Raid on Entebbe *** (1976, Peter Finch, Charles Bronson, Yaphet Kotto, Martin Balsam, Horst Buchholz, John Saxon, Jack Warden) – Classic Movie Review 7061

Director Irvin Kershner’s Raid on Entebbe was made as an NBC TV movie, aired on 9 January 1977, but, thanks to the good reviews it won and its popular all-star ensemble cast, a film version was then released in cinemas in the UK and Europe in early 1977. The cinema version was cut by more than 20 minutes to shorten its running time from the original 145 minutes to 121 minutes.

It won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Made for Television. Cinematographer Bill Butler won a Primetime Emmy Award (Outstanding Cinematography in Entertainment Programming for a Special) and the sound editors won also for Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing for a Special.

It tells the same story about the freeing of hostages at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport on 4 July 1976 as Victory at Entebbe, which was rushed into production by ABC and aired a month before Raid on Entebbe.

Barry Beckerman’s screenplay is painstaking though rather basic, sticking closely to the job of recounting the facts of the terrorist hijacking, response of the Israeli government and the rescue of the hostages held in Uganda, along with the controversy stirred up by the rescue. But it does this job well and the all-star ensemble cast prove the good value expected of them.

It stars Peter Finch in his final performance as Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (Finch died five days after the film’s release), Charles Bronson as Brigadier General Dan Shomron, Yaphet Kotto as Ugandan dictator General Idi Amin, Martin Balsam as Daniel Cooper, Horst Buchholz as Wilfried Böse, John Saxon as Major General Peled, Jack Warden as Lieutenant General  Mordechai Gur, Meshach Richards as Major General Allon, Sylvia Sidney as Dora Bloch, Robert Loggia as Yigal Allon, Tige Andrews as Israeli Defence Minister Shimon Peres, Eddie Constantine as Captain Michel Bacos,

Also in the cast are David Opatoshu as Menachem Begin, Allan Arbus as Eli Melnick, Stephen Macht as Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan ‘Yoni’ Netanyahu, James Woods as Captain Sammy Berg, Harvey Lembeck as Mr Harvey, Dinah Manoff as Rachel Sager, Kim Richards as Alice and Aharon Ipalé as Major David Grut.

It was shot in the United States, with the Stockton Metropolitan Airport in California, serving as both Entebbe Airport and an Israeli Air Force base.

The story is re-told in 2018 as Entebbe.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7061

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