CAST A GIANT SHADOW

One of the most romantic figures of modern warfare was Colonel David Marcus- and C a Giant Shadow presents him in a real-life tale that reads like a hero saga based on the Lafayette of the struggle of the Palestinians against the Arabs in the War of Liberation. Though the script has Hollywood overtones, every thrilling adventure, every whiz personality is rooted in fact, not fiction. ""Mickey"" Marcus came form immigrant parents, fought his way out of Brooklyn, was a shining light at West Point. He made a landing in Normandy; worked superbly with Clay in postwar Germany, he loved parties and drank like a docker, yet he knew Wagner, Keats and Shakespeare by heart. Though neither a practicing Jew nor Zionist, he accepted the need of survivors of the Nazi terror for a homeland; when he inspected the Dachau horror, with bodies piled like cordwood, he knew it was his duty to help. Out of a ramshackle youthful citizen's army -- ""a collection of separate, independent fingers""- he built one indomitable striking fist. He was awarded Israel's first Generalship since Biblical times; he was called by Ben-Gurion ""the best man we had"". Shortly before the young republic's hour of triumph, Mickey Marcus was shot down at the gates of Jerusalem. In his private life, his wife was everything worth fighting for; to her he was a modern Don Quixote. An epic figure -- always- to Israel. This should take a place beside Exodus -- for the followers.