Watch This Movie. Like NOW.

It has been noted by many cynical (and ignorant) people that the suffering of the Jewish people has been a gold mine in Hollywood for decades. Actually, on the surface, the statement is not entirely untrue. Films depicting the repression and bullying of an entire race/religion (often with horrifying, genocidal consequences) have frequently been big moneymakers. But what makes a movie with this subject matter good is that you can tell it's not done for money, but a genuine belief in the depth and validity of the content.

One such film is Schindler's List (1993), an utterly fascinating and well-made but (to me) unwatchably brutal film by Steven Spielberg. Another is Fiddler on the Roof (1971), which balances Jewish oppression with the familiar conventions of the musical dramedy.

Still another is Otto Preminger's incomparable 1960 masterpiece, Exodus, a film I only recently discovered, and shall now review for the pages of Xander Candor.

Exodus is, despite what the title may suggest, not taken at all from the pages of the Bible. It's actually based on a twentieth-century story from a novel by Leon Uris. Set in the days immediately following World War II, it is the story of a group of people who survive the Holocaust only to be corraled in a "safe area"-- basically a British-run holding pen on the island of Cyprus. They're stuck there because they have no place to go-- in the 40s, there was no Jewish homeland. Fed up with this fact, cynical hero Ari Ben Canaan (played phenomenally by the late Paul Newman) poses as a Gentile British officer to rescue hundreds of the refugees and break through a blockade to bring them where their people rightfully belong: Palestine.

Of course, the trouble is only beginning when Ben Canaan and the others-- accompanied by a young American widow named Kitty Freemont (Eva Marie Saint)-- make it to Palestine. The Arab government wants nothing to do with the Jewish survivors, and threatens violence if the UN's vote to partition the region passes. One passenger, Dov Landau (an excellent performance by Sal Mineo) joins the Irgun, a freedom-fighting group that resorts to blowing up buildings to get the message across. This is bad news for Karen Hansen (Jill Haworth), a young refugee from Denmark, who loves Dov and wonders why he has such an intrinsic hatred and distrust of anyone who isn't Jewish. And Kitty, who has tried to adopt Karen, finds herself falling not only in love with Ben Canaan, but into the middle of a fight that isn't her own.

At over 200 minutes, Exodus feels not a second over 120. Preminger brings a visceral you're-actually-there quality that mingles pleasingly dissonantly with the faraway mysticism of the content and photography. The editing is ahead of its time, and Ernest Gold's unbelievable music score is one of the best-- even when it sounds suspiciously like the work Miklos Rozsa did for 1959's Ben-Hur.

The script is by Dalton Trumbo, who had been blacklisted in Hollywood during the McCarthy era for his "Communist affiliations." In 1960, Exodus was one of two films-- along with Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus-- that utilized his raw and dignified scribe talents in open defiance of the blacklist. The American Legion even sent letters to all its posts across the nation urging members not to see the movies.

Obviously, it didn't work. These films are with us to stay. And for good reason.

Very rarely does a film resonate this much. Usually, at least in my case as a critic, only certain scenes do-- the "Trial Before Pilate" in Jesus Christ Superstar, the out-the-window climax of The Exorcist, and Spartacus' tearful, stand-up-and-cheer finale with the cross. But from the moment the credits are ignited (literally) against the auditory background of Gold's powerful music to the unforgettable dual funeral at the film's ambiguous conclusion, Exodus is one triumphant moment after another. I can't remember seeing a film like that since... well, a long, long, long time. Watching Exodus is legitimately the best thing you can do with three and a half hours of free TV time.

No, even better.