Review: Golda

Image courtesy of Bleecker Street Media.

Buried beneath a mountain of makeup and almost always with cigarette in hand, Helen Mirren disappears into the role of Golda Meir, the Israeli prime minister who was the first female head of government in the Middle East. Known as the "Iron Lady of Israel," Meir was the head of state during the 1973 Yom Kippur War when Egypt and Syria joined forces to attack Israel.

The film, much like the recent "Oppenheimer," utilizes the narrative device of a hearing - in this case, Meir is sitting before a committee to determine whether her government had been adequately prepared for the war after the nation was caught off guard by the attack.

Mirren is the best part of what is often a slightly stuffy movie in which Golda and groups of men sit in meetings making preparations for war or reconfiguring their strategies after having lost numerous tanks and men in battles. Throughout all this, Golda chain smokes and occasionally has nightmares of the dead who were claimed in the war.

Much like Ava Duvernay's "Selma," the film places an historical figure at the center of a pivotal moment in their career, rather than engage in a hagiographic biopic that tells their life story. The central focus of "Golda" is the Yom Kippur War and how Meir handled this fraught series of days. As such, we learn little about Meir, outside of her incessant smoking and the specific decisions she made about that war.

And yet, Mirren - who is among the greatest living actresses - finds a way to humanize Meir, rather than merely portray her as a figurehead. Most of Meir's advisers do not fare as well - and are not as memorable - other than Camille Cottin as a loyal aide whom Meir treats as family and Liev Schreiber, whose portrayal of U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is solid.

The history of the Yom Kippur War is fascinating material, so it's a shame that much of our experience of it in the film is people discussing attack routes, casualties, and military equipment losses in boardrooms. There's a horrific sequence during which one of Meir's military advisers flies in a helicopter over one of the fields of battle in the dark, and the sky is illuminated by the massive explosions going on below. Otherwise, the war is given a speculative treatment and, as such, feels at a remove.

"Golda" is not a bad movie. Mirren's performance - and those of some of the other cast members - are memorable, while the true story behind the attack is interesting enough to keep one compelled, but I believe there is a better movie that could be made about his material. 

There are two scenes that particularly stuck out to me in the film - one in which Meir insists that Kissinger try a bowl of borscht made by one of Meir's servants, and another late in the film that shows the real Meir - who comes off as humorous and lively - in stock footage discussing peace with Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat during a news conference. Those incidents tell us more about Meir than anything we see in this film about her.