Golda (2023)

There are a lot of negative reviews of this movie, which focuses on Golda Meir during the 19-day Yom Kippur War of 1973, when Arab forces, led by Egypt, attacked Israel during its holiest time of the year. It was a dire and deadly situation to be sure, and it severely tested Meir, who remains the only woman ever to hold that leadership position in Israel. There is a lot of dissatisfaction with the make up required to turn the svelte Helen Mirren into the matronly Golda and her constant smoking are both distracting. I myself do not share that view—it is a shocking reminder of how ubiquitous chain smoking was in that time period (the same is true in Maestro as well), but to eliminate it takes away a dimension of the stress, tension, and fatigue that was in play at that time. I found Mirren’s portrayal of Meir to be nuanced and while I do not know much about her, neither do the reviewers, or at least that was not the focus of the criticism. The added dimension for me is that I watched this while the escalated war between Hamas and Israel is ongoing, that the more time that passes does not diminish the peril of the situation in the Middle East right now, and the history of what happened in 1973 is only part of the bigger story. Meir was an inspirational woman, who was born in Ukraine (another country under siege right now), grew into adulthood in the United States, and helped guide a young Israel at a time of great threat.