The problem with this movie is simple: it is based on a true story. Or more accurately, two true stories, that happened to occur at the same time, and end up in the same place. The problem is, this is a case where fiction would have been better than truth, because the true stories are, shall we say, slim. There's not much story to the story. This is why so many people found it boring, because not very much happens, over a pretty long period of time. I didn't find it boring, I found it disappointing. Disappointing, because I was waiting with interest for the two stories to converge, climax and resolve, to see the chip-on-his-shoulder Jew finally get his rematch against the missionary Christian. But in fact, there's absolutely NO resolution (presumably because there was no resolution in real life). In the end, the early play-up of the Jewish guy's Jewishness went nowhere and amounted to nothing. The big deal about him losing the early race to the missionary guy went nowhere and amounted to nothing. In the end, the whole movie pretty much went nowhere and amounted to nothing.
I normally rail at movie-makers playing fast and loose with historic fact, so I'm not suggesting they should have altered history to make a more compelling story. I just think this wasn't an interesting enough story to make a movie out of in the first place.
I normally rail at movie-makers playing fast and loose with historic fact, so I'm not suggesting they should have altered history to make a more compelling story. I just think this wasn't an interesting enough story to make a movie out of in the first place.