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Entebbe is also known as 7 Days In Entebbe, since the film was given two titles due to events spending that amount of time in that Ugandan airport after terrorists hijack the Air France Flight 139, which was headed from Tel Aviv to Paris, with them joining at the point when the plane was on a stop-over in Athens, and then is seen touching down in Libya to refuel.
Beginning on Sunday June 27th 1976, Wilfried Böse and Brigitte Kuhlmann (Daniel Brühl and Rosamund Pike, above) lead the baddies as they figure out their next move, but things start getting out of hand as the terrorists bicker amongst themselves.
We see the Israeli politicians – led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (Lior Ashkenazi) and Shimon Peres (Eddie Marsan) – discussing how to free the hostages, rehearsing it and then putting their plan into action, but will it work? Well, this all happened so long ago and I didn’t remember the outcome prior to watching this, so if you’re the same, then watch this rather than looking it up and that’ll add to the drama.
There’s some interesting inclusions as some of the passengers meet the nutter that was Idi Amin (Nonso Anozie), we see dance choreographer Zeev (Ben Schnetzer) who later works at The Unit Special Operations in the attempt to free the captives, and there’s a fair bit of interaction between Böse and flight engineer Jacques Le Moine (Custody‘s Denis Ménochet).
It does seem a bit weird that this all takes place while also does the dance performance that Zeev was meant to be overseeing. I don’t know if that’s been added in for dramatic effect, but if it was then it wasn’t necessary as it comes across a bit too arty. It could be that they needed to find a hook to show how one man’s life is disrupted by the events, so we have somebody’s *journey* to follow. To that end, the initial part of the end credits are also set against a dance piece, although a more calm one.
As an aside, I like the way captions appear and then end being shown by being covered up by parts of the scenery, or disappearing when the camera pans away from them, as you’ll see.
Oddly, there’s no closing music during the credits.
The film is a little bit flat in the telling of the situation, plus I could complain that when it comes to the imagined/dramatised private converations between the links of Böse and Kuhlmann. how on Earth can we know that? And when we see her taking some sort of tablet (anxiety pills?), why is there no reference as to why that’s in there?
At least it’s better than one of the director’s earlier movies… the 2014 Robocop reboot. Yes, I’ve tried to forget it, too.
Oh, and I didn’t look at the certificate before watching this, but afterwards, I saw it was a 12. Really?? I assumed a 15-cert. Yes, there’s a few f-words in there, which are normally covered by the 12-certificate now, but it’s the sustained terrorist threat which seemed a bit much for a 12.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and in 1080p high definition and, since it’s a new film shot digitally, you’d be surprised if there were any issues on the print, so there are zero problems or defects, and for the ’70s effect, it’s good how they’ve graded the film to effect the period.
The audio is presented in DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 and is mostly used for the dance routine, since the rest of the time it’s largely a dialogue piece.
There’s not a lot to shout about with the extras: Additional dance sequences (5:26) – which does exactly what it says on the tin, while The Entebbe Team (7:24) is a standard, brief ‘making of’ featurette mixing in clips with on-set footage and soundbites from the cast and crew.
There’s also an Audio description track.
The menu is static and silent, with a still of the hostage rescue attempt. Subtitles are in English only and there’s an odd-number of 16 chapters – better than most Blu-rays and DVDs these days, which stick on 12 max, but I still prefer one every five minutes on average, which would make this around 22.
Entebbe is out now on Blu-ray, Amazon Video and DVD, and click on the packshot for the full-size version.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
6 10 7 2 |
| OVERALL | 6 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 107 minutes
Year: 2018
Cat.no.: U083026BSP01R0
Released: September 10th 2018
Studio: Entertainment One
Chapters: 16
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English, with some German, French, Hebrew and Arabic
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
Disc Format: BD50
Director: José Padilha
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Ron Halpern, Eilon Ratzkovsky, Eze Sakson, Kate Solomon and Michelle Wright
Screenplay: Gregory Burke
Music: Rodrigo Amarante
Cast:
Wilfried Böse: Daniel Brühl
Brigitte Kuhlmann: Rosamund Pike
Zeev Hirsch: Ben Schnetzer
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin: Lior Ashkenazi
Amos Eiran: Peter Sullivan
Shimon Peres: Eddie Marsan
Jacques Le Moine: Denis Ménochet
Foreign Minister: Steve John Shepherd
General Motta Gur: Mark Ivanir
Yoni Netanyahu: Angel Bonanni
Captain Michel Bacos: Brontis Jodorowsky
Yonatan Netanyahu: Angel Bonanni
Idi Amin: Nonso Anozie
Juan Pablo: Juan Pablo Raba
Dance Performers: Batsheva Dance Company
Sarah: Zina Zinchenko
Patricia Martel: Andrea Deck
Dan Shomron: Vincent Riotta
Ehud Barak: Yiftach Klein
Leah Rabin: Natalie Stone
Dora Bloch: Trudy Weiss
Major Muki Betser: Michael Lewis
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.