7 Days in Entebbe

7 Days in Entebbe is a movie that shows a dramatized version of the real historic events around a plain kidnapping and blackmailing that took place in 1967. Similar to movies like 13 Hours, this movie concentrates on planing a military coup to free the hostages, but different to other movies this one creates its drama by a theatrical dance piece.

This makes the movie unique when compared to other movies that you are used to. There will be a number of viewers that will probably be disappointed by this; others - like me will be extremely pleased by the fact to not have yet another movie concentrate on this story (that has been told in a couple of other movies already) the same way, but to actually have a movie that uses new innovative and intelligent aspects of art to dramatize a story that is otherwise heavily based on dialogue and personal emotions and personal doubt. that is what this movie focuses on heavily. We don't get classic good and evil - instead every character is put into a spectrum in which he decides to go to the one or the other direction, while not knowing if what they are doing is right or wrong. This is something that a few people critizise and I can understand it, because it makes the characters appear different than they where in reality. A lot of critics have pointed out that certain personality aspects are simply left out and that the historic personalities get off much better in the movie, downplaying the actual horror these people unleashed.

However in these situations I like to counter with this being not an accurate documentary but rather a entertaining movie. Movies are a form of art, and art is never something that is factually correct but always something that explores ideas and emotions, that points out certain aspects of life and explores them in great detail. This movie does nothing else. It presents us with characters that do extremely violent things but are still represented as the heroes, as a group of people that have a moral code, and that question their actions on every step and live with the consequences they unleash.

The movie is pretty captivating and interesting, even though it is heavily based on dialogue (which eventually starts to repeat itself) and where not much else is happening. It is captivating even though there is no action, no violence and no drama - which I think is a real achievement.

This of course needs good actors and we do get two really great actors. On top there is Rosamund Pike, who is not only acting extremely well (as I have no doubt since seeing here in Gone Girl), but also speaking a language that is not native to her. And she does so incredibly well - she has an accent of course, but after learning German only for this movie, that what she does here is incredible. It saddens me a bit, that only us Germans are able to actually appreciate this, and I hope so much that the German dubbing does not replace her original voice. Next to her we get german Actor Daniel Brühl, and he of course also is a great actor and one of my favorite. Other know actors include Eddie Marsan and Denis Ménochet, but non of them are really challenged in this movie, even though they are really good and provide believable performances.

And I really liked the dancing parts and the music. I had an earworm right after watching the movie and even looked up the theater group that performed for this movie - it is really good. And it really is something different.

Unfortunately I am pretty sure that this movie wont find many fans, but I recommend it to anyone open to seeing something different.

I agree, the dance routine was really bad. It would have been better without it.

Lacks insight, but is well made

Written by Gregory Burke ('71) and directed by José Padilha (Ônibus 174; Tropa de Elite; Tropa de Elite 2; Robocop), Entebbe [released in North America as 7 Days in Entebbe] has met with near universally bad reviews (22% approval on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing), and while it is without doubt flawed, it's not nearly as bad as has been made out. Telling the story of the 1976 AirFrance hijacking by Palestinian and German revolutionaries, and the subsequent Israeli Defence Force rescue mission (Operation Thunderbolt), the film is presented from multiple points of view; Revolutionäre Zellen members Brigitte Kuhlmann (Rosamond Pike) and Wilfried Böse (Daniel Brühl), Israeli Minister for Defence Shimon Peres (Eddie Marsan), Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (an excellent Lior Ashkenazi), IDF Pvt. Zeev Hirsch (Ben Schnetzer), AirFrance 1st Engineer Jacques Le Moine (Denis Ménochet), IDF Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu (Angel Bonanni), and Ugandan President Idi Amin (Nonso Anozie).

The problem is obvious; the film covers every point of view except the most important one; the Palestinian. Indeed, the only Palestinian given any kind of development is a fictional character played by Omar Berdouni, who talks of Israeli tanks driving over a car in which his family were trapped. And there are other strange omissions; the death of Dora Bloch (Trudy Weiss), murdered on Amin's orders after she was released in Kampala, is never mentioned, and Wadie Haddad is nowhere to be found. Additionally, the film doesn't have much of contemporaneous relevance to say in relation to the Arab-Israeli Conflict, other than alluding melancholically to the self-propagating nature of the violence, and the unlikelihood of peace (the closing legend points out that after he pushed for negotiations in 1995, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist). However, it's aesthetically very well put together, and the juxtaposition of Thunderbolt with a Jewish dance number works much better than it has any right to. True, it doesn't get to the heart of the matter by any stretch of the imagination, and it could be accused of taking a pro-Israeli stance, but it's enjoyable enough, and worth a look.

If _7 Days in Entebbe_ had been directed as well as the actual raid on Entebbe it certainly would've been more successful.

As it was, this recreation of the storming of the Ugandan airport in 1976 by Israeli Defense Forces to liberate Jewish hostages taken in a German-Palestinian hijacking suffers from too much hesitation, poor planning and lack of focus. The melodramatic speeches and insistence on including modern dance sequences (!?) make this film miss its mark.

Watch _Argo_ again or, even better, _One Day in September_, the far more exciting documentary about the Israeli hostage crisis during the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Saw this on a sneak preview...
thought this was a _meh_ movie...
It wasn't all that bad, but i think i wouldn't even take the time to watch in on the couch.

What should have been a gripping tale never translated to the screen. This was slowly paced, with little dramatic heft. For the most part, I was really quite bored.

I have no idea what the intended goal of this movie is. What did the director want us to see ? The Raid ? The motives behind the actions of the hijackers ? The political debate in Israel ? It does neither of those things very well.
Because of the way the raid is presented it feels like a real let down after an already very slow build up. What's the connection between the raid and the dance ? The soldier and his girlfriend ? That would be thin. Since we haven't seen both of them very much throughout the movie there is also no investment in the characters. And, since they already admitted in the opening credits that there are things added for dramatization you can't take this as a history lesson either.
So, in conclusion I can only say: this was dissapointing.

I have no idea where they thought they were going with this.
It could have been an excellent political thriller portraying one of the most brilliant commando raids in history but instead all we get is some artsy soup of a political commentary.
The build-up to the actual raid is 97% of the movie and then when it actually happens [spoiler]it's intermixed with a horrible modern dance routine[/spoiler].
Most meh movie of 2018 thus far.

Weird! I was looking forward to an exciting ending after an average build up and then suddenly Billy Elliot came on waving his arms around after self flagellation.