Raid on Entebbe

Raid on Entebbe is a 1977 TV movie directed by Irvin Kershner. It is based on an actual event: Operation Entebbe and the freeing of hostages at Entebbe Airport in Entebbe, Uganda on July 4, 1976. It was the last movie to be released featuring Academy Award-winning actor Peter Finch. Actress Dinah Manoff makes a cameo appearance early in the movie.

The movie was released shortly after a more hastily released made-for-television version came out - Victory at Entebbe (1976).

Though the movie was premiered on television in the USA, in some countries (including the UK) the film was distributed theatrically.

This version of Operation Entebbe is believed to be fairly accurate. The basic facts of the rescue of hostages held when hijackers working for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine boarded and hijacked an Air France plane recounts the events and response of the Israeli government and the controversy that the rescue stirred.

This version shows the difficult deliberations held by the Cabinet of Israel to decide on a top-secret military raid on the Jewish Sabbath by commandos; a difficult and daring operation carried out over 2500 miles from home, and of course, an unwillingness of the Israeli government to give in to terrorist demands. One commando was killed (the operation commander Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), as were three of the hostages, and 45 soldiers under the then dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin. The death of Netanyahu was moved from the beginning of the assault when it happened to the end for plot reasons. A fourth hostage, Dora Bloch, who had been taken to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, was murdered by the Ugandans on Idi Amin's orders.