THE DELTA FORCE

The Delta Force is a 1986 action film starring Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin as leaders of an elite squad of special forces troops based on the real life U.S. Army Delta Force unit. It was directed by Menahem Golan and featured Martin Balsam, Joey Bishop, Robert Vaughn, Steve James, Robert Forster, Shelley Winters, and George Kennedy. The film was produced in Israel.
The Delta Force was Lee Marvin's last film.

Plot synopsis

A group of Lebanese terrorists hijack American Travelways Boeing 707 (ATW) Flight 282 that is on a flight from Athens, Greece to Rome, Italy and then to New York City.

Taking all passengers and crew hostage, the group, the pro-Khomeini New World Revolutionary Organization, led by Abdul Rifi (Robert Forster), forces pilot Roger Campbell (Bo Svenson) to fly the plane to Beirut, Lebanon, where they make demands to the United States government that, if not met, will result in the death of the hostages.

As a compromise, the terrorists release the women and children passengers. The remaining hostages are transported to a militant controlled area of Beirut. Using a sympathetic Greek Orthodox Priest, Israeli Army Intelligence prepares an operation to free the hostages.

The U.S. quickly responds by sending in Delta Force, an elite counter-terrorism unit led by Major Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris) and Colonel Nick Alexander (Lee Marvin), to rescue the hostages.

Successfully infiltrating the terrorist compound, they kill the terrorists, rescue the hostages, and flee to the safety of Israel on the ATW jetliner, before returning to the U.S on a C-130 transport plane.

Filming locations

The movie was filmed entirely in Israel, making use of Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus's newly opened GG Israel Studios facility in Jerusalem. The Beirut, Tel-Aviv and Athens airport sequences in the film were filmed at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel-Aviv. In some sequences, Hebrew lettering and Israeli Police emblems are visible on some of the supposed Lebanese airport barriers.

The military aircraft (notably the Hercules C-130) used in the film was on loan from the Israeli Air Force. The lease arrangement was similar to that used for Iron Eagle.

Historical connections

The hijacked flight in the movie bears many resemblances with the real-life hijack of TWA Flight 847 in 1985:

The route is Cairo-Athens-Rome.

In the film, the flight's final destination is New York. However, Flight 847's final destination was London.

Two terrorists took over the flight, the third one being arrested in Athens.

The flight was diverted to Beirut and Algiers.

The lead flight attendant (played in the movie by Hanna Schygulla) was of German descent and was asked by a hijacker to single out the Jewish passengers on board.

Upon landing, one of the hostages, a United States Navy diver, was shot.

The fictional airline in the movie, ATW (American Travelways), is an anagram of TWA (Trans World Airlines).

The hostage rescue operation was inspired by Operation Entebbe, which was conducted by Israeli commandos in 1976. It was the subject of another movie by Menahem Golan, Mivtsa Yonatan (released in English as Operation Thunderbolt), in 1977.

The beginning of the film replicated Operation Eagle Claw, the aborted attempt to rescue American hostages held at the U.S. Embassy in Iran in 1980. The movie inaccurately displays the cause of the aborting of the mission. In the film a helicopter appears to be smoking and then suddenly explodes — possibly the result of a crash landing — upon which the Delta Force choose to evacuate the area. The reality was that two of the helicopters failed to turn up at Desert One, while one of the six helicopters that made it had a mechanical failure. It was at this point that the CO of Delta Force chose to scrub the mission and return the following night. During this phase a collision occurred between one of the RH-53D choppers and a C-130 being used as an on-the-ground refuelling station for the helicopters, killing 5 Air Force personnel and 3 Marines.

External links

The Delta Force at the Internet Movie Database

MONSIEUR KLEIN

Monsieur Klein (Mr. Klein) is a French 1976 film directed by Joseph Losey, with Alain Delon starring in the title role.

Synopsis

It is 1942, the war is in full swing and France is occupied by the Nazis. To Robert Klein, however, these events are of little concern. As an art dealer, he makes a nice profit off the situation of the Jews, who are selling their possessions in a hurry to leave the country. He holds no political affinities and chooses to remain indifferent. All this changes when one day, a Jewish newspaper is accidentally delivered to his address, and Klein discovers there is another Robert Klein residing in Paris, a Jew sought by the police. When the other Klein cannot be found, authorities grow suspicious and the art dealer is forced to offer proof of his French heritage. Before long he's entangled in a quest to track down his elusive namesake and find out what happened.

