A Woman Called Golda (1982)

On a 1977 visit to the Milwaukee school she graduated from, Golda Meir (Ingrid Bergman in her final role) reflects on her life from a Russian emigrant to Wisconsin, her marriage and immigration to Palestine in the 1920s in the hopes of being part in the building of a Jewish homeland to becoming the most powerful woman in Israel. Biopics are often problematic in that they seem to cram too much into too little a time period to tell the story properly and tend to come across as highlights of a person's life with very little insight into the subject. A WOMAN CALLED GOLDA somehow manages to avoid the pitfalls of the genre. The script by Harold Gast and Steve Gethers offers a detailed and layered look at a complex woman. The three hour running time and a superb performance by Bergman in the title role allows a meticulous look at Meir's strengths and flaws, her political successes often at the expense of personal failures. The young Golda is played by Judy Davis, a couple of years before her breakthrough performance in A PASSAGE TO INDIA. Directed by Alan Gibson. The meager underscore is by Michel Legrand. With Leonard Nimoy as Meir's husband, Robert Loggia as Anwar Sadat, Ned Beatty, Anne Jackson, Nigel Hawthorne, Jack Thompson and Barry Foster.