Customer Reviews

Sophie's Choice [VHS]

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Alan Pakula brings the Styron novel to the screen with period-perfection, and he has in his court a trio of superb performances, lead, of course, by Meryl Streep, who finally won me over with her transformation into Sophie. The character is layered and rich with emotional baggage, and Meryl's performances is nothing short of transcendental. When I saw this movie in the theatre upon its release, there was an older woman in the audience, towards the front, who ran screaming from the theatre, her hands on her ears, during the gut-twisting "choice" sequence. Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol, who do battle over Sophie, and within their own hearts, are exceptional foils for Sophie, and each brings a resonance to the evocative Brooklyn locations. The European sequences, swathed in a sepia tone, are mesmerizing and horrific. Sophie's journey is also a mystery, and it unravels with devastating results. Marvin Hamlish designed the lush musical score, which continues to rip my heart open every time I play it. While Schindler's List is a more gigantic vision of the experience of the Holocaust, this movie is intensely personal, but does perhaps more to drive a stake through your heart. You will continue to wonder, long after the haunting images of Sophie's face fade from view, what might you have done in her shoes?

Caught forever in an existential moment, Meryl Streep's portrayal of the aftereffects of Auschwitz is transfixing. Sophie is the guilt-ridden survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, and Streep's remarkable work brings her leaping off the screen into the hearts and minds of the watcher. This is a complex film which plays the outer tragedy of Sophie's present life against the inner tragedy of the evil she faced during the war.

As the story of Sophie's devastating past unfolds in flashbacks Streep faces choice after choice in her present life. Each seems to eat away at her life. Peter MacNicol and Kevin Kline unite to give performances that that carefully balance Streep's, creating an intense overall effect that cannot be described easily,

The film's emotional and intellectual content make is a bit too lengthy and stagy, but the lulls set the stage for the emotional crises. This is a heart rending story that will not be everyone's cup of tea, but Streep well deserves the Academy Award she got for this film, which was also nominated for best screenplay and best cinematography.

I watched "Sophie's Choice" not knowing at all what to expect. I assumed that the "choice" would be something commonplace in a film, like a choice between two lovers. When I found out what the choice really was, it made a very deep impression on me. It was the most gut-wrenching thing I have ever seen, in the movies or in real life. The scene is unforgettable. The emotionless evil of the SS officer offering Sophie the choice is highly disturbing. The man is extremely cold, almost Satanic in the evil he radiates. The strange thing is that he is not physically ugly-at first I thought the part was played by Alec Baldwin. This is easily the best portrayal of the Holocaust I've seen on film, much better than "Schindler's List." The evil of Auschwitz is so all-encompassing, so icy and devoid of emotion, that I can't help but think that it is the closest thing to Hell ever recreated on Earth.

Also, Meryl Streep's performance is by far the best I have ever seen in any film. Her virtuosity and technical brilliance are unmatched. One reviewer compared it to DeNiro in "Raging Bull," and I have to agree. The supporting performances are excellent, especially Peter McNicol who is indispensable as the narrator. The one flaw I found with the film (and probably with the novel as well, although I have not read it) is Stingo's (the author's) highly self-conscious fixation on sex. I thought that it was irrelevant to the story. To anyone who feels that the film is too slow-paced, I say keep watching action movies until you grow up and leave superb films like these to people emotionaly mature enough to appreciate them.

On the whole, I would rate this among the best films I've ever seen. Definitely don't miss it!

"There are so many things you do not understand. There are so many things I cannot tell you. And the truth does not make it easier to understand."

So says Sophie Zawistowski, the tormented woman at the center of "Sophie's Choice." Alan J. Pakula's film of William Styron's novel stands proudly alongside "Schindler's List" as a document of the Holocaust, but while the latter film tells the story of a people, this movie chooses to tell one woman's unspeakable story. Everything about "Sophie's Choice" is right. Pakula's direction and screenplay are superb, and the cinematography by Nestor Almendros is breathtakingly beautiful. The centerpiece of the film, however, is Meryl Streep's Oscar-winning performance as Sophie (probably the most deserved win in history) and the equally brilliant turns by Kevin Kline (in his first film role) and a very young Peter MacNicol.

