Product Details

• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Home Entertainme
• VHS Release Date: June 24, 1992
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302413427
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,543 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an exquisite, tender film, December 7, 2002

By 

Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Search [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The extraordinary talents of both Fred Zinnemann and Montgomery Clift combine to make this superb, and sadly neglected film a memorable experience. Filmed in the U.S. occupied zone of Berlin, it shows the devastated city in the aftermath of World War II, and the suffering of its lost and orphaned children.

The plot concerns a 9 year old boy, who has amnesia, and his relationship with an American soldier, and there is a secondary plot of his mother, who is looking for him. It is sentimental, but escapes being contrived or cloying, and I find myself repeatedly moved to tears with every viewing of it.

As with so many of Zinnemann's films, the black and white cinematography (by Emil Berna) has a simple, stark beauty. Both Zinnemann and Clift, whose incredibly sensitive portrayal of the soldier is riveting, were nominated for Oscars, but lost to John Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) and Laurence Olivier (Hamlet).
A special juvenile Oscar went to Ivan Jandl, who so convincingly plays the little boy, and it was to be the only film he would ever act in.

This was the first time movie audiences had a chance to see the handome Clift; even though he had already filmed Howard Hawks' Red River, this film was released first, and it is a must-see for fans of this graceful, fabulous actor. Also highly recommended is his first film with Elizabeth Taylor, A Place in the Sun.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Historical Drama, May 9, 2006

By 

Nelson Aspen "Author/Journalist" (Los Angeles & NYC, USA) - See all my reviews

I only recently became aware of this film, and managed to catch it on TCM. (This is a review of the film itself, not a DVD or VHS version of it.) I was struck by the candor and originality it conveyed in the drama of how displaced children were handled in post-war Europe. This particular drama focuses on a young Czech boy and his mother..seperated at Auschwitz, both presuming the other dead. A wonderful ensemble cast, headed by the sublime Montgomery Clift, conspire to reunite them...all amidst the heartbreaking backdrop of war ravaged locations and a gritty subplot of the true wartime atrocities.

Unique, heartbreaking and completely engrossing.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Search for Self, March 26, 2005

By 

Martin Asiner (jersey city, nj United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Search [VHS] (VHS Tape)

When the Second World War in Europe had ended, the struggle for survival did not end with the suicide of Hitler. For hundreds of thousands of civilians, the war had separated families, with parents and children in search of each other. In THE SEARCH, director Fred Zinnemann presents a stark and depressing montage of a war blasted Berlin full of helpless and hapless lost souls. Jamilla Novotna is Mrs. Malik, a Czechk woman who has lost her husband to the war and is determined not to lose her son, Karil (Ivan Jandl), even though she has not seen him for many months nor does she have a reasonable basis to assume that he still lives. She trudges through one whistle stop after another never giving up. Novotna's performance is stunning on several levels. At no time does she come off as a self-deluded figure who ignores the lack of evidence for her son's survival. There are times when she is overwhelmed with despair but her inner sense of grittiness pushes her on. She is a kind woman whom people, especially children, gravitate towards. Unknown to her, her son Karil lives in a nearby Displaced Person orphanage. He runs away only to be befriended by an American soldier (Montgomery Clift), who promptly provides the needed father image in the boy's life. The movie is really a character magnet, with the mother seeking the boy from a long distance and the American soldier having the attraction to the boy up close.

THE SEARCH is a sentimental look at a most unsentimental era in European history. It would have been too easy for director Zinnemann to be cloying in the mother-son's eventual reunion. Instead, the resolution is anticipated and eagerly sought for. As I watched the attempts of a group of kind hearted orphanage workers struggle incessantly to repair the ruins of a blighted Europe, I realized that the search for one's lost family often involve a search within one's own soul for the strength to continue that search. THE SEARCH is simply one of the best films of the post war era.