The Ambassador

3/21/2024

No wonder US foreign policy is always such a mess. It's probably because there is a genuine belief that stuff like this might actually be possible. Their ambassador to Israel arrives determined to sort of decades of political unease with the Palestinians just because, well he's Robert Mitchum! Assisted by his security chief "Stevenson" (Rock Hudson) he finds that his wife (Ellen Burstyn) is soon a pawn in a game he must play - at some risk - if he is to improve anything for anyone. Donald Pleasance shows up now and again as Israeli government man "Eretz" but for the most part this is one of those films where the whole is nowhere near the potential sum of it's parts. Indeed, as we progress it comes across as an over-written, politically simplistic and rather woeful opportunity for some star