Promised Lands

Susan Sontag was one of the rare intellectuals who managed to make a living as a thinker. She published a variety of articles, essays, and books about a wide range of social, cultural, and political topics. She also directed a small number of feature-length documentaries, which she liked to call “visual essays”.

1974's Promised Lands is one such visual essay. Sontag shot this movie during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. She and her crew captured footage of Israeli soldiers, battlefield wreckage, and Israeli life in Jerusalem. Several long shots of charred and decaying bodies lying in the desert heat are startling and unnerving, no matter how many action movies you've seen.

Although there are some direct interviews, much of the running time is occupied by footage that simply observes people and landscapes. The movie begins with shots of people going about their daily lives, such as praying and take care of laundry. This sequence gives way to shots of people attending a memorial for British soldiers (Palestine was once a British protectorate). As the movie progresses, we see someone reading letters and textbook extracts from Arab countries that reveal that Israel's neighbors indoctrinate their children to hate Israel and the Jewish people.

Even if you know from reading about Jerusalem that Jewish, Christian, and Arabic landmarks are close to each other, it is still startling to see the landmarks practically right on top of each other. These landmarks are important artifacts, not just of their respective faiths, but also as testaments to the many people who have lived in this area. It is quite obvious that Jerusalem and what we now call Israel can not be divided or excluded from anyone wishing to visit or live there. Yet, that is precisely what successive Israeli governments have tried to do, no matter what Jewish leaders tell the outside world.

Is Promised Lands an anti-war film? Is it anti-Israeli? I would answer “No” to both questions based on the movie's even-handed tone. It is clear that Israel's neighbors are the belligerents, though it is also clear that Jewish Israelis are guilty of treating Arab Israelis as second-tier citizens. Promised Lands doesn't fall into the trap of offering trite solutions, though it does highlight the difficult problems that still trouble the Middle East – thousands of years after Jewish, Christian, and Arab identities were first formed.

Video:
The 1.33:1 image does not appear to have been restored. Thus, expect to see instances of print damage, dust, and hairs. Noise is a problem with some shots, and colors have faded with the passage of time.

Audio:
The audio is presented as a DD 2.0 mono mix. The audio fares better than the video, though there are some indications of the movie's age, such as analog hiss. Otherwise, dialogue is generally clear and free of distortion. There is a mix of English, Hebrew, and Arabic dialogu