Symbolism and allusions

Although Losey integrates historical elements (such as the Rafle du Vel'd'Hiv) into the film, it is more than a reconstruction of the life and status of the Jews under the Vichy regime.

The relationship of the film with the works of the writer Franz Kafka has often been noted: the link with The Metamorphosis, telling of the brutal and sudden transformation of a man into a cockroach, with The Castle, which describes a search for one's own identity by way of getting to know "the other", or with The Trial, which sees an accused man become an outlaw of society.

Awards

The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival but lost to Taxi Driver. However, Monsieur Klein did win the César Award for Best Film while Losey won the César Award for Best Director. Alexandre Trauner won the César Award for Best Production Design, and in addition the film was nominated for Césars in four other categories.

THE LAST STAGE

The Last Stage (Pl. Ostatni etap) was a 1947 Polish feature film directed and co-written by Wanda Jakubowska, depicting her experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. The film was one of the earliest cinematic efforts to describe the Holocaust, and it is still quoted extensively by succeeding directors, including Steven Spielberg in Schindler's List.
The film is generally considered a reliable document for a number of reasons, not least because Jakubowska herself was imprisoned in the camp and because it was shot on location, before most of the camp was destroyed or converted into a memorial. Critics argue, however, that the director introduced a cinematic language to her work, adding elements of questionable accuracy. For example, the trains with deportees are shown arriving at night, while most of the trains arrived during the day. While having them arrive at night sets the mood of the film, it does not accurately reflect most of the deportations.

Nevertheless, The Last Stage is an important film in that it paved the way for most other film and television depictions of the concentration camps and the Holocaust.

External links

The Last Stage at the Internet Movie Database

JAKOB THE LIAR

Jakob the Liar is a 1999 black comedy film directed by Peter Kassovitz and starring Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, and Bob Balaban.
The movie is set in 1944 in a ghetto in Poland, in the times of the Holocaust. The movie is based on the book by Jurek Becker about World War II Jewish Ghetto life. It's also a remake of the German DEFA film from 1975.

Plot

In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being falsely accused of being out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommandant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto. Jakob uses the chance to spread hope throughout the ghetto by continuing to tell favorable tales of information from "his secret radio." Jakob, however, has a real secret in that he is hiding a young Jewish girl who escaped from a camp transport train. These lies keep hope and humor alive among the ghetto inhabitants. The Germans learn of the mythical radio, however, and begin a search for the resistance hero who dares operate it.

See also

List of Holocaust films

External links

Jakob the Liar at the Internet Movie Database
Jakob the Liar at Rotten Tomatoes

THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC

The Devil's Arithmetic is a historical novel written by Jane Yolen in 1988. This book tells the story of a Jewish girl, Hannah, as she experiences the horrors of going back in time to be sent to live in a Nazi Concentration Camp. She also learns that it is very important to treasure Jewish traditions. She did not respect them earlier in the book but then at the end knows of their importance.

Hannah was chosen to do the symbolic welcoming of Prophet Elijah and opened the apartment door. In an instant, when she opens the door, she was transferred back to Poland in 1942, or, in the Jewish calendar, 5702, as Chaya Abramowicz, a 13-year-old teenager living in a small village with her "Aunt" Gitl and "Uncle" Shmuel. Chaya lost her parents and was very sick but managed to stay alive. Shmuel is about to be married to his fiancé Fayge. Before leaving for Fayge's village, Viosk, Hannah meets 3 other young woman from her village, one with a breathing problem because of spring pollen, named Rachel. When Shmuel, Fayge, and the members of both their villages arrive at the synagogue in Fayge's village, they are halted by Nazis at the entrance and taken to a train station.

There they find the belongings of the family members of theirs that were already at the synagogue. They are then forced into stuffy cattle cars, and travel for four days to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. On arrival and exit of the boxcars, it is discovered that Rachel, an infant and an elderly woman died during the trip from malnutrition and the terrible conditions of the boxcars. They are then shaven bald to get rid of any lice, have numbers tattooed on their arms, and are forced to choose from an assortment of ragged clothes to wear during their imprisonment.

