Golda
starring Helen Mirren, Camille Cottin, Live Schrieber, Lior Ashkenazi and Dvir Benedek
written by Nicholas Martin
directed by Guy Nattiv
Rating: ♦♦♦◊◊
I remember when Golda Meir (1898 - 1978) was still alive, and I knew who she was.
Golda is a biographical drama about the only female Israeli Prime Minister. And, it’s about the 1973 Yom Kippur War when Golda Meir, who was already an old lady, proved she was a woman of steel, facing down and defeating surrounding Arab armies that came dangerously close to overrunning Israel. By comparison to Israel’s fantastic success in the 1967 Six Day War, the Yom Kippur war was a near-disaster. Israel prevailed, but only barely. Subsequently, the Prime Minister was subject to an official inquiry by the Agranat Commission. She was cleared of wrongdoing in the prosecution of the war, but she resigned the premiership in June 1974. Meir’s testimony before that Commission is the premise of this story.
You will certainly learn a lot about the Yom Kippur War, but Golda is not exciting. It’s interesting, but not exciting. Helen Mirren is so heavily made up that it’s difficult to appreciate her acting. I can’t even recognize her. Maybe that’s a good thing.
The biggest thing about Golda is the tobacco smoke. Meir was a heavy chain-smoker. Throughout the film, Mirren is either smoking or lighting a cigarette. The relentlessness of it made the film awful to watch. You could practically smell the reek of tobacco. I was bothered throughout the film by the awful grayness of it: Meir’s gray hair and gray complexion; her grandmotherly clothes; the gray cloud of tobacco smoke that floated in every room and almost followed her around, engulfing her like her own atmosphere. The story of the war gets lost in this oppressive cloud of grayness. The Prime Minister seems less like a living human being than a shuffling pile of gray ash.
Was she a great leader? Charismatic and clever? Did she have a will of iron? Was she a tough old bird who could dominate any of the men in her government circle? Was she feared? I didn't get a sense of any of that. From the film it only felt like she was a kind of accidental Prime Minister.
The movie was a great performance by Mirren, yes. But it’s also just a gray and ugly piece of nothingness. It’s not the sort of film I would ever enjoy re-watching.