One of the most odd, innovative films I’ve seen. “New” composer John Adams wrote this opera years ago and it is filmed like a real movie — on an actual ocean liner and on locations that double for Israel/Palestine. All the dialogue is sung, and sung like a “new opera,” which makes this both fascinating and irritating. Unfortunately, I don’t have much taste for this kind of music — it all sounds like recitative to me. Scenes in flashback are sung by a chorus and those are chilling. The screenplay does its best to show “both sides” of the Achille Lauro highjacking — though one will always fall short trying to make terrorists who shoot an innocent man in a wheelchair sympathetic, no matter how many black and white images of a razed village are seen. Interesting film, 80% bad music.
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Welcome
Jordan Hoffman is a New York-based writer and film critic working for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Thrillist, Times of Israel, NY Daily News and elsewhere.
He is the host of ENGAGE: The Official Star Trek Podcast, a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and challenges you to a game of backgammon.