It’s not often a movie based on a true story is released the same year that history apparently repeats itself. But that is the case as the film “Golda” becomes available for digital purchase.
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The film recounts the 1973 Yom Kippur War from the perspective of Golda Meir, a Ukrainian-born Jew and the first and only female Israeli Prime Minister. The film stars Helen Mirren as Golda Meir and Liev Schrieber as Henry Kissinger and was in theaters in August 2023.
Caution: This film does depict scenes of war but will provide context into the history surrounding the current conflict in Israel. Viewer discretion is advised.
Golda – Digital Purchase on Amazon
It’s 1973. In Israel, war looms on the horizon.
War, of course, has loomed (and raged) ever since the nation was reborn in 1948. But it’s left Prime Minister Golda Meir with a difficult choice.
Israeli intelligence shows at least a million Egyptian and Syrian troops converging on the country’s borders from the southwest and northeast, respectively. But those in charge of an Israeli response don’t agree on how serious the threat is. After all, their eavesdropping system hasn’t picked up any chatter regarding plans for war, and it’s supposed to provide them with at least a 48-hour warning.
As for Golda, she would consider a preemptive strike were it not for both the division among her informants and her desire to keep a promise to the U.S. that Israel would not resort to that measure. Still, she must make a decision regarding how many troops to send in response to Egypt and Syria’s provocation.
It’s a pivotal decision for Golda Meir—one that will haunt her for the rest of her life.
Golda doesn’t depict soldiers dodging bullets and performing acts of heroism. Instead, it grapples with the darkness of this violent chapter of Middle Eastern history.
The Yom Kippur War may have ended in an Israeli victory, but it stunned Golda and her country all the same, revealing that they had become complacent following multiple victories in earlier conflicts—most notably the Six-Day War.
According to Mapam leader Ya’akov Hazan, Golda Meir contemplated suicide in the early days of the Yom Kippur War, “because she could not bear the thought of her moral responsibility for the pre-war unpreparedness.” And while we don’t see her grapple with that notion, the story does focus on how the conflict deeply affected this Israeli leader.
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Even as she sits in relative safety in Tel Aviv, Golda cannot distance her mind from the front lines. She tallies each Israeli death in a personal notebook, and they all weigh heavily on her heart. And as we sit with her through the month-long war, we understand a bit of the pain she felt.
The worst onscreen violence we see is when Golda pierces her own hand with her fingernails. That said, offscreen violence can still feel very intense as we listen to the panicked screams of soldiers just before their enemies kill them.
Golda stays relatively clean for a war movie, focusing on how war affects the people who make its decisions as well as acting as a somber memorial to Golda Meir herself.
Read the full review here. Watch the trailer here.
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Reviews written by Kennedy Unthank.
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