Review
GOLDA – Review
Helen Mirren portrays Golda Meir, Israel’s first women prime minister, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in GOLDA. Internationally, Golda Meir is known as the “Iron Lady of Israel” and is an admired figure but she is more controversial in her home country of Israel. In the British historical drama GOLDA, Israeli-American director Guy Nativ and British scriptwriter Nicholas Martin aim to offer a fresh look at Golda Meir by focusing on her during the Yom Kippur War, when Israel found itself facing two invading armies, from Egypt in the Sinai and Syria in the Golan Heights.
Mirren plays Golda Meir in heavy makeup and prosthetics, transforming her appearenceappearance to more closely resemble the much-photographed Golda Meir and allow director Nativ to more easily include generous use of archival footage and even insert Mirren into some of those scenes. Mirren’s physical transformation is impressive enough to draw gasps, but some have criticized the makeup as restricting her performance, while others, including this writer, feel that Mirren still delivers an affecting performance, which some have called Oscar-worthy.
Adding to the controversy is that Helen Mirren is not Jewish, raising objections to “Jew face” casting. However, Israeli-American director Guy Nativ sought her out for this role, after she was first suggested by Golda Meir’s grandson Gideon Meir, who was a consultant on the drama. Mirren’s carefully-researched, restrained performance gives little room for criticism, and having an Israeli-born director, plus a strong supporting cast with many Israel and Jewish actors, also goes a ways towards softening the issue.
GOLDA is neither a true biopic nor is it a battlefield war epic, and people expecting either will be disappointed. Instead, it is a engrossing and tense, ticking-clock drama in which Helen Mirren gives a taut portrayal of Golda Meir during the Yom Kippur War, which was an existential threat to Israel but ultimately led to the peace accord and recognition with Egypt.
Golda Meir was an Israeli national hero when she was chosen as Israel’s first (and so far only) woman prime minister but she was considered an interim choice because the sides could not agree on a choice. By any standard, Meir had a remarkable life, from her childhood in Ukraine under the Russia empire, to her family’s emigration to Milwaukee, to her decision as a young woman to move to Israel and fight in its war for independence. But GOLDA neither a full biography nor is it a full examination of the events of the Yom Yippur War, but a hybrid of the two that focuses on Golda Meir’s experience of that war.
The 1973 Yom Kippur War came not long after the Six Days War, where that quick victory left Israeli generals feeling overconfident. GOLDA opens with a brief montage of archival images and video to recap some early Israeli history, and then moves on to a post-Yom Kippur War hearing, where Prime Minister Golda Meir (Mirren) is being questioned by the Agranat commission about controversial decisions made during the war, which had high casualties on all sides.
The commission is used as a framing devise for Golda to tell her story of the war, from her perspective. That retelling begins with Prime Minister Golda Meir getting a report from the head of Mossad, Zvi Zamir (Israeli actor Rotem Keinan), about a source warning of an imminent attack by both Egypt and Syria, Israel’s neighbors to the south and north, a warning that comes in October just as Yom Kippur is approaching.
Unfortunately, this same Mossad source has warned of an attack earlier in the year, which never took place. so Meir knows defense minister Moshe Dayan (Israeli actor Rami Heuberger) will be skeptical. When she meets with her military advisors, all men, they show her little respect, barely remembering to stand for her as they would for any prime minister. Overconfident after the success of the Six Day War, the generals mostly dismiss the idea of an attack during the high holy days, even though Meir warns is a perfect time for one. Military intelligence head Eli Zeira (Israeli actor Dvir Benedek) assures her that their secret listening system will warn them of any attack well in advance, even despite the holiday. He’s wrong.
The film is packed with famous figures of Israeli history, and the cast includes Israel stars Lior Ashkenazi as General David “Dado” Elazar and Ohad Knoller as a young Ariel Sharon, while Liev Schreiber plays U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The acting is strong but nuanced throughout, but the drama is more emotionally restrained than explosive.
While billed as a “political thriller,” GOLDA lacks the pulse-pounding pace of a thriller. Instead, it is more a tense, involving drama, as we follow Golda Meir closely as she copes with war on two fronts, a team of over-confident all-male generals who are shocked when their forces are at first overwhelmed, and her own anguish over war casualties. The sexism of the era is present, as the men who are supposed to serve her as prime minister often fail to even stand when she enters, as they have done for every other prime minister, but the film does not dwell on this. Instead the focus is on Golda Meir’s skill as a leader and decision-maker, despite her lack of military experience, and her anguish at the war’s loss of life, losses she records day by day in a notebook.
Mirren’s Golda is a chain-smoking, flinty character with a sharp political mind and cunning skill in manipulating the men who surround her and anticipating the plans of her enemies. At the time, Golda Meir was 76 years old and suffering from cancer, something depicted in a few scenes. She was in poor physical shape, so travel to the war zone was largely not possible, which means this war-time story largely takes place in Golda Meir’s office, the hallways and bunkers where Meir and her generals discussed military actions and listened to radio reports from the two fronts.
Watching the grandmotherly figure navigate the politics of the strong male personalities in the room with a flinty strength, while making decisive, smart strategic military decisions despite her lack of soldierly training, is inspiring, and one of the highlights of Mirren’s performance. Away from the meetings, we see the more haunted and personal side of Golda.
Among the film’s best moments are when Golda Meir charms and cajoles Kissinger into providing aid for Israel, despite the Watergate scandal unfolding at the same time. They talk by phone and then Kissinger visits Israel to talk in-person with Meir. Meir feeds Kissinger borscht, and then gets to work. Schreiber’s Kissinger cautions her ” “Madame Prime Minister, in terms of our work together, I think it is important to remember I am first an American, second I am Secretary of State, and third I am a Jew.” Golda Meir replies “You forget that in Israel, we read from left to right.” It provides a rare moment of lightness and humor in the drama.
The carefully-researched film recreates the period look. While much of the drama takes place in smoke-filled rooms and half-lit hallways, Nativ captures the horror of the war with clips of archival footage and actual audience recordings of battlefield exchanges. There is also frequent use of other archival footage, including some with the real Golda Meir, and some where Mirren is inserted into the archival image. The film works hard to accurately recreate Golda Meir’s clothes, appearance and smoking, as well as the look of her office and other spaces where the story unfolds, with the help of Meir’s grandson Gideon as a consultant.
The personal side of Meir comes out mostly in her scenes with her personal assistant and friend, Lou Kaddar (French actress Camille Cottin), which are warm and sometimes depict her defiance or moments of doubt. The soundtrack is tense, often with a percussive character and metallic, strident bells. The film concludes with the perfect choice of Leonard Cohen’s song “Who By Fire,” which he wrote after visiting Israeli troops during this war.
GOLDA, in English and Hebrew with English subtitles, opens Friday, Aug. 25, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and other theaters nationally.
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
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