The Promise

I caught this on a streaming service years ago, liked it, then bought the box set on DVD.

Good luck finding it now.

I just tried to "buy" it from amazon prime video and it was nowhere to be found.

Both Britain and Israel had fits with this movie because both of them felt that their countries histories and political positions had been inaccurately presented. So apparently they've succeeded in erasing this movie from cyber space. Pity.

The truth is that any organized government has enough mindless bureaucratic incompetence to supply an abundance of "unfortunate" evil into the world. Just pick up the newspaper.

The story is about a spoiled, bored, and aimless teenager who discovers that the grandfather the hardly knows was both a witness and a participant to a contested yet integral confluence of modern history.

She decides to take upon herself the task of fulfilling an unfulfilled promise made by her grandfather in his youth.

She pursues such with total disregard to the political landscape or sensitivity to the people she is involved with.

Six episodes of well researched but still semi-historical antics. Highly recommended.

Some of the reviewers obviously based their rating on their personal political stance. There is a reason that this time period and the events covered in this series are very seldom the topic of film or television. Inevitably it makes the Jews look bad. After all, it was the Jews that were invading. The Arabs were defending their homes. This is not a popular subject these days. All credit to the producers and staff of this series for their courageous efforts. Having gotten that out of the way, the series held my interest, entertained me, and motivated me to further research on the time and place dealt with. In my view, this makes it worthy of praise no matter how many people try to discredit it and lower the viewer rating.

I had a personal interest in this for two reasons. My father served with the paras in Palestine (having joined up to fight the Germans) and I've had a long-term interest in what is now known as the 'IP' question. I have to say I was engrossed by the whole series, although there a few dramatic devices which were verging on the unbelievable. It might have worked better as a drama for those who knew absolutely nothing about the situation, in either era. I probably spent too much time worrying about the politics. My sympathies have always lain with the Palestinian side, and there were bits of it I thought were good for setting out a side to Israel that isn't always seen (eg the attitude of the settlers to the indigenous population, which I suspect are an embarrassment to many Israelis). However, although I know where I stand, I wouldn't want to watch anything which contained too much simple propaganda. I think The Promise did achieve a level of balance, sometimes to the detriment of the drama (eg the King David Hotel incident being followed by a suicide bomber). The perception has been is that The Promise was more pro Arab than Israeli, but I can guarantee that no-one with strong views and a knowledge of the history would be particularly satisfied with the politics. For instance, all the main characters were either Brits or Jews, the Arabs were walk-on one dimensional characters. I think it can best be regarded as a drama set in turbulent times, and not as a drama documentary - there is simply too much history to cover to do anything else. I realise it was a dramatic device but poor Len seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time throughout. To put in context, the British had about 100,000 troops in Palestine from 46 to 48, and lost 234 (ish). Not a small figure, but less than you would think from watching The Promise where every other Jew appeared to be a member of the Irgun (which was just one of a number of Jewish organisations). And the 100,000 weren't all Paras... As others have mentioned, why didn't Erin just read the whole diary at once!! Anyway, I elected not to include spoilers so I'll remain silent on various bits which annoyed me along the 'that didn't happen' and 'that couldn't happen' lines. But overall, I did actually enjoy it. Worth watching.

Have any one here heard of "Rachel Corrie", This Girl has VERY similar story with the protagonist of this series, Except that "Rachel" (American) Died cold blooded on the Hands of Israeli forces.

The work is a piece of art, the Music is good, Acting Hits very very hard by the 2 main leads, mother Uren wasn't the best though.

I know some people in middle east from Palestine who told something very very similar to what happens in this series, it is very very accurate, and really on point of the Palestine/Israel conflict.

Really great work by the director, and a Must watch for anyone who wants to understand this conflict.

And a fun watch for anybody else.

Highly Recommended.

A great piece of intelligent television. Biased? Didn't seem to spare anyone. Pretty much every group was shown acting horrendously, but also how much of those actions arose/arise from the context, and were compelling and difficult to avoid. Palestinians, British, the Isrealis, none demonised despite the awful things they all did and do, and as such it was really a remarkable feat. It is very hard to find that middle ground, (and that is also the problem for those in Isreal who want peace too). Great performances from Christian Cooke and Clare Foy. Clare in particular played the not terribly likable ingénue with distinction and subtlety. It isn't Hollywood, not evil v good, no heroes and no villains. The violence is shown as solving nothing and just leads to more vile acts of attrition. The story that holds it together has some artificiality, but does manage to run the two threads, 1947-8 and 2010 together very well.