Operation Thunderbolt
by Menahem Golan
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DVD Cover Information
Director: Menahem GolanDVD: Region Code 0
Audio: Hebrew (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Hebrew (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Classical, DVD, DVD Region, Special Limited Edition
Running Time: 50 minutes
Product features:
- An Academy Award nominated portrayal of Israel's stunning military raid to rescue the hijacked innocent passengers of Air France flight 139 from Entebbe, Uganda. Enjoy a story of great courage and devotion in this brilliant military operation of one of the Israeli Elite Units. (2hr) English, Russian, Hebrew
- The events started when armed terrorist from Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took over Air France flight # 139 from Paris to Tel-Aviv and diverted it to Libya and then Uganda.
- The Terrorists then issued Israel impossible demands in exchange for the captives, demands, Israel couldn't fulfill.
- Israel decided to send in its special forces and, in a larger than life operation, released the passengers in what became a mythical and the most famous anti-terrorist special operation ever held.
- Operation Thunderbolt, known as "Mivtza Yehonatan" is a story of courage, determination, creativity community strength.
Movie Reviews of Operation Thunderbolt
Movie Review: Hallelujah!
Summary: 5 Stars
OPERATION THUNDERBOLT (Hebrew: MIVTSA YONATAN) is Menachem Golan's and Yoram Globus's film recreation of the daring Israeli rescue of the hijacked passengers of Air France flight 139, bound from Jerusalem to Paris, which took place on July 4, 1976, America's Bicentennial.
Hijacked by a combined force of Arab and German terrorists who claimed to be "freedom fighters," the 85 Jewish passengers plus the flight crew were segregated and flown to Entebbe, Uganda's capital, where they were held under threat of death and with the smirking acquiescence of Idi Amin, the mad dictatorial President of that country.
The Israelis came up with an ingenious rescue plan which involved flying an anti-terrorist team a thousand miles and more to Entebbe, raiding the terminal, and extracting the passengers. It went off about as perfectly as it could. Three passengers were killed and 5 wounded during the rescue. One, Dora Bloch, who had been separated from the others by dint of being taken to the hospital, simply disappeared, presumably murdered. All the terrorists were slain. Only one Israeli soldier, Yoni Netanyahu, (older brother of the future Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu) was lost.
This was a moment of pride for all decent and truly freedom-loving people in the world.
There were several Hollywood versions of the event, but this one, made in Israel, had the backing and cooperation of the Israeli government. Yitzhak Rabin, Yigael Allon, and Shimon Peres all appear as themselves. Sybil Danning ("The Queen of The B's") appears as "Halima" (in real life the terrorist Brigitte Kuhlmann. For more on Kuhlmann might I suggest Council of Eleven: Shall we Not Revenge?).
Anyone familiar with this film will be able to recite long passages of dialogue from Chuck Norris's The Delta Force, another film based on a real hijacking, of TWA flight 847. Apparently, the script from OPERATION THUNDERBOLT (1977) was slightly altered for THE DELTA FORCE (1986), which are both Golan-Globus productions.
Summary of Operation Thunderbolt
The Oscar nominated film and documentary tells the heroic real-life events of Operation Thunderbolt which occurred in Entebbe, Uganda in 1976. The events started when armed terrorist from Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took over Air France flight # 139 from Paris to Tel-Aviv and diverted it to Libya and then Uganda. The Terrorists then issued Israel impossible demands in exchange for the captives, demands, Israel couldn t fulfill. Israel decided to send in its special forces and, in a larger than life operation, released the passengers in what became a mythical and the most famous anti-terrorist special operation ever held.Similar DVD Movies
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