Critic’s Pick:  Revisiting ‘Exodus’ is well worth the trip

Israel has been so much in the news lately that this couldn’t be a better time to revisit the original 1960 “Exodus,” the Otto Preminger-directed examination of the turmoil surrounding the founding of the state (based on the Leon Uris novel) that influenced American attitudes when it was released. The film’s epic three-hours-plus length goes down easier thanks to Ernest Gold’s Oscar-winning score and the star power of actors including Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Sal Mineo, Jill Haworth, Peter Lawford, Ralph Richardson and Lee J. Cobb. Saint herself will be present for a pre-screening conversation with critic Stephen Farber at the March 31 showing at 7 p.m. at Laemmle’s Royal in West Los Angeles.