Two iron ladies with rhetoric simplicity;Golda Meir’s speeches, dialogues and interviews in comparison with their counterparts in Ingrid Bergman’s re-enactment in the film A Woman Called Golda (1982)

Abstract

Alan Gibson’s television miniseries can be considered an epideictic speech in honor of the charismatic Israeli leader Golda Meir who coupled the Israeli security policy with the advice and financial support of the American Jewry and the US establishment – demonstrating at the same time a verbal rhetoric of utter simplicity and a power of great personality. The reconstructed film script is partly a documentary biography of the politician avoiding delicate private circumstances and a war film pleading for peace. The choice of Ingrid Bergman for the role of Golda Meir produced a significant sympathy potential whereas the actress showed her intention to compensate for not having understood Hitler’s threat for the Jews during her German UFA career in 1938. The employed camera techniques, repetition procedures and pathos of actors’ performance underlined a strong identification process on the part of the viewers making it impossible to decline the arguments claimed in the film. The rhetorical impact of this production can be defined as a mixture of educational (docere) and propagandistic (movere) intentions concentrating on the message of peace on the principles of secure Israeli borders and mutual recognition with all Arab states.