I love the theme music for this film and, with such powerful subject material, I expected an epic. I was sorely disappointed. Opinions of the film often seem to depend on the extent to which the reviewer sympathises with the politics as portrayed. However, setting politics aside, this is a really bad film, condemned to death by wooden acting, stilted dialog and poor direction. When 'Karen' unexpectedly dies near the end, I was convinced it was because someone couldn't stand any more of her terrible acting! Even worthies such as Newman and Richardson seem to struggle with the lines they've been given. Newman's speech at Karen's burial is cringe-worthy, and he looks embarrassed to be making it. Even the magnificent theme music is largely wasted, played at apparently arbitrary points during the film including, for example, Newman catching a bus. This film is not the epic it could have been, it's not even average.

While in Israel I met some Russian Jewish teen's refuges at a youth village that did not understand where or why they were in Israel. The best way to help them was to get them to read the book Exodus. I went Into town and bought the book Exodus in Russian. It came in two Volumes. I gave it to one of the Russian teens. The next day she with a few others came to me and asked if the story about the hero's girl friend was true. She had been raped, cut up in small pieces and put in a sack on a mule's back and sent home. I told yes it was, as a few weeks before I stumble on to the monument for the young women.Today, I help Israel with the Israel Longhorn Project but I need your help to do it. Please go to http://longhornproject.org and help.I corrected as best as I can. I am dyslexic. Making it hard to write.

I did not read any reviews about this film prior to seeing it.In retrospect I should have, as it would have saved me from wasting time on cheap trash.This film is extremely badly done piece of propaganda that has next to nothing to do with actual events it is supposed to portray.What exactly is the reason not to tell the real story? Why change even basic facts that can be proved such as origin of the ship (it was USA and NOT Cyprus), and historical fact that British actually sent Jewish people this movie is about back to Germany.This film has nothing at all to do with actual history. Its nothing but piece of garbage. A very boring one at that.

When I read in a review here that this was an "exciting historical drama; a fictional story told around actual events.", I was flabbergasted! I was 19 when I saw the film in 1960 in Paris. At that time I liked more or less the film, criticizing its length; a good script does not need to take 200 minutes to expose a subject. But this is not the most important thing here.When you tackle a subject related to a major historical event, you have no right whatsoever to distort facts. When you tackle a subject so sensitive as the consequences of the holocaust and the situation of Jews in search of a country to live at the end of WWII, you have no right to distort facts. Preminger being of Jewish origins himself had no right to use this historical event et to distort history. This appeared clearly to me after visioning the bluray and its bonuses.Nowhere is mentioned that the refugees boarded the ship in South of France. The ship was acquired in the USA and not Cyprus. The refugees never left the ship until the scandalous attack by the British forces who jumped from one destroyer onto the ship as shown on newsreels presented in the bonus of the DVD. And worst of all nowhere it is mentioned that Great Britain boarded the refugees on 3 prison ships and send them back to Hamburg in Germany. It is because of those actions that at last the United Nations reached a semi consensus to order Britain to leave Palestine and decided the creation the State of Israel.Such a treatment of history, of events which were so terrible after the horrors of WWII cant deserve any prize.This film is a tissue of lies from beginning to the end. It is too serious a subject to excuse oneself saying that it is a fiction story. As far as I'm concerned the bluray will directly go into the garbage can. It does not deserve better treatment.