Starkers for this movie (big spoiler)

I watched this movie last night, and I really enjoyed it. I thought their glances (when they first met, across the room, etc.), which were supposed to be inconspicuous, were so romantic. I believe Tom Hanks is one of the most gifted actors out there, for he plays so many different types of characters and has such a great way of immersing himself into the film being created. Two thumbs up for this movie.

Actually I find most of the story makes sense - though sometimes barely. I would have liked to know more about his back story, and their forestory together.

I really enjoy the idea of Jerusalem being a back water to a raging conflict instead of being the front line. The whole idea of Jerusalem being an island of tranquility away from the war was just a fantastic idea, and allows one to think about the place in different terms.

Prior to 1900, their would have been only a few saphardic jews and everyone else palestinian arabs. There were only a few hundred thousand before the war, and even after WWII and the exodus there were as many as a million jews in Israel by the time of their founding in 1948. Though tensions were building between Arab and Jews over palestines future, in was nothing until 1945. And as sephardic jews, the Arabs wouldn't have animosity pointed towards Sarah's family, they had been living there peacefully for 450 years.

In regard to the decision she makes, I think her father, in telling her that if she chooses Hanks, she loses her family, made her realize that she was making a decision in trying to marry Nessim. If she marries Nessim, she gets to stay in the community that she was raised in, but she's guaranteed a loveless life. Hanks coming back to Jerusalem gives her a second chance to reconsider her decision. Her father laying out the consequences illustrates to her that she is making a decision. But he also lays out the cost in concrete terms. And perhaps before that, the cost were too vague to her and so may have looked higher than it actually was. Once she knows all the costs, being shunned by her family, versus living in a loveless marriage, She's able to make the calculation more accurately. Furthermore, and maybe she could have told this already, living in non-integrated communities was to become harder and harder. Within a few years hundreds of thousands of askenazi jews form Europe would come, busting up the sephardic community to some thing much wider and much more open.

A big source of tension in the movie is the role that religion plays in life. Of God, hanks says, he has a lot to explain (he's talking about suffering and never, more was there suffering going on than in 1940s). This turns the whole issue of religion inside out. Her father further's hanks case by saying "suffering serves no use, no use at all." It puts religion on the defensive, and in the face of love denighed, and suffering magnified, the case is decided for love and against religious orthodoxy.

I try to imagine the forestory. What comes next? After Hanks leaves on the plane Sara has the nasty bit of breaking her hasty engagement with Nissam. Playing him for a fool several times over, further proof that God has some explaining to do, at least to Nissam. She then has to wait for the end of the war. If Hanks survives, and lets say that he does go to Burma, so it would seem that he does survive because the qualitative and tactical edge in aircraft shifts to the Allies there.

My guess is that Sarah bonds with Victoria, who has already been cast out, forming a sorrority of the shuned creating for Victoria a sense of familial, and a bridge back to the community from which she was shunned, furthermore, perhaps Sarah's more liberal brother would maintain a sense of community with Victoria. Perhaps this would be enough for her to make it through to the end of the war and stay married to Peter. I want to thing so. Sarah of course would still be golden in that she hadn't married outside the community yet. My guess is that Hanks comes back and gets Sarah. He then would take her to the U.S. simply because he could. Sarah would then miss out on the next sixty years of war and difficulty in Israel, but would return often.

After the war, given the role Hanks played in WWII fighting fascism, even before his own country got invovled, and the role America plays in helping Israel and the Jews, I think her father and at least her one brother would back off the hard core stance. I am going to guess that Hanks comes back to the United States, and might choose to live in NY, Chicago, Seattle or LA - all having large Jewish populations and perhaps some sephardim. The deciding factor would have to be getting a Job. I lean towards L.A. for several reasons: in the western half of the U.S. - something closer to his familiarity, It has a climate something closer to Sarah's familiarity, L.A. boomed after the war, plenty of jobs, including jobs in the aircraft industry, a poosibility for his character. The other likelyhood would be Seattle and Chicago in that order because supposedly Sarah had family in those places - Seattle being closer to Hanks character's home. Anyone that grew up in the west has a hard time settling in the east - so given a choice stays in the west.

In regard to her family. Her one brother would play the bridge role. Eventually her father comes to visit. Eventually she and David (hanks) go back to visit. And eventually the family's norm of shunning outsiders starts to look decidedly archaic. Little by little everyone becomes reconciled.

Another possibility of course is for Hanks to stick around Jerusalem for a while and help the Israelis start their airforce. He might get more street cred with her family.

Obvously I wish they would have developed this part more fully. The back story and the fore story especially, had enormous potential for drama. Unfortuntately only the writer of the movie knows what would have happened to the characters.

I am not so sure if Sarah and David would have embraced formal Religion together. Not sure. But Hanks is obviously a-religious and in embracing Hanks, Sarah is embracing areligiousness too.

Damn I wish there was more story to go on.