Golda Meir meets with Yitzhak Rabin, Abba Eban, and others in archival footage from new documentary on Israeli prime ministers (photo by Milner Moshe / Israel National Photo Library)
THE PRIME MINISTERS: THE PIONEERS (Richard Trank, 2013)
Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St.
Opens Friday, October 18
212-255-2243
www.quadcinema.com
www.theprimeministers-thefilm.com
The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Oscar-winning team of writer-director-producer Richard Trank and writer-producer Rabbi Marvin Hier (The Long Way Home, Genocide) has followed up the staid, plodding It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl with the relatively dull and lifeless The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers. Based on Israeli ambassador Yehuda Avner’s 2010 book, The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership, the film is built around Avner sharing his firsthand accounts of stories from his years of service to the government of the Jewish State, focusing on the War of Independence, the Six-Day War, the War of Attrition, and the Yom Kippur War. Although Avner, who is now eighty-four, is an interesting character, it’s not enough to sustain a nearly two-hour film, which consists solely of archival footage and Avner speaking, with no one else adding their thoughts, remembrances, and opinions. There is some fascinating material on lesser-known Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol and the indefatigable Golda Meir, but the documentary is more like propaganda that should be shown at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance than a theatrical release. It’s heavy with star power, which actually does it no favors; Sandra Bullock is the voice of Meir, Michael Douglas voices Yitzhak Rabin, Christoph Waltz is Menachem Begin, and Leonard Nimoy is Eshkol. Meanwhile, Lee Holdridge’s sweeping music overstates the case. Up next for Moriah Films is the second part of Avner’s story, The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers, which zeroes in on Rabin, Begin, and Shimon Peres. The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers opens October 18 at the Quad, with four Q&As scheduled for opening weekend with Trank, including one with Avner as well after the 4:45 show on Sunday.