the globe.

Daniel Brühl and Rosamund Pike star as German revolutionaries and leftist terrorists Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann, joining forces with Palestinian liberation extremists to hijack an Air France plane and its 248 souls—including ninety-four Jewish passengers—in a bid to free their incarcerated comrades and strike against Zionism by diverting it to Uganda and into the open arms of unpredictable president Idi Amin (Nonso Anozie), playing his own game of geopolitics. With the eyes of the world upon him and the reputation of his nation’s security on the line, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin (Lior Ashkenazi) must balance the safety of his citizens with the determination of his overzealous defence minister Shimon Peres (Eddie Marsan), and decide whether to have the IDF launch one of the most daring hostage rescues in history—with implications well beyond the East African nation.

Given some of the current headlines and the endless conflict in the region, ‘Entebbe’ could hardly be a more timely film. Padilha and writer Gregory Burke (’71) combine political drama with hostage thriller in a package which attempts to equitably address sensitive and divisive themes, balancing the subject of Israel’s right to defend itself with some of the questionable methods it uses, and the Palestinian struggle for self-determination with the extremist avenues it often takes—all built on the scarring foundation of early 20th century history, and of course underpinned by ancient claims, gripes and grievances which have lasted many a lifetime.

Guided by the credo of “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”, Padilha attempts to apply an even hand to the depiction of the film’s characters by deliberately humanising them all despite their deeds, drawing them in a relatable and even sympathetic manner whilst guiding the audience into empathising with their experiences, regardless of their ideologies. All the while the director tries to use his experience of plunging characters into tense and extraordinary situations while getting the audience to invest in them—yet in spite of the remarkable true story components of the narrative ‘Entebbe’ ultimately succeeds only in informing, and fails to truly captivate or move the audience at every step of the way.

With the film so focused on the political machinations of the story, their lingering impact on the world and the heavy-hanging legacy of the holocaust, Padilha and Burke manage to pay paltry lip service to the elements required to make this an engrossing cinematic experience—drama and thriller. Even if you put aside the film’s questionable moral equivalencies and the head-scratching notion of ‘humanitarian hijackers’, ‘Entebbe’ never really takes off (pun intended), and there’s a distinct lack of tension and edge throughout, despite the director’s efforts to create a claustrophobic atmosphere befitting a hostage tale.

The human drama is also hampered by underwhelming character dynamics and sermonising dialogue which often squanders the talents of a talented cast. Brühl and Pike’s performances are workmanlike but unspectacular, indeed only Eddie Marsan as bullish Israeli minister of defence and future prime minister Peres manages to shine, while Nonso Anozie in his brief appearance proves a larger-than-life scene-stealer as infamous and charismatic dictator Idi Amin.

Yet despite going through the motions of a stale albeit well-crafted and cinematic narrative, and in spite of its limitations as a drama, ‘Entebbe’ will undoubtedly prove informative for those not familiar with the extraordinary true story, and is far from being the worst Hollywood history lesson we’ve seen. Padilha & co. make a noble if slightly misguided effort to humanise the various factions of a complex clash, trying to pull a common human thread by filtering a 20th century conflict through a 21st century social lens—resulting in a biographical drama which may not captivate or particularly entertain, but might just open eyes and minds . . . for some anyway.

The Bottom Line…

A well-crafted new take on a remarkable tactical operation and an extraordinary true story which captures a microcosm of an intractable conflict, ‘Entebbe’ is severely lacking in the dramatic stakes and fails to captivate as a thriller—but is just about rescued by its merits as a cinematic history lesson, and a noble if slightly naive attempt at applying a balanced humanistic approach to a complex geopolitical situation . . . which remains as divisive as ever.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Munich (2005)

Stylish Steven Spielberg dramatization of the events surrounding the “Munich massacre” during the 1972 Olympics, where eleven Israeli Olympians were murdered by terrorists sparking global outrage and merciless international retaliation by Israeli intelligence agency the “Mossad”.

Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Eric Bana, Daniel Craig and Geoffrey Rush among others.

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