The Promise (2011)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Touches You

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

This mini series has a great plot. The parallel stories of Erin and Len Matthews are told in a really convincing way, with enlightening comparisons between the situation of Israel in 1946-1948 and today. I personally did not know much about the role of the British army in the couple of years prior to the creation of the State of Israel, and so I found Len's journey particularly interesting. The film is very didactic and is thus accessible to people who are not too familiar with the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict. My only disappointment was the way Erin's character turns into a caricature in episodes 3 to 4. Her stubbornness and lack of respect for the lives of others make her really irritating. She puts other peoples' lives at risk multiple times and her behaviour is so reckless, despite her rather hazy motives, that it becomes unbelievable at times. Other than that, a very enjoyable series.

I really liked the two stories of this series, if only because the past one is an almost forgotten piece of history in terms of films and TV series whereas the present story is told in a quite unbiased line; at least, as much unbiased as any story dealing with such conflict can be.While I write this review, Israel is striking Gaza with their planes, ships and artillery while Gaza is striking Israel with their rockets. It is very difficult to adopt an objective point of view of the conflict; once you get into it, you always have a tendency to lean towards one side or the other. "The Promise" criticises present-day Israeli policies in the occupied territories as well as the old days terrorist actions of the Irgun (a Jewish terrorist group), but it also creates good Israeli characters and others full of inner contradictions and moral conflicts. The Palestinian side goes cleverly untouched, with only a couple of characters with some meaning in the story. So, as a whole, I don't think it's biased at all. It just tells some uncomfortable truths.There are several striking similarities between the times of the Mandate and present-day Palestine. To begin with, Israelis achieved independence thanks to terrorism, something that Palestinians are now somehow imitating. You can choose to call them "freedom fighters" or "terrorists", but you'll have to choose the same term for both, and this is an uncomfortable truth. Other examples which have a very clear resemblance with present days Palestine resistance: Irgun kidnapping soldiers or hiding weapons in schools. All that part of the story has been forgotten for such a long time that, once rediscovered, one needs to review and update his former ideas about the conflict.Now, about the differences. The British Mandate is portrayed as a peace-keeper force supported by international law, whereas Israel in the occupied territories are portrayed as a brutal force acting against all international laws. However uncomfortable they might be, these differences are essentially true, uncomfortable truths once again. The Nakba ethnic cleansing (recently admitted and explored by Israeli historians), the suicide bombers, the deep division among the Palestinian ranks, the wall dividing Palestinian populations, the illegal settlements in the occupied territories, the underlying racism of Israeli society... all of them uncomfortable truths. Even the British abandoning the land even knowing of the massacres that were about to happen (it reminded me of the Dutch in Srebrenica). No one is left untouched in "The Promise".By the way, to conclude, what I liked the most was the extremely beautiful parallelism between the broken promise of the protagonist (Len) to protect the Arab child and the broken promise of the British troops to protect the Arab population. I somehow think that Len's tears at the end of the film were even more related to that second broken promise than to the first. A beautiful moment, I must admit.

Most Americans are most likely unfamiliar with the creation of Israel after WW II. This series offers some historical perspective to what is usually seen as a single point of view: Jewish refugees trying to establish a homeland after surviving the Nazi death camps (the good); the Arabs (Palestinians) trying to keep them out (the bad); and the British troops trying to maintain a tenuous peace (the ugly). As usual, the real story is various shades of grey. This series is presented somewhat through the eyes of Erin Matthews, a twenty year old who is spending part of her gap year--year between finishing what we think of as high school and starting college--with her friend Eliza who is a British Jew who returns to Israel to begin her national service. Erin discovers before leaving England her grandfather's diary which tells his story as a sergeant in the British army serving in Palestine during the 1940's. The story moves back and forth between the story of her grandfather, Len Matthews, and her experiences in Israel as she reads and tries to follow through on his story as related in the diary. In this telling it is made clear that the Jewish refugees are intent on creating a homeland regardless of the cost in life to the Palestinians or British troops. As a result, Len Matthews who began his service in sympathy with the Jews finds his feelings change as a result of his experiences. And Erin also finds that in the present day the assumptions she has been brought up with are now being challenged by experience. I personally found Len's story quite compelling and in part due to the fine acting of Christian Cooke as Len; and while Erin's story is also arresting, Claire Foy's Erin is a somewhat irritating and an unsympathetic character. Almost obnoxious. However, the large cast does an excellent job and there is no way you can watch one segment of the series and not feel compelled to watch the subsequent episodes. While I find the story well balanced in trying to show the larger picture, I am sure some will be upset to find that the Israelis are not depicted as the completely good guy underdogs of history. But if you want a better understanding of the current unrest in the Middle East then this is both an entreating and illuminating series.

I come from Palestine, when I started watching this mini-series, I was mentally prepared for the common western biased production of The Palestine cause, I am surprised at the end, that this was not only unbiased to any party, but also, shed more in my conscious on the British position, the Jews misery in Germany and later their perspective to occupy our lands and renaming our country. The drama was great, not a common Hollywood Bad Guys Vs.Good Guys BS. It gave me an urge to watch again and again and show it to my parents, relatives who are all refugees, a great and intelligent production, I strongly recommend it to anyone. If I was not Palestinian, or involved in this story, I still find a great story line, intelligent script and acting.