O Jerusalem

As overstated and expository as a historical pageant, from the drippy music to a sputtering, running gag involving funky old jalopies to cliched speeches and teary-eyed deaths and a final voice-over crying out for peace. Why not add a song score and an exclamation mark in the title?

What is evident from the film is that there was never any chance these two peoples could make a peaceful coexistence.

Features some first-rate cinematography and solid acting, but absolutely no sense of emotional boundaries.

Imagine watching Otto Preminger's equally silly 1960 "Exodus" now and you'll have O Jerusalem, minus Paul Newman's blue-eyed wink.

O Jerusalem has the virtue of energy, but it suffers from superficiality, particularly with regard to the characterizations.

Whether on a Middle Eastern battlefield or the streets of New York, characters converse in stilted, expository mouthfuls that smother emotion.

This bloated 2006 historical epic flatlines early and never regains a pulse.