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Movies / On DVD / O Jerusalem
O Jerusalem

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O Jerusalem (2007)

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Reviews Counted: 20

Fresh: 6

Rotten:14

Average Rating: 4.6/10

Consensus: Though a noble effort, O Jerusalem fails to combine this history lesson and human drama into a coherent cinematic piece.

Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: In 1947, two friends--one Jew and one Arab--find their friendship tested as the state of Israel is being formed. O JERUSALEM is adapted from the book written by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.

Starring: Said Taghmaoui, JJ Feild, Maria Papas, Patrick Bruel

Starring: Said Taghmaoui, JJ Feild, Maria Papas, Patrick Bruel, Mel Raido, Ian Holm, Tom Conti, Tovah Feldshuh

Director: Elie Chouraqui

Director: Elie Chouraqui
Screenwriter: Didier Le Pecheur, Elie Chouraqui
Producer: Andre Djaoui, Elie Chouraqui, Jean Frydman, Andreas Grosch
Composer: Stephen Endelman
Studio: IDP Distribution

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Reviews for O Jerusalem

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
10/18/08
Arizona Republic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
04/03/08
Boxoffice Magazine

O Jerusalem is as overstated and expository as a historical pageant, from the drippy music to a sputtering, running gag involving funky old jalopies to clichéd speeches and teary-eyed deaths and a final voice-over crying out for peace.

Full Review Source: Baltimore Sun | comment Comment
12/07/07
Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun

Good intentions often make bad movies.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
11/21/07
Nell Minow
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The filmmakers split time between history and personal drama in ways that do full service to neither.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
11/15/07
Tasha Robinson
Chicago Tribune

Its heart firmly in the right place, O Jerusalem proves an uneasy mix of history and fiction.

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
11/15/07
Joshua Land
Time Out New York

I felt as though I could have gathered the same information about Israel's beginnings from a pamphlet, and saved myself the film's forthright baggage

Full Review Source: Bangitout.com | comment Comment
10/28/07
Jordan Hiller
Bangitout.com

A hopeful and helpful movie that depicts the friendship between a Jew and an Arab that outlasts the winds of war and the culture of revenge and racial hatred surrounding them.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
10/28/07
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

In trying to be sensitive to such a controversial issue, O Jerusalem glazes over important events settling for mediocrity while giving a history lesson more appropriate for high school.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
10/26/07
Marta Barber
Miami Herald

It aspires to be an epic drama but suffers from an acute identity crisis: It can't decide if it wants to be history, drama, or a cry for peace in the Mideast.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
10/26/07
Linda Matchan
Boston Globe

The need to touch on pivotal events makes this at times seem like history's 'greatest hits,' although the personal stories provide a narrative thread tying it all together.

Full Review Source: The Jewish Advocate | comment Comment
10/26/07
Daniel M. Kimmel
The Jewish Advocate

It's hard to take the film seriously with [its] contrivances, including a hokey music score, dialogue designed solely to give us historical information.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
10/25/07
Desson Thomson
Washington Post

Director Elie Chouraqui and co-writer Didier Lepecheur [fall] prey to a fatal evenhandedness that reduces a complex battle for the loveliest, most fought-over city in the world to a pile of heroic clichés.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
10/25/07
Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly

Even with its flaws, the film finds many moving moments as it surveys the ravages of a perpetually divided country.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
10/24/07
Stephen Farber
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As a history lesson, the film is so elementary and silly that you'd half-expect to find Mr. Peabody and Sherman peeking around the Wailing Wall.

Full Review Source: EDGE Boston | comment Comment
10/24/07
Phil Hall
EDGE Boston

Such fictionalizations are the stuff of TV miniseries, and only serve to add confusion and melodrama to a history that, as Collins and Lapierre's book proves, hardly needs further dramatization.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
10/19/07
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Unfortunately, French director Elie Chouraqui settles for speed and cliché.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
10/19/07
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger

Hammers away at its Arab/Jewish variation on the chicken-or-the-egg debate ad nauseam.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
10/17/07
Rob Humanick
Slant Magazine

It's not easy to turn one of the most controversial events of the 20th century into a movie that makes your eyes roll, but O Jerusalem does this and worse.

comment Comment
10/17/07
Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In its struggle to present an unbiased portrait that balances Jewish and Palestinian viewpoints evenly, the film loses some narrative focus. Nevertheless, it presents a valuable history lesson that points out the dire effects of British occupation in the

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
10/17/07
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
 
 
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