Exodus (1960 film)
| Exodus | |
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Theatrical release film poster by Saul Bass
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| Directed by | Otto Preminger |
| Produced by | Otto Preminger |
| Written by | Dalton Trumbo |
| Based on |
Exodus by Leon Uris |
| Starring |
Paul Newman Eva Marie Saint Ralph Richardson Peter Lawford Sal Mineo Jill Haworth Lee J. Cobb John Derek |
| Music by | Ernest Gold |
| Cinematography | Sam Leavitt, ASC |
| Edited by | Louis R. Loeffler |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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208 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4.5 million |
| Box office | $8,700,000 (US/ Canada) $20 million (worldwide) |
Exodus is a 1960 epic film on the founding of the modern State of Israel. It was made by Alpha and Carlyle Productions and distributed by United Artists. Produced and directed by Otto Preminger, the film was based on the 1958 novel Exodus by Leon Uris. The screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo. The film features an ensemble cast, and its celebrated soundtrack music was written by Ernest Gold.
Widely characterized as a "Zionist epic", the film has been identified by many commentators as having been enormously influential in stimulating Zionism and support for Israel in the United States. While the Preminger film softened the anti-British and anti-Arab sentiment of the novel, the film remains controversial for its depiction of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It would also become famous for Preminger openly hiring screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted for over a decade for being a communist and forced to work under assumed names. Together with Spartacus, also written by Trumbo, Exodus is credited with ending the Hollywood blacklist.
The film is based on events surrounding the ship Exodus in Cyprus in 1947 and then on events in Palestine during the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948.
Nurse Katherine "Kitty" Fremont (Eva Marie Saint) is an American volunteer at the Karaolos internment camp on Cyprus, where thousands of Jews - Holocaust survivors - are being held by the British, who will not let them go to Palestine. They anxiously wait for the day they will be liberated. Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman), a Haganah rebel who had been a captain in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in the Second World War, obtains a cargo ship and smuggles 611 Jewish inmates out of the camp for an illegal voyage to Mandate Palestine before being discovered by military authorities. When the British find out that the refugees are in a ship in the harbor of Famagusta, they blockade it. The refugees stage a hunger strike, during which the camp's doctor dies, and Ari threatens to blow up the ship and the refugees. The British relent and allow the Exodus safe passage.
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Wikipedia