A young writer named Stingo (MacNicol) comes to Brooklyn "on a voyage of discovery," and while living there meets Sophie and Nathan (Streep and Kline), two lovers who quickly befriend him. Stingo soon developes a crush on Sophie, and learns that she is a survivor of Auschwitz. While the seductive Nathan becomes ever more dangerous, Stingo gradually learns the secrets of Sophie's past, a past filled with terrible secrets and unbearable pain and guilt.

Meryl Streep gives possibly the best film performance ever as Sophie, completely becoming the Polish Holocaust survivor. The range and complexity of her performance is astonishing. Streep has many monologues as Sophie where she reveals more an more of the horrors she witnessed in the concentration camps, and these are all filmed in close up on Streep's face. It's riveting. As played by Streep, Sophie is a woman filled with immense hope, but also haunted by suffering, her eyes almost always close to tears. The final scene of "the choice" is almost unbearable in its intensity and will disturb you for days. A monumental performance that never seems like acting.

As an actor, Kevin Kline tends to go over the top, but he does some of his best work ever in "Sophie's Choice" as the demented Nathan. His mood swings from lovable to terrifying are completely believable, and quite scary. Peter MacNicol also makes the most of Stingo, probably the least interesting character. As the film's narrator, his subtle and honest work holds the movie together. Without him, it wouldn't work.

At 150 minutes, "Sophie's Choice" is a little overlong. Alan J. Pakula was so concerned about being faith to the book that there are several scenes that probably should have been left on the cutting room floor. However, the movie is a remarkable achievement, one that will make you cry and leave you completely absorbed the entire time. "Sophie's Choice" plays like a mystery. You can't look away until you find out the terrible secret of her past. But don't be surprised when the answer breaks your heart.

This will be the role she is always remembered for. This is the role of a lifetime, the jewel in her crown.

I don't know if I would want to watch this film again. It leaves me spent and empty and sad. I suppose I would watch it to see Streep's astonishing performance. But the themes explored are so brutal, so unspeakable, that they leave me dumbfounded.

Yes, there is beauty here. Cinematography, music, acting, writing. But there is a sense of hopelessness that leaves scars.

It is worth seeing for a beautiful, haunting and incredible acting performance by Meryl Streep.

The incomparable Meryl Streep unleashes a devastating Academy Award performance (her second, but her only one as Best Actress to date) in this powerful and shattering tale of a Polish immigrant who survives the horrors of Hitler's Holocaust and the choice she is forced to make to her Nazi captors: which of her two children to sacrifice to the death camps. Setting out in post-war Brooklyn, the film introduces Sophie and an aspiring writer (a very young Peter McNicol) who live together with Sophie's tempestuous lover (Kevin Kline, in an amazing dramatic turn). Through flashbacks, director Alan J. Pakula guides us on an intelligent and probing but grippingly painful look at the horrors that War War II was to the millions of Hitler's victims and the extremes that his prisoners undertook to survive. Paluka's blend of Sophie's life in nostalgic Brooklyn and in the concentration camps of World War II is horrific in its effectiveness as it accentuates the absolute terror and inhumanity of the Holocaust. But that dramatic strategy might not have worked with any actress other than Streep. She is simply that devastating and wholly believeable with her perfect Polish accent and her decimated physical appearance because of her time in the custody of her Nazi victimizers. With that one performance, Streep managed to raise the level of leading actresses and likely earned her the distinction of being one of the industry's most respected performers ever. Her raw and honest emotional trauma makes "Sophie's Choice" a well-worthy watching, and the film's subject matters reminds us once again of the evil that man can do.

Where does one begin to talk about a topic which is portrayed in one of the most disturbing of movies ever made about the Holocaust. This was a long haul, this film which has Meryl Streep portraying Sophie, a woman with a hidden past, and her lover, Kevin Kline, who portrays "Nathan," and off the wall lunatic/poet/prodigy (you guess!) and then there is Peter MacNicol, who is befriended by these two sorts, and the movie progresses as we see Sophie and Nathan at their best loving one another, and at their worst when they hate each other. But through the film, we learn the "secret" of what Sophie's choice entailed, and the story enfolds itself around you until you are weeping with her and getting angry with her, and finally, at the end, getting so disappointed at the ultimate choice she makes, along with her lover. It's not an uplifting film at all, and I would recommend one keeps his or her wits about them when the film is watched. This is a true "thinking cap" movie, and it evokes many feelings. I hope yours are as intact as mine were, or I thought they were. But of course my wife hated the movie, much more for the choice Sophie had to face in Nazi Germany, than for anything else, and she cried and cried and cried - something she doesn't like to do, but it proved the movie really moved her. Highly recommended.