At their first meal, Hannah meets Rivka, a ten year old girl who understands much about the camp and methods of survival. Only she and her brother Wolfe are alive out of a family of eight. Everyone was given jobs, and they had a choice to either do the jobs well, or become chosen for cremation (execution) by the commandant of the camp. Normally those chosen, were the young, elderly and those injured beyond repair. Hannah followed Rivka, who lived everyday as it was, and she remained alive for a period of time.

Gitl, Hannah,and several others including Yitzchak, try to escape at one point. Gitl and Hannah hear gunshots and run back to their barracks. Shmuel and several others are caught by the soldiers. Just as Shmuel is about to be executed, along with the others, Fayge leaps forward. She loves him so much that she would rather die than live without him. This is where Hannah first sees Wolfe, a Musselman, someone who has just given up the fight to survive, he is also what they call a Kommando, which is a Jew who carries bodies to the crematoria. Wolfe is one of the Jews who must take the bodies to the ovens in the crematoria. He carries Fayge's body with tenderness, and care.

A few days later Hannah's friends, Shifre, Esther, and Rivka were chosen to make up a full load of those chosen to be executed. Hannah traded places with Rivka and sacrificed herself, because she knew she would have another life in the future, while Rivka only had one. As she walked through the door into an oven to be executed by being cremated (burned), Hannah realized that she was staring at the door back in New York, at her grandparents' house. She afterwards talked with her Aunt Eva about her experience and realized that her Aunt Eva was Rivka, and her Grandpa Will was Wolfe, but they had changed their names and moved to America after being liberated by Allied forces.Hannah learns that Gitl lived but made it out weighing only 73 pounds and never marries Yitzchak. Now Hannah will never forget because she understands, finally, the meaning of Passover. Afterwards Aunt Eva spends time with Hannah and talks about the horror the Nazis caused. They also talk about Aunt Eva's Number (her tattoo) J18202. The J stands for Jew. The 1 because she is alone. 8 because there was eight people in her family. 2 because that's all that was left, Rivka and Wolfe, who believes himself to be a 0. And finally, 2 because they will be reunited someday. Hannah learns the significance of Jewish holidays and traditions, and the true meaning of a hero.

Characters in "The Devil's Arithmetic"

1942, Poland
''Chaya Abramowicz'' – (the girl whom Hannah becomes)
Rivkah- her friend whom Chaya sacrifices her life for; later changes her name to Eva and is actually Hannahs present-day aunt who is a survivor of the Holocaust

Awards and nominations

The Devil's Arithmetic received the National Jewish Book Award [1].`

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

It was made into a TV movie starring Kirsten Dunst and Brittany Murphy in 1999 [2].

UPRISING

Uprising is a 2001 war/drama television movie about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The film was directed by Jon Avnet and written by Jon Avnet and Paul Brickman. It was filmed in multiple locations, including Bratislava, Slovakia and Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria.
[edit] Plot
Polish Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto rise up against the German army in 1943.
Tagline: They did the one thing the Nazis never expected. They fought back.

Cast

Leelee Sobieski as Tosia Altman
Hank Azaria as Mordechaj Anielewicz
David Schwimmer as Yitzhak "Antek" Zuckerman
Jon Voight as Maj. Gen. Jürgen Stroop
Donald Sutherland as Adam Czerniaków
Stephen Moyer as Simcha "Kazik" Rotem
Sadie Frost as Zivia Lubetkin
Radha Mitchell as Mira Fuchrer
Mili Avital as Devorah Baron
Eric Lively as Arie Wilner
Alexandra Holden as Frania Beatus
John Ales as Marek Edelman
Andy Nyman as Calel Wasser
Nora Brickman as Clara Linder
Jesper Christensen as Gen. Friedrich Krüger
Cary Elwes as Dr. Fritz Hippler
Palle Granditsky as Dr. Janusz Korczak

Details

The film is in both color and black and white.
The filming locations included Bratislava, Slovakia and Innsbruck, Austria

See also

Mila 18
List of Holocaust films