The Bloom of a Quarter of a Century
Celebrated Exodus (1960) filmmaker and legendary asshole Otto Preminger returned to the subject of Israel for the second-to-last movie of his career, the comparatively obscure Rosebud (1975). Until recently, I had never heard of this study in international intrigue – and now I know why . Given what a plodding stinker this doldrum of Zio-tedium is, it might with more appropriateness have been titled Rosenbutt . Hanging in the air like an undying fart at a nigh-biblical 126 minutes, Preminger’s “action” and “adventure” story – if we are to accept IMDb’s labels – concerns a Palestinian terrorist organization’s abduction of some annoying rich girls and Newsweek journalist-spy Peter O’Toole’s debonair efforts to save them. The Palestinian “animals”, the film eventually reveals, are being directed by fanatical British Islamic convert Richard Attenborough, whose “plans go much further than helping the Palestinians. This is the beginning of jihad.” The screenplay was written by Eri...