Follow Me Shines a Light on Benjamin Netanyahu’s Heroic Late Brother
The army won. Of Yoni and his comrades in “the Unit,” a.k.a. Sayeret Matkal, former Defense Minister Shimon Peres says, “They studied a map like their parents studied the Talmud.” Unlike Yoni, however, who had lived in Philadelphia and Boston, the majority of this elite group of soldiers had never been out of Israel until that night they flew to Uganda to rescue the hostages. There was, in the words of one Unit member interviewed for the film, “some friction.” Perhaps more cynical filmmakers could’ve amplified this, comparing Yoni to, say, the title character in The Manchurian Candidate: a privileged outsider leading a team of men very different from himself. But these filmmakers, Ari Pinchot and Jonathan Gruber, carry a torch for their subject — especially Pinchot, who named his eldest son Yoni and spent 16 years making this movie. Digging up dirt on this hero was not their goal.
“For me, this project came out of reading Yoni’s book of letters and having this kind of connection with the thoughts and feelings and conflict portrayed in the book,” Pinchot says:
It was just on the bookshelf in my family home, and I ended up leafing through it. You just don’t come across people like Yoni very often, and I was always a fan of military stories, of people who did remarkable things on a military basis, mostly because I think it’s amazing that people have that kind of courage to push their fears aside and do something for a greater good. The introspection and honesty and conflict that came out of his letters, how he struggled to keep his soul alive — I felt like that’s the kind of hero that we should be sharing with people in the 21st century. I have four kids, and they are constantly being bombarded by a culture of self-absorption and people who are really just looking out for themselves, their careers, making money, what can I get, how many things can I own. I felt like Yoni’s story really does show you the other side — he had every reason to be selfish in terms of his intelligence, his athletic ability, his great looks. And yet he wasn’t; he had a higher cause.”
As for the film’s lukewarm critical reception, “We didn’t make the movie for critics, we made it for the audiences,” Gruber says:
We’re sharing things about Yoni’s life that have never been spoken about before. Some critics take it as hero worship and hagiography, and that’s surprising because when you make a film about a person it’s usually because on some level you admire what they’ve done. Certainly, it’s a positive portrayal, but I don’t think we’re telling a story that’s purely positive. And the reaction from audiences has been remarkable — the emotions people feel, their strong reactions, are so gratifying.
For maximum educational impact, the filmmakers hope to do something very unfilmmaker-like: get their movie out there on television as soon as possible. “This film wasn’t made to be a moneymaker — it was made to tell an important story,” Gruber says, “and to give a deeper understanding of the situation in Israel.”
Perhaps the MSM’s real problem with Follow Me is that the film spotlights the difficult, politically unfashionable reality of Israel’s ongoing fight for survival in a way that — like it or not — grabs and holds the viewer. Audiences hear and see Israel’s prime minister speaking not as an impersonal talking head, but as Yoni’s admiring brother and their parents’ devoted son, and it’s hard not to get choked up. How uncomfortable, and inconvenient!
So the movie is dismissed with critical reviews that will doubtless discourage people from seeing Follow Me, or from asking their local movie theaters to screen it. And as a result, many young people will miss the chance to become acquainted with a real-life role model who put the safety of his country ahead of his own.
“The world is full of beauty, and the ugliness in it only highlights that beauty,” Yoni wrote. Here’s hoping moviegoers will disregard the reviews they read and see the beauty of Follow Me. Learn more about the film, including current and upcoming play dates, here.
I am disappointed to see no play dates in Texas. I hope I’ll be able to buy this when it’s a DVD. I am not Jewish, but it seems to me that Israel raises an astonishing number of fearless, intelligent patriot warriors.
These are the people America should be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with. When some people in this country would rather appease the Muslims in the Middle East and alienate our one true ally in the region, Israel, they should be forced to watch this documentary. Why? Because in Jonathan “Yoni” Netanyahu they will see the tough moral fiber, the courage, the honesty, and the dedication to freedom possessed by the Israeli people. You don’t see that in most of the other worthless countries in the Middle East, which is why our relationship with Israel should continue to be strong and unbreakable. These are the people America should be supporting and defending, not some rancid bunch of Salafists in Egypt. I wish Israel all the best. I just hope they can hang on until a new president is elected in November.
so when our pathetic hapless media finds a true hero they attack or yawn?
and then continue to fawn over a craven coward? i say to hell with them.
He is an example of a person with real moral fiber,who protects the innocent. What a difference between the revenge-driven anti human rights, anti women Arabs of the middle east!
It is characteristic of Zahal that the only man killed in the Entebbe raid was a LCOL. In the 1973 War Yoni commanded the elite General Staff Reconnaissance Company, which fought on the Syrian front.
I remember the day well when I heard the news. The Jewish hostages had been separated from the non-Jews and the latter sent to France. The Air France pilot courageously tried to stay with his passengers, but was bundled onto the airplane and flown out; a good and righteous man.
The plane had been hijacked by German Communists, who turned the Jews over to genocidal Arabs and helped to guard the prisoners. The Ugandans helped and were in on the conspiracy, despite the long record of Israel attempts to help Ugandans. But the Arabs were Idi Amin’s “brothers” dontcherknow.
I turned on the radio to get the news and the first thing I heard was that Israeli commandos had flown in during the night and rescued the Jews, who were marked for murder because they were Jews. I never felt so happy. It was one of the most spectacular and daring small unit actions in military history, crowned with success; a palm for the courage and skill of the men of Zahal.
There is a memorial of the Holocaust in Washington D. C., there is the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, there are other memorials around the world to the millions of murdered Jews, but the real memorial of the Holocaust is Zahal.
Quote: “… but the real memorial of the Holocaust is Zahal.”
Amen.
One of my dearest friends, my ‘blood brother’ in Israel, was under Yoni Netanyahu’s command-as a Sayeret matkal commando-and took part in the raid on Entebbe too. Tsafrir Ronen died very suddenly in Dec 2008, and he too was a hero among heroes.
If interested, google – ‘Israel’s Hero, My Hero’. My op-ed (tribute)appeared at Israel National News upon his death.
of course they panned it! Just like they panned Act of Valor. (No, I’m not saying that the chatracters in both are equivalent.) They show patriotism, honor, valor, and courage in the face of evil. This film will be a success. Just like Act.
The last movie I saw was Stuart Litte with the granddaughters. Must have been 2001. Thank you for the review and a movie that won’t be saturated in political correctness with special focus on some aggrieved victim.