Raid on Entebbe (1976)

True story of a daring Israeli commando assault on the Entebbe Airport in Uganda to free hostages of a terrorist hijacking.

Director:

Irvin Kershner

Writer:

Barry Beckerman

Stars:

Peter Finch, Charles Bronson, Yaphet Kotto

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Finch	...	Yitzhak Rabin
Charles Bronson	...	Brig. Gen. Dan Shomron
Yaphet Kotto	...	President Idi Amin Jr.
Martin Balsam	...	Daniel Cooper
Horst Buchholz	...	Wilfred Boese (as Horst Bucholz)
John Saxon	...	Gen. Benny Peled
Jack Warden	...	Gen. Mordecai Gur
Sylvia Sidney	...	Dora Bloch
Robert Loggia	...	Yigal Allon
Tige Andrews	...	Shimon Peres
Eddie Constantine	...	Capt. Becaud
David Opatoshu	...	Menachem Begin
Allan Arbus	...	Eli Melnick
Stephen Macht	...	Lt. Col. 'Yonni' Netanyahu
James Woods	...	Capt. Sammy Berg

Storyline

Based on a true Military operation by Israeli commandos. An Air France flight is hijacked by the PFLP. The plane has about 100 Jewish passengers. The plane is grounded in Uganda. Israelis would not negotiate. The movie then shows how less than 500 soldiers actually flew so far and rescued the passengers in one of the most successful Military operations in history. The only casualty for Israely soldiers was Lt. Col. Jonathan "Yoni" Netanyahu..

---

Plot Keywords:

israeli | soldier | passenger | uganda | hostage | 

---

Genres:

Action | Drama | History

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French Hebrew

Release Date:

9 January 1977 (USA)

Also Known As:

...die keine Gnade kennen

Filming Locations:

Stockton Metropolitan Airport, Stockton, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Edgar J. Scherick Associates, 20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

145 min 121 min (video)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At one point, Idi Amin can be seen wearing a Glengarry, which is a Scottish military cap, with a red and white tartan ribbon around it. Amin had been in the King's African Rifles, and suffered considerable racism from British officers. The only one to show him any respect was a Scotsman, and thenceforth had an unreciprocated affection for Scotland, even considering himself a pretender to the Scottish throne.

---

Goofs

Air France's two-letter airline code is AF, not AR as shown on the flight information screen in Paris.

---

Quotes

Daniel Cooper: Where are you going?
Alice: California.
Mrs. Loeb: [half asleep] That's a beautiful city.

---

Connections

Version of Mivtsa Yonatan (1977)

User Reviews

High production values score a direct hit

Compared to its other US competitor, "Victory at Entebbe"(1976) this film displays higher production values and more attention to detail than "Victory" does. For instance, the Air France uniforms are much more realistic in this picture, whereas in the other production the costume designers resorted to just using U.S. Navy and Coast Guard shoulder boards. Also Idi Amin (Yaphet Kotto) gets a much better costume, much more realistic than the ridiculous getup Julius Harris had to wear in "Victory at Entebbe".I think the secret is that in doing this picture, and the definitive Israeli Golan-Globus work, "Operation Thunderbolt"(Mivtza Yonatan)(1977); the film makers were given much more time to prepare their production than ABC gave David L. Wolper in doing "Victory at Entebbe", which was shot on videotape like a soap opera, later transferred to film. It is an excellent lesson for film students that time spent on a project avails much. For this picture and "Thunderbolt" are much better films, even though in some respects "Victory at Entebbe" had more "big names" than "Raid" or "Thunderbolt". It seems all to be in the execution.