Golda (2023)

Already dying of the cancer that would eventually kill her, the Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir (Helen Mirren) must deal with the attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria in what is known as the Yom Kippur war. Directed by the Oscar winning Israeli Guy Nattiv (SKIN). Despite its title, this is not a movie biography on Golda Meir. There's the 1982 A WOMAN CALLED GOLDA with Ingrid Bergman for that. The entire film takes place in the 21 days of 1973 during the Yom Kippur war. If the title THE IRON LADY (Meryl Streep's Oscar winning performance as Margaret Thatcher) wasn't already taken, it would be a perfect title for this film though Meir is much more likeable than Thatcher. Not a movie bio, I would call it a war movie. The minutiae of strategy and battle in great detail had my head spinning. The film incorporates actual footage of the war and Golda Meir throughout the movie. While the film itself is not without interest, the main reason for seeing the film is Mirren's performance. Mirren buries herself in Golda Meir and gives her a layered complexity of a woman determined to save her country at a cost that will haunt her the rest of her life. The film's excellent make up for Meir earned the movie its only Oscar nomination. With Liev Schreiber as Henry Kissinger, Camille Cottin, Rami Heuberger and Ohad Knoller.