Review: Cast a Giant Shadow

If you’ve never heard of Mickey Marcus, you are missing out on an amazing tale of a Jewish soldier. His incredible journey, from fighting in Europe during WWII to serving as Israel’s first general in nearly 2000 years, is portrayed in the 1966 classic, Cast a Giant Shadow. It’s a portrait of an American patriot who becomes the reluctant hero of Israel and the Jewish people.

There are some typical Hollywood (especially 1960’s Hollywood) historical alterations, but overall the film is generally historically accurate. The top-notch cast is led by Kirk Douglas (Colonel Marcus) and includes John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Angie Dickenson, and Yul Brynner! Seeing John Wayne raise his glass and say, “L’chaim” is reason enough to catch this flick!

From the DVD cover:

Part fact, part fiction, Cast a Giant Shadow powerfully dramatizes Israel’s heroic 1947-48 struggle for independence…

After a brilliant career with the U.S. Army, WWII hero and Jewish American Mickey Marcus is called to the new state of Israel to build an army capable of withstanding its Arab foes. Against the wishes of his wife, Mickey makes the journey and begins transforming a ragtag underground army into a first-class fighting machine.

The film starts out with Marcus being recruited by an Israeli official to help organize and train their military units. The reluctant Marcus eventually agrees to go and is granted permission by the U.S. War Department on the condition that he travels to Israel under a false name and makes no mention of his military service.

Throughout the first half of the film, there are regular flashbacks to Marcus’s service during WWII. This serves to build some background on Marcus and his relationship with “The General” (John Wayne). Two of the flashbacks focus on some of the more interesting (and true) events of his wartime service. One is his voluntary parachuting into Normandy with the troops of the 101st Airborne Division! Later, Marcus was put in charge of planning how to sustain the starving millions in the regions liberated by the Allied invasion of Europe (a major part of which involved clearing out the Nazi death camps). In another rare movie moment, John Wayne weeps upon seeing the corpses at Dachau.

Reluctant about the job at first, Marcus finds greater meaning in his mission after he travels to Palestine and witnesses his fellow Jews fighting for a small chunk of land to call home. His biggest struggle is often with the people he’s trying to help. Yul Brynner plays Asher, the stubborn commander of the Hagannah who seems to only give out bad news to Marcus. (Give Yul an eye patch and he’s the spitting image of Moshe Dayan)

The film was adapted from the book by Ted Berkman. So if you want to learn more about Colonel Marcus minus the Hollywood fluff, I’d recommend picking that up. The main historical inaccuracies in the film concern Marcus’s relationship with an Israeli soldier named Magda Simon. There isn’t really anything written about him having an affair with any Israeli, and this added storyline is surely a Hollywood addition to fit the standard war movie script requirement of a romantic sidebar. I’m not sure how involved Marcus was on specific raids or battles during the War of Independence either, but after doing some research I was quite surprised that a lot of the main themes in the film are in fact true.

Ben Gurion actually did name Marcus Aluf (Lieutenant General), the first general in the army of Israel in nearly two thousand years. It was his hit-and-run tactics that kept the Egyptian army in the Negev off balance. When Jerusalem was about to fall, Marcus ordered the construction of a road to bring additional men and equipment to break the Arab siege just days before the UN negotiated a cease fire. Without spoiling the ending for anyone, I’ll just add that Marcus’s demise was (suprisingly) portrayed accurately in the film as well.

While not as spectacular (or realistic) as Saving Private Ryan, the “campy-ness” of the 1960’s war scenes make them entertaining in their own way (plus, there are lots of great explosions!). The all-star cast puts it over the top and makes it a classic in my mind. Look for the scene where Frank Sinatra dive-bombs Egyptian tanks with seltzer bottles! There’s even a cameo by Topol (Tevia, from Fiddler on the Roof), who plays a Bedouin leader who provides some help to Marcus.

I highly recommend the movie. If you can’t find it on Netflix or at Blockbuster, you can purchase it from Amazon.com. My wife hates “old” movies (particularly war movies), and even she loved it! It will make you proud to be an American, proud to be a Jew, and proud of the Israelis who fought for their independence.