That was an excellent one.

People are voting emotionally.

Dreadfully Boring

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

What did I learn from watching The Promise?Palestinians are warm, family-loving, loyal, peaceful, noble people, rich in spirit. Even the best Jews are hapless dupes of an evil police state; the rest are cold, heartless, scheming, violent and greedy—the opposite of noble.And the Brits? God bless those Brits! They are a wise and altruistic people who once ran a worldwide empire purely as an act of selfless philanthropy, bringing civilization and maintaining peace among lesser peoples. If only the Brits still ruled the world!Seriously, there is not a Palestinian in this movie who is not noble. And not a Jew who is not ignoble. The Brits are a bit more mixed—one of them, after all, falls for a Jewess and becomes yet another pawn in their evil scheme. But our British hero and heroine are shining examples of a type known in another era as the Ugly American—know-it- all buttinskys who think they possess an unerring moral compass and feel obliged to stick their noses in other people's business, certain that only they, the Brits, can sort things out. As foreigners abroad, it would never occur to them to simply mind their own business.The leading actors are also very good looking. Kosminsky knows that the surest way to keep an audience watching is to offer excellent eye-candy. But there is no nudity, or even much skin at all. The women are hardly even glimpsed in the love scenes, staying hidden under the sheets. The Promise is unusually chaste for a miniseries made in 2011, and I wondered about this, until I realized that Kosminsky deliberately deleted any naughty bits so as not to offend any prudish Palestinian members of the audience.As filmmaking, The Promise is above average. I'd give it a solid six stars. As propaganda, its scores nine (negative) stars, because being duped into watching propaganda puts me in a bad mood. That's a net negative three, which can only be scored here as one star.About halfway through this four-parter, I still hoped the story might resolve in a nuanced and morally complex manner worthy of the thorny material—the sort of story we get from the best of le Carré or Graham Greene. But by the end, there is no ambiguity. There are good guys and bad guys—and a filmmaker with a clear agenda.

Most Americans are most likely unfamiliar with the creation of Israel after WW II. This series offers some historical perspective to what is usually seen as a single point of view: Jewish refugees trying to establish a homeland after surviving the Nazi death camps (the good); the Arabs (Palestinians) trying to keep them out (the bad); and the British troops trying to maintain a tenuous peace (the ugly). As usual, the real story is various shades of grey. This series is presented somewhat through the eyes of Erin Matthews, a twenty year old who is spending part of her gap year--year between finishing what we think of as high school and starting college--with her friend Eliza who is a British Jew who returns to Israel to begin her national service. Erin discovers before leaving England her grandfather's diary which tells his story as a sergeant in the British army serving in Palestine during the 1940's. The story moves back and forth between the story of her grandfather, Len Matthews, and her experiences in Israel as she reads and tries to follow through on his story as related in the diary. In this telling it is made clear that the Jewish refugees are intent on creating a homeland regardless of the cost in life to the Palestinians or British troops. As a result, Len Matthews who began his service in sympathy with the Jews finds his feelings change as a result of his experiences. And Erin also finds that in the present day the assumptions she has been brought up with are now being challenged by experience. I personally found Len's story quite compelling and in part due to the fine acting of Christian Cooke as Len; and while Erin's story is also arresting, Claire Foy's Erin is a somewhat irritating and an unsympathetic character. Almost obnoxious. However, the large cast does an excellent job and there is no way you can watch one segment of the series and not feel compelled to watch the subsequent episodes. While I find the story well balanced in trying to show the larger picture, I am sure some will be upset to find that the Israelis are not depicted as the completely good guy underdogs of history. But if you want a better understanding of the current unrest in the Middle East then this is both an entreating and illuminating series.

I have lived for a longish time in the Israel, but I am not Jewish or arab. Even though the reason I was in the area was actually that I'm so interested in history.There are so many points in this mini-series that I ponder about. The biggest one before watching the series was if this was yet another pro- zionist or pro-jihadist series.Well. I got my answer. The other questions I came up while and after watching it.1. Why do they comment the wall on west bank as "disgusting" but fail to mention how much bombings & suicide attacks against Israel have decreased after it was built?2. I do agree that Irgun and Jewish attacks against British government were acts of terrorism, but still the series brings the happenings out of proportions: "Oh my, the Irgun did a few bombings, so they're more evil than jihad terrorists that have made hundreds of such attacks, and not just against military but in fact mostly civilian targets". If you're military, you might be a target. But if you're civilian, any civilized soldier will leave you alone. 3. Lots of small things. Blackpainting of Jewish civilians (the counter- protest part), IDF soldiers who seem like Nazis (contrary to my own personal experiences), taking comments about forcing arabs to move contrary to the reality, arabs were told and encouraged to stay in their homes, etc.I have been personally to / close the locations where the modern day events take place. This did bring me back a lot of memories. I've seen conflicts similar to what the series described, but both sides were throwing rocks, palestines threw even bottles and molotov coctails until IDF came in and the ran away. It ain't as black & white as the series shows. It tries to show Jewish and IDF as evil Nazis. Unfortunately.The series had its potential, lost by a very one-sided view.

I had a personal interest in this for two reasons. My father served with the paras in Palestine (having joined up to fight the Germans) and I've had a long-term interest in what is now known as the 'IP' question. I have to say I was engrossed by the whole series, although there a few dramatic devices which were verging on the unbelievable. It might have worked better as a drama for those who knew absolutely nothing about the situation, in either era. I probably spent too much time worrying about the politics. My sympathies have always lain with the Palestinian side, and there were bits of it I thought were good for setting out a side to Israel that isn't always seen (eg the attitude of the settlers to the indigenous population, which I suspect are an embarrassment to many Israelis). However, although I know where I stand, I wouldn't want to watch anything which contained too much simple propaganda. I think The Promise did achieve a level of balance, sometimes to the detriment of the drama (eg the King David Hotel incident being followed by a suicide bomber). The perception has been is that The Promise was more pro Arab than Israeli, but I can guarantee that no-one with strong views and a knowledge of the history would be particularly satisfied with the politics. For instance, all the main characters were either Brits or Jews, the Arabs were walk-on one dimensional characters. I think it can best be regarded as a drama set in turbulent times, and not as a drama documentary - there is simply too much history to cover to do anything else. I realise it was a dramatic device but poor Len seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time throughout. To put in context, the British had about 100,000 troops in Palestine from 46 to 48, and lost 234 (ish). Not a small figure, but less than you would think from watching The Promise where every other Jew appeared to be a member of the Irgun (which was just one of a number of Jewish organisations). And the 100,000 weren't all Paras... As others have mentioned, why didn't Erin just read the whole diary at once!! Anyway, I elected not to include spoilers so I'll remain silent on various bits which annoyed me along the 'that didn't happen' and 'that couldn't happen' lines. But overall, I did actually enjoy it. Worth watching.