A Woman Called Golda (1982)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

best movie i've ever seen.

Best movie ever!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

In a life and a film of said life full of ironies, Ingrid Bergman who was suffering from cancer got to play the life story of another cancer sufferer, one who lived with the disease and did her best work with it hanging overhead. Judy Davis and Ingrid Bergman played a younger and older version of Golda Meir, first female Prime Minister of the state of Israel and a role model for the human race.Before writing this review I checked the Wikipedia article on Meir and I can attest the film is a truly factual account of her life. It is told in flashback as Meir is appearing at her old grade school in Milwaukee where she immigrated to as a child, escaping the pogroms of Czarist Russia in Kiev where she was born. And the story begins there where a young frightened girl hides and forms the conviction that she would dedicate her life to Zionism. Stories like that are what made the backbone of the future state of Israel.When Davis was playing the younger Meir, named Meyersohn then, she had been wooed and married to Leonard Nimoy who followed her to the territory of Palestine under British mandate then and lived on a Kibbutz. Her iron will and drive made her rise to the leadership of that Kibbutz and her career was on its way. She also had two children and eventually separated from Nimoy who resented taking second place to her vision. Israel, it's founding and preservation came first and always.By the time of the Israeli independence and the war for its creation with five Arab neighboring states Bergman has taken the role. She is a regal and commanding presence as Golda Meir. Bergman and Meir almost blend in what turned out to be Ingrid Bergman's farewell performance. Some players sadly go out playing in some awful films like Bette Davis or Errol Flynn. In Bergman's case she got a part every bit as good as her Oscar winning roles in Anastasia, Gaslight, and Murder On The Orient Express. She's nothing short of magnificent and the Emmy she got for this made for TV film was well earned.Israel still waits for the day that her Arab neighbors will decide whether they love their children more than they hate the Jews as Bergman so eloquently put it. Until that day comes may Israel produce such leaders as Golda Meir who I like to think of as the founding mother of Israel.This film is living history and should be seen and reseen by all.

I just don't get why this kind of series is not very much seen. Bergman is terrific as Golda. And despite the fact it is a very very sad movie it has some jokes that are terrific. Like when Golda, Ben-Gurion and others are talking to the leaders of the army in the 48 war and they ask for their "professional" opinion on the situation (Israel had 100k soldier but just 10k were trained and the Arabs had 400k plus the (trans)Jordanian forces) and one of the leaders say: "My professional opinion? I'm an archaeologist.".And when a kid ask Golda when there would be peace in the Middle East she replies with a quote that must not be forgotten: "When Arabs love more their children than they hate us".

This story shows triumphs as well as tragedies. This is Ingrid Berman and Leonard Nimoy at their best. Young Golda spends her life inspired by the words of a Jewish sage. She takes these words to heart, and makes them the driving force for her life. She is stubborn, intelligent, and very human. Her early years in Russia make her more enlightened than other American Jews of the day. She has a first-hand knowledge of persecution in Europe that few American Jews can understand. At a time when American Jews prefer to "blend-in" and avoid the J word in public; Golda is driven to go to Palestine and build a homeland in a simple way. She has no way of knowing that her talents and intelligence will catapult her to the center of the world stage from the rebirth of a small and poor country in a very rough part of the globe.

If ever there was a prime example as to how a woman should conduct herself,in both private and political life;it is Golda.The integrity,selflessness,humanity and dignity is supreme. She was the finest modern example of Rightiousness I have seen in my (almost) 70 years of life.Golda and Miss Bergman herself were dying of cancer as the movie was being made,and I can only imagine the difficulties of the demands of just filming a movie while in "good health" can draw from an actor/actress;what a Woman they both were.Both will always be my "Heros" and the most shining example of what a woman can do to better Life itself for humanity.May G-D Bless both there souls and give them their JUST rewards.