Product Details

• Actors: Robin Williams, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, Éva Igó, István Bálint, Justus von Dohnányi
• Directors: Peter Kassovitz
• Writers: Peter Kassovitz, Didier Decoin, Jurek Becker
• Producers: Robin Williams, Lew Rywin, Marsha Garces Williams, Nick Gillott
• Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: August 29, 2000
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0767844580
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #355,070 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful aside, milking the Holocaust for laughs is a dangerous game. Even the blackest, most therapeutic humor turns queasy in the shadow of such monstrous evil; it's like dancing on a mass grave. So Jakob the Liar's got a hard road to hoe--its eponymous schlemiel plays out his semi-farcical adventures in the mean streets of the Warsaw Ghetto circa 1944. The skies are always leaden over Jakob's hometown, reflecting the comic climate that pervades this mostly unfortunate adaptation of Jurek Becker's autobiographical book (first filmed in 1975).

Jakob Heym (Robin Williams in overbearingly earnest mode) gets tangled in a string of self-perpetuating lies about a hidden radio, supposedly broadcasting news that the victorious Red Army is nearing. His desperate attempts to convince a clutch of insistently idiosyncratic friends (clichés to a man: Liev Schreiber, Bob Balaban, Michael Jeter, Alan Arkin) and obligatory Nazi bad guys that the radio doesn't exist are complicated by the fact that he's stashed a fugitive kid (a dead ringer--sorry!--for Anne Frank) in his attic--and by abundant evidence that lies are the best medicine for the ghetto's skyrocketing suicide rate. Copious unfunny misunderstandings and pratfalls eventuate in this Holocaust rendition of Fiddler on the Roof (you expect Williams to break into song: "If I were a funny man...."). Ultimately, Jakob the Liar loses its way for good in some very ugly violence and a rather nasty final twist: the film's ending might just be rubbing our noses in another feel-good lie. --Kathleen Murphy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Understand Where This Is Coming From, July 3, 2000

By 

Samuel G Carle (West Jefferson, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jakob the Liar [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Don't watch this expecting Life Is Beautiful or Schindlers List - Don't watch it expecting to compare it to other Robin Williams Films. Granted, it's not as realistic and the original German version but understand where the film is coming from. Read Jurek Beckers novel for more insight. I'm assuming this films takes from the novel (which is set in the Lodz ghetto in Poland) - it's not a lavish detailed holocaust film but the message of hope that is gained from this is great. Watch the original German production and read the book - then watch this version with an open mind.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie!, April 3, 2003

By 

Linda Benske (Delafield, Wisconsin United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jakob the Liar (DVD)

This movie should be placed among the timeless World War Two classics such as Schindler's List and Life Is Beautiful. It is truly one of Williams best performances since Goodwill Hunting. It acurately portrays the life of people during the Jewish Holocaust. Iwas touched deeply by this movie and moved by the great performance of Williams and the rest of the cast. Peter Kassovitz establishes himself as a great director with this movie. The book was great and the movie was even better!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The key to your reaction will be your frame of reference, August 5, 2000

By 

Hugh Brownstone (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jakob the Liar [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The week before seeing this film, my wife and I travelled to Krakow, Poland to see Auschwitz. We then visited Prague. I have to tell you, if your frame of reference is boomer generation American living in Europe and having visited the real thing -- rather than other movies -- the film is a revelation.

We stumbled across this rental in a UK Blockbuster, rented it, and were stunned by it. It felt closer in atmosphere and nuance to where we'd just been than anything we've ever seen. It is a "small" movie: no grand gestures, no sweeping vistas or bright colors. No "pops" in the story line, no grand themes caricatured. This is not to say that we don't have our own copies of Schindler's List and Life is Beautiful, nor that these films suffer from these defects!

But...if you haven't been to this part of the world, the one film of these three that would be most consistent with what you felt and intuited would probably be this one.

I'm sorry the critics didn't like it. It is something out of the ordinary, and appears to have been a labor of love.