Fantastic!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is so disappointing! I cannot even go into the many ways this film was a letdown after reading the book. It really should not have had the same title as the book, because people who saw this movie who had not read the book would think they know what is in the book, and they would be wrong.To be fair, this book is much too epic to have possibly be put into a 2-hour film. It would need something on the order of 6 or even 12 hours in a miniseries. All that said, Uris was not a true historian when it came to beefing up his book. It's a crying shame that otherwise good historical novels twist the truth just for the sake of their "product."One HUGE example is that in the book 300 children aged 7 to 13, most who had been in concentration camps all their lives, were the ONLY ones that were taken on the Olympus when the escape was made from the detainment camp to take them to Palestine. In the film it started out all ages -- and then the Jew in charge of the escape sending ALL children BACK to the detainment camp when the going got tough. And all I can say for certain is that in real life, the Brits sent the Jews who were on that ship back to Germany. The whole point (in the book and in real life) was that it was very well publicized worldwide, so that the international community cared -- for a short time, at least -- for the Jews, and this is significant and a factor in what happened on the world stage in relation to Israel.There is SO MUCH depth and flavor in the book that is NOT in this film. In addition, I don't have anything against Paul Newman, but he was not right for the part of Ari Ben Canaan. Oh sure, in this film (which is NOT like the book), he works as the romantic lead in the usual Hollywood style. For the purposes of Hollywood and the powers that were involved they even had him telling the Jews at a kibbutz to "always respect Allah" at the funeral of his old friend-turned-enemy, Taha. That is absurd. Sure, respect PERSONS (who may believe in Allah), but no self-respecting Jew would tell other Jews at a kibbutz in Israel to always respect Allah. One wonders whether this line was written out of ignorance or under political pressure. Even with the diversions from actual history in the book, it is very well worth reading. Uris put more in correctly than wrongly from what I can tell, and the flavor of the situation I believe was well written. The movie? Eh. I could have never seen it and I would really not have missed anything.

I did not read any reviews about this film prior to seeing it.In retrospect I should have, as it would have saved me from wasting time on cheap trash.This film is extremely badly done piece of propaganda that has next to nothing to do with actual events it is supposed to portray.What exactly is the reason not to tell the real story? Why change even basic facts that can be proved such as origin of the ship (it was USA and NOT Cyprus), and historical fact that British actually sent Jewish people this movie is about back to Germany.This film has nothing at all to do with actual history. Its nothing but piece of garbage. A very boring one at that.

When I read in a review here that this was an "exciting historical drama; a fictional story told around actual events.", I was flabbergasted! I was 19 when I saw the film in 1960 in Paris. At that time I liked more or less the film, criticizing its length; a good script does not need to take 200 minutes to expose a subject. But this is not the most important thing here.When you tackle a subject related to a major historical event, you have no right whatsoever to distort facts. When you tackle a subject so sensitive as the consequences of the holocaust and the situation of Jews in search of a country to live at the end of WWII, you have no right to distort facts. Preminger being of Jewish origins himself had no right to use this historical event et to distort history. This appeared clearly to me after visioning the bluray and its bonuses.Nowhere is mentioned that the refugees boarded the ship in South of France. The ship was acquired in the USA and not Cyprus. The refugees never left the ship until the scandalous attack by the British forces who jumped from one destroyer onto the ship as shown on newsreels presented in the bonus of the DVD. And worst of all nowhere it is mentioned that Great Britain boarded the refugees on 3 prison ships and send them back to Hamburg in Germany. It is because of those actions that at last the United Nations reached a semi consensus to order Britain to leave Palestine and decided the creation the State of Israel.Such a treatment of history, of events which were so terrible after the horrors of WWII cant deserve any prize.This film is a tissue of lies from beginning to the end. It is too serious a subject to excuse oneself saying that it is a fiction story. As far as I'm concerned the bluray will directly go into the garbage can. It does not deserve better treatment.

A classic in every since of the word. The best selling novel by Leon Uris is adapted for the silver screen by the fabled producer/director Otto Preminger. A lumbering 3 1/2 hours concerning the early days of Israel with actual history debatable. Paul Newman plays Ari Ben Canaan, the leader of the Jewish underground, who exhausts mortal energy in efforts to lead over six hundred holocaust survivors to the Holy Land. Exiled Jews board a sea vessel called Exodus that must deal with a British government blockade. Ari is determined to get the refugees to Palestine rather than be returned to war-ravaged Germany. The underground will help shape an independent nation in 1947. A cast of thousands featuring: Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo, Jill Haworth, David Opatoshu, Hugh Griffith and Peter Lawford.