It’s an act of terrorism that leads to possibly one of the most daring rescue missions ever attempted in Entebbe starring Rosamund Pike, Daniel Bruhl and Eddie Marsan.
Entebbe is based on true events starting back in June 1976, the film follows the rescue attempt of 248 hostages when their commercial airline, Air France 139, is highjacked and diverted to an airport that has been long abandoned in Entebbe, Uganda, the passengers now become the very bargaining power that the terrorists need for a deadly political standoff
As time goes on and the diplomatic solution becomes problematic, it’s down to a crack group of commandos to form a strategic plan, Operation Thunderbolt, to perform a rescue mission and save the 248 hostages.
Entebbe … Again!
I’ve seen several movies and documentaries over the years about the incident in 1976 with the Air France hostages, so I was looking forward to seeing a modern take on the story, the first film I saw on the subject was the 1977 movie Operation Thunderbolt, which I have to say as a teenager I did enjoy, but the cast list for this latest re-telling of the story had me intrigued with the cast list with Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) as Brigitte Kuhlmann, Daniel Bruhl (Captain America: Civil War) as Wilfried Bose and Eddie Marsan (Atomic Blonde) as Shimon Peres.
I did enjoy some of the performances in Entebbe, Pike’s is good, as are Brughl’s and Marsan’s, but the accents just didn’t to seem to work for me, they felt very stereotypical which sadly took the concentration away from the scenes for me. From memory of seeing President Idi Amin on news footage many years ago, Nonso Anozie’s performance was the best for me in the movie.
To give Entebbe that more dramatic feel a dull lull runs through several scenes in the movie, this is one thing that, on a personal note, is something that I do find annoying in a film, it distracts from the cast’s performances, but there do seem to be a lot of films that use that effect these days.
Entebbe is nicely directed by Jose Padilha (Narcos, Robocop) but the film is on a subject that has been done so many times in film and on TV, I find the subject of the film interesting and fascinating, but with it having been done so many times before I just found Entebbe slow and lacklustre that the previous incarnations of the story.
Entebbe is out now on DVD & Blu-ray.
Another Film based on Operation Thunderbolt!
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
