Exodus as a Zionist Melodrama
- Exodus as a Zionist Melodrama*
Introduction
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“Enter Exodus,” 29 May 1960. Courtesy of the New York Times
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Article on Exodus, New York Times, 11 December 1960. Courtesy of the New York Times
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Prime Minister Ben-Gurion with Otto Preminger at the premier of Exodus, Israel, 21 July 1961. Courtesy of the Weizmann Archives, Rehovot
Leon Uris’s Exodus was published by Doubleday in 1958. That same year, Steimatzky’s Agency in Israel issued a special reprint of Exodus for local English-speaking readers and, the following year, published Yosef Nedava’s Hebrew translation. A bestseller worldwide, Exodus was translated into a host of languages, and copies of these translations were marketed in Israel to tourists and new immigrants. Otto Preminger shot the film version of Exodus in Israel and Cyprus in 1960 and the movie had its Israeli premiere in 1961.
Thematically speaking, Uris’s novel, Nedava’s translation, and Preminger’s film covered familiar ground: the pioneer settlements, illegal immigration to Palestine, the struggle for independence, the Jewish underground movement, and the historic moment of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. But unlike the home-grown literature and films which explored these themes, 1 Exodus presented the story of Zionism in a popular, readily accessible form—melodrama—a model which, in its purity, existed only in non-canonized Israeli culture. 2
This article explores the following questions: How is this model expressed in the novel and the film? In what ways did Uris’s and Preminger’s choice of melodrama affect their treatment of historical events and Zionist ideology? How did the melodramatic nature of Exodus, along with other factors, influence the reception the novel and film enjoyed in Israel?
The Novel
Melodrama in the Novel and the Hebrew Translation
As an American novelist writing primarily for an American audience, Uris appropriated several models which were popular at the time in non-canonized [End Page 129] American literature, including the war novel, the western, and the romance. By the time he sat down to write Exodus, Uris was already expert in two: his resumé included two war novels, Cry Battle (which he also adapted for the screen) and The Angry Hills, 3 as well as the screenplay for the classic western Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.1957 Like many authors of war novels, Uris placed the military hostilities on center stage. He depicted wartime as an honorable person’s finest hour, and asserted that, with resourcefulness, courage, and faith in the justice of the cause, a person could overcome a powerful enemy who was not similarly equipped.
Ari Ben Canaan, the main character of Exodus, is reminiscent of the heroes of westerns. He is a simple farmer, who prefers reaping and sowing to violence, but is forced to carry a gun before he can return to his farming. Like many romances, the novel also contains a love story between a delicate western woman and a rugged, exotic man, whose foreignness and remoteness she finds both attractive and disturbing. Though the romance weaving through the novel is fraught with misunderstandings, it portends future happiness for the couple.
While Exodus has elements of the war novel, the western, and the romance, it is best described more generally as a melodrama, a term that refers to a cluster of characteristics that appear together in different models typical of non-canonized literature. According to Heilman 4 and others, melodrama is characterized by a visibly stylized outlook, one in which the world is divided between good and evil. With no pretense at realism, melodrama portrays the characters in black and white, and character traits are divided along predetermined lines, with little psychological depth. Certain characters are blessed with everything good—bravery, intelligence, and beauty—and others with only bad—cowardice, stupidity, and ugliness. As the plot unfolds, the characters can change, but, in general, good and evil do not coexist in the same character at the same time. In addition, each quality is inflated, and as a result the characters...
