Hanna's War

Based on the true story of Hanna Senesh, an Israeli woman who joined a British resistance group and was captured, tortured, and finally murdered by Nazis in Hungary, Hanna's War has two modes: pedestrian and insulting. It is pedestrian in its tiresomely beautiful evocation of Hanna's teenage years-lots of family shots, lots of music. And it is insulting in its interminably long portrayal of Hanna's (Maruschka Detmers) suffering, replete with a full-scale Hollywood death: executioners furtively wiping away stray tears, birds calling on the soundtrack, bright red blood staining a virginal white gown, and the obligatory slow-motion spin and fall. Hanna and her mother (Ellen Burstyn) are portrayed as saints-Hanna, specifically as Joan of Arc, with the aid of a few awkward and contrived bits of dialogue. And Donald Pleasance and David Warner, as Hanna's persecutors, are histrionic portraits of evil. It's unfortunate that Hanna Senesh, a brave tragic figure, should have been reduced to a mere good-hearted puppet in this tinsel town version of her life. Not recommended.