Exodus (1960)

(On Cable TV, September 2021) There’s no denying that Exodus has a place in cinema history — it was a rare recent-history epic film in the 1950s tradition, it featured Paul Newman in an early role, and most importantly it marked the end of the Hollywood blacklist when director Otto Preminger, ever the iconoclast, publicly announced that the script was from the now-legendary Dalton Trumbo, who until then had been forced to work under pseudonyms. It also, perhaps more troublingly, heralded America’s one-sided support for Israel, blurring even then-recent history in order to play nice with everyone and eschewing the explosive complexities of Israel’s foundation. But historical importance doesn’t necessarily translate into enduring watchability, so let’s just say it: Exodus has aged poorly. Perhaps it was ill-conceived in the first place, trying to cram a thick historical novel into even an expansive 208-minute film complete with an intermission. One of the biggest problems is that it qualifies as an epic film through length rather than scope: As our protagonists romance themselves against the backdrop of Israel’s foundation, the result seems curiously lacking in thrills or even in ambition. It feels small but, fatally, empty — there’s no reason for the film to last this long and deliver such a trite message. The immersion in Israel’s founding years is not as captivating as I would have liked, and the ultimate message feels trite. Newman is still compelling no matter the circumstances (and it’s a harsher role for him than usual), but everything else feels dated and not in a good way: too-static camera angles, underwhelming special effects, stiff staging and the sense that Exodus is cutting away a lot of the novel’s depth without managing to condense what’s left into a cinematic work, which is rather vexing when it goes with an “epic” film.