Operation Entebbe - Dramatisations and Documentaries

Dramatisations and Documentaries

The incident was the subject of several films. Two were U.S. productions with American/British casts, and a third was produced in Israel with mostly Israeli actors in key roles. The hijacking of Air France Flight AF139 and subsequent rescue mission is featured in the documentary Operation Thunderbolt: Entebbe. Below follow a complete list of films on the subjects:

• Victory at Entebbe (1976): with Anthony Hopkins, Burt Lancaster, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Dreyfuss, Director: Marvin J. Chomsky.
• Raid On Entebbe (1977): with Peter Finch, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, John Saxon, Yaphet Kotto, and James Woods, Director: Irvin Kershner, Producer: Edgar J. Scherick.
• Mivtsa Yonatan (English title: Operation Thunderbolt) (1977): Israeli Yehoram Gaon played Col. Netanyahu, Austrian Sybil Danning and German Klaus Kinski played the hijackers. Director: Menahem Golan.

The incident is the subject of Cohen on the Bridge a documentary by director Andrew Wainrib, who gained unprecedented access to the surviving commandos and hostages. An animated short of the documentary won the St. Louis International Film Festival's Festival Prize, was an Award Winner at the Palm Springs Short Fest and played many festivals in 2010 including Big Sky, and Santa Barbara International. The feature length documentary was slated for release in 2011, the 35th anniversary of Operation Entebbe.

Other depictions include:

• In The Delta Force (1986) which featured a hostage rescue operation inspired by Operation Entebbe.
• The incident was also featured in Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1980) and The Last King of Scotland (2006).
• The 1988 arcade game Operation Thunderbolt was loosely based on the events of Operation Entebbe.
• "Assault on Entebbe", an episode of the National Geographic Channel documentary Situation Critical featured this incident.
• To Pay the Price is a 2009 play by Peter-Adrian Cohen based in part on Yonatan Netanyahu's letters. The play, produced by North Carolina's Theatre Or opened off-off Broadway in New York in June 2009 during the Festival of Jewish Theater and Ideas.
• In the Simpsons episode "The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed" (2010) the Israeli tourist guide (voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen) offers Marge an Uzi submachine gun saying "You can hold my gun. I used it in Entebbe, I killed three Ugandans!"