Raid on Entebbe (film)

Raid on Entebbe
original film poster by John Solie
Directed by	Irvin Kershner
Produced by	Daniel H. Blatt Edgar J. Scherick
Written by	Barry Beckerman
Starring	Peter Finch Charles Bronson Yaphet Kotto James Woods Robert Loggia
Music by	David Shire
Cinematography	Bill Butler
Distributed by	20th Century Fox Television
Release date(s)	9 January 1977
Running time	150 min.
Country	United States
Language	English German French

Raid on Entebbe is a 1977 TV movie directed by Irvin Kershner. It is based on an actual event: Operation Entebbe and the freeing of hostages at Entebbe Airport in Entebbe, Uganda on July 4, 1976. It was the last movie to be released featuring Academy Award-winning actor Peter Finch who died just 10 days after the movie aired. Actress Dinah Manoff appears in one of her very first roles.^{[citation needed]}

The movie was released shortly after a more hastily released made-for-television version came out - Victory at Entebbe (1976).

Though the movie was premiered on television in the United States, in some countries (including the United Kingdom) the film was distributed theatrically.^{[citation needed]}

Plot

This version of Operation Entebbe is believed to be fairly accurate. The basic facts of the rescue of hostages held when hijackers working for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine boarded and hijacked an Air France plane recounts the events and response of the Israeli government and the controversy that the rescue stirred.

This version shows the difficult deliberations held by the Cabinet of Israel to decide on a top-secret military raid on the Jewish Sabbath by commandos; a difficult and daring operation carried out over 2500 miles from home, and of course, an unwillingness of the Israeli government to give in to terrorist demands. One commando was killed (the operation commander Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), as were three of the hostages, and 45 soldiers under the then dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin. The death of Netanyahu was moved from the beginning of the assault when it happened to the end for plot reasons. A fourth hostage, Dora Bloch, who had been taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, was murdered by the Ugandans on Idi Amin's orders.

Cast

• Peter Finch as Yitzhak Rabin
• Martin Balsam as Daniel Cooper
• Horst Buchholz as Wilfried Böse
• John Saxon as Maj. Gen. Peled
• Jack Warden as Lt. Gen. Mordechai Gur
• Yaphet Kotto as Idi Amin
• Meshach Richards as Maj. Gen. Allon
• Charles Bronson as Brig. Gen Dan Shomron
• Sylvia Sidney as Dora Bloch
• Robert Loggia as Yigal Allon
• Tige Andrews as Shimon Peres
• Eddie Constantine as Capt. Michel Bacos
• David Opatoshu as Menachem Begin
• Allan Arbus as Eli Melnick
• Stephen Macht as Lt. Col. Yonatan 'Yonni' Netanyahu
• James Woods as Capt. Sammy Berg
• Harvey Lembeck as Mr. Harvey
• Dinah Manoff as Rachel Sager
• Kim Richards as Alice

Music

The Jewish hymn sung on the plane by the commandos is "Hine ma tov"

See also

• Operation Thunderbolt (film)
• Victory at Entebbe

External links

• Raid on Entebbe at the Internet Movie Database
• Raid on Entebbe at AllRovi