We all know that movies cannot do justice to well written books such as o jerusalem, but I thought I would at least check here to see if I should rent the movie or skip it now that i have read the book.
"We're going to need a bigger boat..."
I haven't seen the movie, but did read the book some years back. From the trailer, it seems like it takes a couple of characters from the book (who really appear once or twice) and then enlarges their role on-screen so that the creation of Israel, and the conflict that followed, are from their perspectives.
sharewell, it turns out that I have a DVD copy of the movie, bought at some discount store a while back. Anyway, the movie is fairly faithful on the overall series of events that I remember of the book, although the role of Transjordan's Arab Legion seems to be understated. The Arab Legion would be able to hold on to the Old City of Jerusalem, leaving Jerusalem split until the Six Day War. Also, the critical road is named "Bab El-Wad" in the book, but in the movie, it is called "Bab El-Oued" - I'm not sure if that was an oversight or not. It could be just be a difference in the transliteration, but both being fairly accurate.
With regards to the movie itself, it wasn't bad - but not great. There were some odd sidetracks, such as with the British, that served to give some additional historical context, but didn't really fit in with the overall plot. The friendship between Bobby Goldman and Said weren't as awkward as some others have reviewed, although their happenstance meetings over the course of the conflict felt forced.