Meryl Streep truly deserved the recognition for her performance as a survivor of the Holocaust. The film of course is much more than this, but is essentially the foundation. Kevin Kline plays her lover, and his role is also interesting as the schizophrenic. It's hard to believe the film is over 20 years old. Many have argued that the film is slow paced, and that it takes awhile for the flashbacks. I think this is important though for character development. Sophie's Choice is a tragic overwhelming story that deserves a place in your film collection.
DVD SUMMARY: If you read the "Widescreen Review" report, you would probably want to steer cleer of this DVD - because they've given the film transfer a less than impressive rating. Apparently this DVD is not 16:9 enhanced (AKA anamorphic).
Well, I obviously can't tell the difference between a film that is 16:9 enhanced and one that isn't, because Sophie's Choice is a better transfer than I expected. In fact, it's just as clear as DVD's that I own that apparently are 16:9 enhanced. In a nutshell, I was pleasantly surprised with the transfer of "Sophie's Choice" in light of "Widescreen Review's" analysis.
The audio is disappointing, so I agree with them on that. However, if you have a 5.1 amplifier, you can utilise all the speakers in a pretend type surround, and this helps to a great degree. It beats listening to it just on the front speakers. The extras are great. There is a documentary, but not in the true
sense because it is more based on the the film, although it does, at times, speak with Holocaust survivors. This doco is about 1 hour in length, and is a true bonus. Production notes, actor's notes, and a trailer complete the package.
Regardless of what "Widescreen Review" report, this DVD is still worth buying. Trust me, the picture quality is great. And more importantly, the story is a must see.

I read the book the moment it hit the stands because I was already a huge William Styron fan. I had a first edition! (Then I lent it to someone, and oh well, we all know the end of that story.) I just about reached a moment of person ecstacy (nice way to put it , eh?)when I heard Meryl Streep was chosen to play Sophie.(My other mental choice was Faye Dunaway - Meryl is better, no question.)

And when I saw the movie, like the book they kept peeling away layer after layer of her story until in the end we 'know' her truth. I have it on DVD and watch at least once a year. It reaches me, it scares me, it touches my soft places and hardens my defensive ones. It makes me question how the character survives at all, instead of just having a psychotic break in the camp (which would have been certain death).

It is perhaps the most horrible of horror movies where it is
horrific, and the most touching of character pieces where Sophie
is "made to bloom like a rose" in her humour, her humanity, and her regained health. It makes me laugh at all of Sophie's gentle and telling abuses of the language as she translates in her head and then speaks in a rather tortured eegnleesh. And it is also a remarkable movie for the sensitivity and strength of the three lead performances (Kevin Kline's debut!). Alan Pakula adapted and directed in a masterful sweep : history of the very large, and the very small. If he had never made another movie, this would be enough (but of course he did make others).

It is hard to convince people (especially mothers) that they will
enjoy the book or the film, because they all aready think they know what "Sophie's choice" is....but the point is that Sophie makes choices on many levels throughout the film - all of which promise salvation of a sort, and deliver something quite different. It is a tragedy in all too human terms, because in all liklihood, it is NOT fiction. At a certain, high school age, this is the movie that students should watch when they start asking why there was a Second World War, and what evil lurks in the hearts of men, and why is there an Israel?

If you have been thinking of renting it, or buying it, or reading it, I strongly recommend opening yourself to the experience. You will be richly rewarded and 'touched' everywhere.

".....and I knew that only a Jesus who no longer cared for me could take all of these peoples, that I did loved so much, away from me and leaving me here.........alive."

"The truth. The truth the truth. I do not know anymore what is the truth. After all of these lies that I have told.......You want to know the truth?"

Haunting.

This movie left me somewhat traumatized.
But not traumitized enough to not buy this
dvd for one of my adult children.
It is really inconprehensible.
This was one of those times when my
wife and I went out to a movie on a Saturday
night for some entertainment, not being
familar with the movie, and we walked out
of that movie like a couple of zombies.