Customer Reviews

Miracle at Midnight [VHS]

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I watched this outstanding Disney made-for-tv movie many, many times, and I LOVE it!!

I first saw when it premiered on TV on the "Wonderful World of Disney" show in the spring of 1998. At that time I taped it on a VHS tape off of TV, and I loved it so much that I watched it over and over many, many times.

I should have broken the security tab on the tape, but because there were still several hours of free space left on the tape (it was taped in EP/SLP mode) I thought I would wait until the tape was filled before breaking it.

Unfortunately a couple of years later, I ended up accidentally taping over this great movie with something else, thereby erasing it. I was so upset, and so I am VERY glad to FINALLY have this movie on DVD!!

Since getting this terrific movie on DVD I have watched it so many times I have lost count!! I am also going to buy the soundtrack for it too, because the music is so moving and poignant.

Miracle at Midnight is the touching made-for-TV movie based on true events during World War II. It is set in Denmark during September 1943,(the information in the Amazon.com Editorial Reviews is either a typo or other error)and stars Sam Waterston and Mia Farrow as Dr. Karl (Waterston) and Doris(Farrow) Koster, a Christian couple living in Copenhagen with their two children, 18 year old Hendrik (Justin Whalin) and preteen Elsa (Nicola Mycroft) during the Nazi occupation of Denmark.

When Dr. Koster learns that after three years of occupation, the Nazis are going to start deporting the Jewish people in Denmark, he and his family realize that they can no longer sit by and watch their friends, neighbors and countrymen, be taken, and dragged away to Nazi concentration camps and death camps. They decide to do whatever they can to help those in danger.

While Dr. Koster uses his position of Chief Surgeon to protect a young Resistance fighter who was shot by the Nazis, his 18 year old son Hendrik risks his life working for the same Resistance group, commandeering and seizing shipments of weapons that were sent to the Nazis.

But it all comes to a head on Wednesday, September 29, 1943, when Dr. Koster gets word that the Nazis have planned a mass arrest and deportation of all Jewish people, at Midnight on that Friday, which is the start of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah.

Dr. Koster, his family, and his entire hospital staff, band together with the Resistance, and the Danish people,
realizing that they are going to have to work really fast if they want to save the thousands and thousands of innocent Jewish people in Denmark from being dragged off to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp by the Nazis.

They set up plans to find hiding places for the Jewish people, and get them safely through the initial raids, while they try to convince the Swedish government, to accept them, and find ways to transport them up the Danish coast to Sweden. As a majority of the Danes hate the Nazis, they are all willing to help, opening their homes, providing money and transportation.

While Hendrik works with the Resistance, securing trucks and other means to take Jewish people up the coast of Denmark to Sweden, his father, Dr. Karl Koster uses his position as Chief Surgeon at Christiana Hospital to hide Jews in the hospital, and his mother, Doris, and sister, Elsa, help out by letting their Jewish friends, Rabbi Ben Abrams, his wife, his daughter Hannah, and her fiance Michael hide in their attic.

Eventually the Nazis catch up to them, and the Kosters themselves are forced to flee for their lives. But before escaping, they are, in a matter of a couple of days, able to help save over 7,000 Danish Jews, in a miraculous rescue!

Miracle at Midnight is a TERRIFIC movie! It is just WONDERFUL having it on DVD! Now I can enjoy it for years to come!!

This movie was amazing and well acted. Mia Farrow and Sam Waterston do a great job of making us understand that the Danes protected their Jewish neighbors and friends at great risk to themselves. It is a movie that I recommend be shown in high schools. We cannot forget the past and the sacrifices that ordinary people made during this period in history.

The story of Christian Danes who risked their lives to save their Jewish fellow citizens from the Holocaust is not well known. This movie tells the story of one such Danish family, their struggles against Nazis and collaborators, and their efforts to save Danish Jews. Sam Waterston and Mia Farrow give outstanding performances. The story is gripping. More important, it will touch your heart.

I love anything there is to do with the Holocaust and I've seen many movies, read many books on the subject. But this is one the the best vidoes on the subject I have ever seen! I love it! There is no better way to put it! Many times, Disney has been far below my standards of a good movie, but this is better that regularly high rated movie productions. Few books,or movies, successfully protray what happened to Denmark during WWII and before, if at all, but this beautifully shows how hard it was to stay alive in that time in the world, especially Europe. The actors and actresses were wonderful and convincing. This is a movie that.... I will be proud to have apart of my Holocuast book/movie collection. This is a must see for a person of any age. Thank you for such a tear-jerking, chair-gripping work of art.

I teach fifth grade, and we had finished reading "Number the Stars" which is about the Danish resistance during WWII. I wanted to be able to show the class a movie version, however, there is no movie of the novel. The storyline of "Miracle at Midnight" was very similar to the novel, and served as a nice tie in. I'm also a fan of Sam Waterston.

Excellent! This is a very true to life movie about what happened during world war II in Denmark. It shows how people got involved and made a difference in the lives of many others. It shows a rich history that the Danish can be proud of in saving the Jews from concentration camps. Unlike Schindler's list this movie is appropriate for preteen children to watch.

: The movie "Miracle at Midnight", directed by Ken Cameron, is about one family's effort to save Jews in Denmark. The father of this family, Dr. Karl Koster, works at the local hospital. When he hears his Jewish friends are going to be deported by the Nazis, he starts hiding them in the hospital. Meanwhile, his son, Henrik Koster, a university student, joins the local resistance. At home, Karl and his family hide the local Rabbi, Ben Abrams, and his family. Eventually Karl is able to secretly send the Jews, hiding in the hospital, into Switzerland on fishing boats. Karl and his family have to flee to Switzerland because the Nazis found out what he was doing, but Mrs. Koster was taken by the Nazis.
It is very exciting and is extremely tense in several scenes. Which literally makes you sit on the edge of your seat. The movie moves along at a good pace and is only an hour and a half. The plot is quite interesting.

I bought this DVD to show a class of 3rd and 4th graders after they had read Number the Stars. The two plots are similar, with Jews trying to escape to Sweden from Denmark During WWII. There was enough action to keep the students entertained, but historical enough for them to get an age-appropriate understanding of what was happening at the time. I would recommend for school teachers, or for children at home to learn a bit as well.

It is not a great movie but it was a nice movie. It was nice to see a whole town that helped the Jews get out of in Denmark. A true story about how the town of Christians helped 7500 Jews escaped in a two day period. It as also nice to see a SS man not be evil.

This was a very captivating movie.
A Danish family becomes involved in helping Jews. The son (Henrik) is in the resistance and keeps it a secret from his family, sure they would forbid him to continue because of the danger.
The father, a doctor, decides he must do what he can to help the Jews when he hears of the news of the Germans coming to route out and kill Jews. He hides a family (friends of theirs) in the attic.
There are many tense and action-packed scenes. The acting is great.
I wish the people didn't feel they had to lie to save the Jews, though. (Corrie Ten Boom is a good example of someone who hid Jews and told the truth, being put in a concentration camp herself. What strong belief that is.)
There were also a couple of kisses (if you worry about that kind of thing), but nothing more than that.
Overall I give this movie a solid thumbs up and it is a striking example of the bravery of many people during the war.