Exodus

Exodus (1960) is an American war drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Otto Preminger and adapted from Leon Uris's bestselling novel. Paul Newman plays Ari Ben Canaan, a Haganah commander running a ship packed with six hundred Jewish refugees through a British naval blockade off Cyprus — destination: Palestine. What looks like a single voyage turns into the opening chapter of a nation being built at gunpoint.

Eva Marie Saint plays an American nurse caught up in events she never planned for. The supporting cast — Ralph Richardson, Lee J. Cobb, Sal Mineo — fills the frame with people whose motivations cut against each other, which keeps the film honest even as the stakes climb. At three-and-a-half hours, it covers the crossing, the diplomatic standoff, and the early fighting of the 1948 war without losing its human scale.

Ernest Gold's score took home the Academy Award for Best Music, and the main theme became one of the most recognised film melodies of the decade. Preminger keeps the whole thing grounded: no easy victories, no clean heroes. Big in scope and quieter than you'd expect. Stream Exodus (1960) online on iFILM.