Golda

 Golda

Golda Meir looked directly at the camera. She stared grimly, gravely and portentously at those who always believed she was the greatest political figure the world had ever seen. Her face spoke a million languages, her mouth told a multitude of stories and the body language told you all you needed to know about one of the finest Prime Ministers Israel have ever had. The heavily lined forehead and cheeks were etched with pain and suffering, a thorough knowledge of war, its mechanics and the equipment needed to win that war. There were agonised creases wherever you looked in her face. This was unbearable. She couldn't take anymore and there came a point when it all became too much.

Golda, which is now out on release on most cinema screens across Britain and the rest of the world, was a powerful, gripping, viscerally dramatic, deeply poignant and hard hitting depiction of Golda Meir, the one woman who, above the bullets, bombs, murders and killings which decimated Israel in the Yom Kippur war of 1973, stood on the shoulders of giants and emerged as one of the most influential and admirable of all Prime Ministers. She took the blows almost incessantly and summoned a strength of character that had hitherto never been seen before in the tempestuous world of politics.

It is now 50 years since the destructive forces of war, hatred and excruciating violence, claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Israeli civilians, huge populations of Israel obliterated with a frightening inevitability while the world sighed with a despair and horror that destroyed everything the Israelis had held so dear. But Golda Meir soldiered on heroically and stoically, undaunted, utterly fearless in the face of toxic adversity. She was formidable, irrepressible and impregnable. Nobody would ever argue with her or shift her from any position of weakness and she did what others may have thought impossible. 

She challenged her foes with a bloody minded determination and ferocious commitment to the cause that must have left most of her friends and colleagues almost speechless with admiration. Her energy, stamina and wondrous reserves of endurance and forbearance would lift her nation with the morale boosting spirit that Britain had once seen in Sir Winston Churchill during the Second World War. Golda Meir was a woman of legendary fighting spirit, an indomitable crusader and never to be messed with.

Throughout Golda we witnessed the gravity and sombreness of the Yom Kippur war and we also discovered the recurring theme that accompanied her life. For almost the whole of the film Golda smoked, chain smoked, smoked because she had to, smoked because the crippling stress and anxiety that had been engendered by the Yom Kippur war had eaten away at her nerves. The whole act of smoking cigarettes became an all consuming necessity for Golda, a psychological comfort that kept her going, driving her on to greater achievements and saving her from a complete mental breakdown.

Dame Helen Mirren, one of Britain's most distinguished actresses, has become such a model of versatility and vivacity that you somehow knew she would do immense justice to the role of Golda Meir. Leading from the front, Mirren ran the whole show, commanding others to fall into line with her, dictating to others who may have doubted her. She was ruthless, uncompromising, blunt and forthright, shooting down in flames her most withering of critics. She became a military figure of some renown. She ruled with a rod of iron, plain speaking, a face of thunder frequently followed by flashes of lighting.

Surrounded by compassionate figures such as Henry Kissinger, the ultimate pacifist and peace maker, the always supportive Moshe Dayan and Ariel Sharon, at the time of the Yom Kippur war, a dynamic general and soldier who would eventually become Prime Minister of Israel. But wherever she went Golda smoked and smoked and never stopped smoking. In one memorable scene Golda was seen lighting up for the umpteenth time before being swallowed up by a fog of smoke that then developed into a wartime battleground of smoke, thickening smoke that graphically illustrated the horrendous nature of war.

Golda was beautifully told story with impeccable attention to detail. The characters and locations were superb cameos of what exactly happened during the Yom Kippur. There were the countless meetings behind the scenes, the vitally significant discussions about the involvement of Egypt and Russia and the role they played in the calamitous damage both were solely responsible for. The deaths and casualties were too many to mention but Golda just kept going, immovable, everywhere and ubiquitous.

Wherever she went Golda snarled and growled defiantly, bellowing out orders, bullish and bellicose, strong minded, fiercely independent, never beaten, demanding more and more of anybody who dared to cross her. Her touching relationship with Henry Kissinger was a cinematic masterpiece. The enduring friendship with Moshe Dayan was so heartfelt that you almost felt the two were related to each other as brother and sister. The late night phone calls and the make or break decision to reach a grudging ceasefire with Egypt heightened the drama and psycho drama of the Yom Kippur war.

In one memorable scene we saw the heat pictures of Israel's strategic attacks on Egypt and the rest of her Middle East enemies. White dots of heat would light up explosions and the cries of dying soldiers would echo around Golda as she buried her head in her hands, clutching her hair with increasing desperation. There was one deeply emotional moment when the mother of a son serving in the Israeli army, would be overwhelmed with tears as news would tell her that he'd died. Tapping away at her typewriter furiously as a secretary, she sobbed bitterly, aghast at the realisation that her precious offspring had perished and that this was inconsolable.

And yet how the current events in Israel have now become an almost a ghastly example of history repeating itself with a dreadful familiarity. Over the weekend the Middle East exploded with a vengeance, an outpouring of brutal barbarism, terrifying aggression, unspeakable savagery, a blatant disregard of human lives. For Hamas read Egypt, Russia followed by Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. War never achieves anything at any time but if Golda has taught us anything it is that the human spirit will always flourish.

Here was one woman, a woman passionately dedicated to her country, the woman with a weather beaten and haggard face that looked more and more tormented as the film progressed. There were the moments when she had to be dragged out of her sick bed and forced to convey her unwavering support for a war over which few could ever control at times. Her air of haunted despondency and war ravaged melancholy was a sight that could never be forgotten. Golda would crumple into a world of isolation and utterly distressing introspection where a very private battle was raging inside her head.

As her health increasingly deteriorated, Golda quickly resigned herself to her fate and that of Israel. When Sadat and Menachem Begin shook hands with each other in the first of many peace treaties it felt like a breakthrough moment. The sight of former American president Jimmy Carter as the smiling face of reconciliation is one that lives in the memory. History will see this as a seminal turning point in relations between Israel and the Middle East. 

Sadly though the news pictures of the last week or so are those that are imprinted permanently on our minds. There are the Israelis taken hostage by aggressive members of Hamas, children and babies raped and beaten, dehumanised and humiliated. The ugly face of terrorism is now in full spate, buildings blown up and toppled to the ground, dust and smoke tearing at the foundations. There are the vapours of tracer bullets in the sky, missiles in rapid succession and yet more carnage. It is now becoming a traumatic and familiar occurrence, the loud thump of yet more explosions and then death.

But it was the music festivals which celebrated the end of Sukkot for the Jewish people and the beginning of Simchat Torah which dominated our thoughts over the weekend. Hundreds of youngsters were seen fleeing gun fire and running for their lives. Here was a triumphant expression of joy now crushed by deadly Hamas killing machines. There has to be a detailed explanation for this tragic crime against humanity. Israel though will fight on, fiercely defending its right to retaliate in self defence. For this is the essence of war, that infinite capacity to hit back against the enemy. We will Stand by Israel and always will with peace and love for ever more. L'Chaim L'chaim to life.