Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peresanielle Solzman
Movie Reviews
April 26, 2023
Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres is a biographical documentary of one of Israel’s greatest leaders.
I’m several months late to watching the documentary but I decided to do so in honor of Israel’s 75th birthday on 5 Iyar, which in the Jewish calendar is known as Yom Ha’atzmaut. If you’re familiar with Shimon Peres, there’s a chance that you probably won’t learn anything new. Regardless, George Clooney’s narration and Peres’ own comments still make it worth watching.
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Peres left his childhood home in present-day Belarus and immigrated to then-British Mandatory Palestine in 1934. Borders have changed but he grew up with a Polish accent. This didn’t stop the teasing by classmates after arriving in the 1930s. Meanwhile, David Ben-Gurion, who would later become Israel’s first prime minister, quickly became one of his heroes. It’s because of this that Peres would serve some sort of role in the Israeli government dating back to its 1948 founding. When other countries placed an arms embargo on the Middle East, Ben-Gurion placed it on him to find a way to get weapons for the war.
Shimon Peres never served as a soldier during his lifetime. Perhaps this hurt him during the long-term in terms of political ambitions. He only served two terms as Israeli Prime Minister, one of the highest offices in the land, while previously serving as acting PM in the late 1970s. Interestingly enough, two of those terms were preceded by his Labor Party rival, Yitzhak Rabin. Until watching, I never really knew about the extent of their rivalry. Anyway, his term in the 1990s allowed for the Israeli economy to stabilize following very high inflation rates.
Peres died in 2016, some time after Richard Trank captured him on camera. This film runs just over two hours but he gave them more than 50 hours. This film already covers a lot about his life so I’m curious what will happen with the remaining footage. Up until shortly before his death, Peres kept busy. There are those who will happily retire but not Peres. If there was a way to extend his presidential term beyond 2014, he would have extended it. Alas, he did talks and whatnot up until just before his passing. Here’s a guy who won the Nobel Peace Prize, served two terms as Prime Minister, and finally, Israeli’s ninth president.
Given that Peres was involved with the government, he as a lot to say about building up the military and nuclear program. He played a key role in ending the 1956 Suez Crisis thanks to working with France and Britain. Following the end of the crisis, there was not another terror attack until the Six-Day War in 1967. The Yom Kippur War would follow in 1973, leading to Golda Meir’s resignation. As Minister of Defense in Rabin’s government, Peres and military leaders organized the hostage rescue at Entebbe. While all the hostages were successfully rescued, one Israeli fighter, Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, died. And then there was the Israel-Jordan peace treaty and the historic Oslo Peace Accords. But before the historic treaties and accords, there was the London Agreement. The London Agreement might have led to peace but Yitzhak Shamir shot it down.
As I watched Benjamin Netanyahu discuss his appreciation for Peres following Yoni’s burial, I can’t help but think about Netanyahu’s current judicial coup, let alone including a racist in the Israeli government. What would Peres think about this? My guess is that Shimon Peres would be on the right side of history. He would be trying to prevent authoritarian control of Israel. His granddaughter, Mika Almog, recently appeared in a USA 4 Israeli Democracy video on YouTube. Sadly, the great Israeli statesman is no longer with us. Even if Netanyahu shares kind remarks about Peres in the film, he is as far from Peres when it comes to politics.
When we talk about legacy, Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres is a beautiful example of what it means to leave something behind. It might not bring anything new to the documentary itself but it’s still insightful and informative. Even if one thinks they already know quite a bit about Peres, people probably still learn something they didn’t know before.
DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Richard Trank
NARRATOR: George Clooney
FEATURING: Shimon Peres, Tony Blair, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand
Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres is currently streaming on Netflix. Grade: 4/5
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Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres review – a whistle-stop biography of the perfect leader?
review-never-stop-dreaming-the-life-and-legacy-of-shimon-peres-netflix-documentary-film
By Kira Comerford - July 13, 2022
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Summary
Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres is like a taster lecture for a university course.
Netflix documentary film Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres was released on the streaming service on July 13, 2022.
Netflix has released Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres, a documentary film chronicling the life, work, and legacy of the former Israeli Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres.
The documentary opens with a montage of interview clips before hitting its stride with its first chapter. After the title card lifts, the first few minutes are reminiscent of an idyllic fairytale; images of rolling hills and luscious Belarusian countryside with the sound of almost orchestral music playing in the background. It’s like a story that’s about to introduce its folk hero protagonist, which would seem very fitting given the man presented in the film.
Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres explores the two elements that make the man himself — his life, and what that built that would outlive him. With his life, his work is subsequently covered, as this was such a huge part of what made Peres the man that the world knew. The documentary goes to great lengths to shed light on the individual and his motives, and whilst it would seem that there is no disputing the fact Peres did much of what he did with great conviction because he believed in it so strongly, I can’t help but feel a slightly more balanced view would’ve been a nice thing to incorporate. The film touches on the opposition he faced throughout his career, and also how he dealt with it, but we never really hear from any of the individuals who made up that opposition. If his devotion to the cause of creating an Israel for the future was as great as was depicted here, it would’ve been very interesting to see what Peres’ political opponents made of him, as despite being his opponents, he never seemed to treat them as his enemies.
The film doesn’t move along at a great pace. Considering the documentary’s length, and also the life led by its subject, the film features a relatively small selection of interviews that don’t offer a huge range of perspectives. They are also built around a narrative that is propped up by archive footage and photos, with the interviews themselves being more like a thread to weave these together, rather than visual assets enhancing the story being told by its narrators. Whilst it is clear that the documentary is intended as an educational celebration of Peres, I’m not sure how much effort was made to really scratch beneath the surface of what is essentially already out there if you look hard enough.
All in all, Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres seems to be a sound if brief intro to Peres and the work he did for Israel. There is, however, no denying that — just like the history of any country — Israel’s past plus all of the individuals who played a key part in it is a vast topic and as such I’m highly doubtful that this documentary is as in-depth as something like it could be. There are times where it comes across as being a little overly-romanticised, and I question the contributions of so many Western leaders that don’t seem to have been balanced out very much, but if you treat it as a taster, it probably isn’t too bad overall.
What did you think of the Netflix documentary film Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres? Comment below.
You can watch this documentary with a subscription to Netflix.
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