The Green Prince
Music Box Films | Release Date: September 12, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniSep 19, 2014
The Green Prince is an extraordinary achievement. It has all the suspense of a great espionage yarn, but it's also a powerful moral document that calls into question the tactics of terrorism. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerSep 19, 2014
What we have here is a perhaps unanswerable enigma of the sort all too common in the annals of spying. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanSep 11, 2014
More than just a morality tale, The Green Prince is a thrill-a-minute spy caper too strange to be real, though it is. Read full review
80
The GuardianXan BrooksJul 7, 2014
Schirman's film (produced by the team behind Man on Wire and Searching For Sugarman) is as gripping as any high-concept Hollywood thriller and as psychologically knotty as Greek tragedy. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisOct 9, 2014
A narrative documentary thriller that effectively employs many elements of a John le Carré spy novel: international intrigue, arresting twists and turns, and characters with complicated motivations. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughSep 18, 2014
It takes a personal rather than a political perspective, exploring the ambiguities of truth and individual identity rather than the complexities of an ongoing historical calamity. And though the human drama is hypnotically gripping, it comes at the expense of the bigger picture. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonSep 12, 2014
The Green Prince gets its power from the back-and-forth of listening to each side tell its story, and from the moment the two sides converge in a final, very different collaboration in the United States. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubBenjamin MercerSep 10, 2014
Yet even if the individuals and their motives themselves don’t always come into full focus, The Green Prince is an absorbing psychological study of shifting allegiances. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithSep 10, 2014
Yousef’s story, which he retells in the documentary The Green Prince, is one of unimaginable courage and moral awakening. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick SchagerSep 11, 2014
Despite being an aesthetic bore, The Green Prince sets itself apart from the nonfiction pack via a recent story of two unlikely comrades’ heroic sacrifice, moral courage, and cross-cultural dedication to peace that’s not only gripping, but all too timely. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranSep 11, 2014
This is not great filmmaking, but their story is so involving that it doesn't matter as much as it might. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen HoldenSep 11, 2014
If The Green Prince sustains the tension of a well-executed thriller, it is achieved at the cost of a dispassionate objectivity. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijJul 7, 2014
Though the political background is fascinating, what finally resonates is that Schirman manages to humanize both Yousef and his Israeli handler, Gonen Ben Yitzhak, who would become an unlikely friend and ally. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackOct 22, 2014
There is much pain, and any number of deeply philosophical questions posed, if not answered. This is very powerful stuff, but what you ultimately make of it will have a lot to do with the politics you bring to watching it. Read full review
63
Washington PostStephanie MerrySep 11, 2014
Sometimes a great story is enough to overcome mediocre storytelling, and that’s the case with the documentary The Green Prince. Read full review
60
Time OutKeith UhlichSep 9, 2014
The Israel-Palestine conflict is reduced to a crystalline, though still complicated, essence in Nadav Schirman’s alternately tedious and engrossing documentary. Read full review
50
The DissolveMike D'AngeloSep 9, 2014
The Green Prince relates gripping events in a doggedly subdued manner, via direct-to-camera interviews and dramatic re-creations. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineClayton DillardSep 6, 2014
The proceedings have such a rigidly determined structure, amplified by chapter titles, that the power and conviction in their recountings deteriorate into a placid series of back-and-forths. Read full review
50
VarietyRob NelsonJul 7, 2014
An extraordinarily engrossing tale becomes an extremely uncinematic experience in the hands of Israeli documentarian Nadav Schirman. Read full review
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