Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Every other documentary I've seen that refers to the bight of the Mediterranean social history, does so benignly painting a picture of various religions and ethnicity, including Jewish people, living in a kind of pastoral harmony.Ah, but then why does this documentary show fortified British police stations and British military forts dotting the Palestinian / Israeli landscape? Why is that?To ask why Israel was formed seems like a logical question. But the only answer you'll get here from the participants is "we wanted to". Well, okay, but why? What necessitated the creation of a Jewish state, other than perhaps that obvious calamity of Germany during the second world war. To ask that is to ask the origins of antisemitism and anti-Jewish sentiment as a whole. It is the most important question, but you never get an answer for that in this documentary.What you get is a historical account of the military conflict that led to the creation of Israel, framed as a kind of Jewish revolution for a Jewish homeland. We do hear of the UN's plan backed by the UK, US and I think France and a few other nations, to create a place where Jewish people could live free of persecution. But there's not much beyond that, and the "free of persecution" I think is an elusive goal that ultimately only those Jewish people who have a vested interest in Israel can answer for themselves.It's almost like any other documentary about any other military conflict, but with emotionally driven moments perhaps created to garner sympathy from the viewer. My response is the same as General Ulysses S. Grant; "War is hell." And if you engage in the exercise, then be prepared for all that it is, and don't be surprised if people don't find your enterprise all that sympathetic, especially if they have issues with you to begin with.And this two part mini-series documentary really misses that ultra important point. Every documentary or history book I've read about the American Revolution or the American Civil War has laid out the causes of what drove people to take up arms against their fellow man.But we get none of that here. And I think that's ultra important on every level, because if all you're doing is selling the emotional struggle of the military struggle, then perhaps your basis for the struggle isn't all that strong to begin with. A good documentary would have addressed the pros and cons of creating Israel; who, how and what it would benefit, and who would it cost. But there's none of that here, and to this day we get more and more news' reports of repeated violence on the fringes of that nation.One wonders how Northern Ireland settled their disagreements. One wonders how the various Native American tribes in my nation settled their differences, or came to terms with "white" government in America. One wonders how the native people in Japan's northern islands haven't taken up arms against Japanese society, and are in fact now "dying off" because of becoming Japanese. How is it that these people came to terms, and yet Israel has not. And, further, why is it that Jewish people do seem to be targeted to the point of needing a UN mandate to create a safe haven for them from a country that was already occupied by another population.It does make one a bit baffled. But perhaps that's another documentary for another time. In the meantime I would only recommend this documentary as a historical account of the military conflict that led to creating Israel, and not a source for why Israel was created in the first place.

Those blinded by hatred and bent on the destruction of tiny Israel will understandably disagree with this historical account of a small group of people regaining their homeland. I would have liked to see Gilbert make an issue of the fact that a Roman emperor changed the name of Judea to 'Provincia Syrica Palestinia' out of anger against the Jews. Prior to AD 135, there was no Palestine except for a region in Syria. Every good museum will exhibit Roman coins from before AD 70 with the inscription "Judea" (not Palestine) evidencing the original nationality of Jews. This documentary accurately portrays the plight of a rebellious race of people, who nonetheless rightfully reclaimed their land in 1948, firstly established over 3000 years ago and long before various nomadic tribes began following the self-proclaimed prophet and famed terrorist Mohammed (c. AD 600), later disregarding history and conveniently assuming themselves to be Palestinian. Anyone interested in unadulterated history and now mostly ignored facts concerning the importance of Israel's survival will find this documentary enlightening.

The documentary is shameless in its advancement of Israeli nationalism. Replete with interesting archival footage, the narrator imposes his views on virtually everything. Irgun is not viewed as a terrorist group, but acts from Arabs are. He viewed Britain as having a limiting effect on Israel, when it could equally be argued that they were an enabler for the Israelis. He stated that the Israelis granted full civil rights to residents, no matter what ethnicity or religion, which is patently false, even if it may justifiably be argued that Israel grants a significant amount of rights that exceeded those granted in surrounding states. No effort is made to view the conflict from the Arab side, with only minimal information brought to light about the Arab forces, their strategies, and the plight of the Palestinian people. It ends with a sentimental shot of a rainbow, which is a great microcosm for this film. If you want something that will make you throw your fist in the air and say "GO ISRAEL!", then this is your film. If you want something that presents the war in a fair way, then it is not.