Product Details

• Actors: Harvey Keitel, Stellan Skarsgård, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birgit Minichmayr, Ulrich Tukur
• Directors: István Szabó
• Writers: Ronald Harwood
• Producers: Adam Betteridge, Alex Marshall, David Rogers, Fritz Buttenstedt, Gisela Waetzoldt-Hildebrandt
• Format: Color, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English, French, German, Russian
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• VHS Release Date: April 27, 2004
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001DCR0C
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,148 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

An impassioned clash of art and politics lies at the heart of Taking Sides, a historical drama that resonates with timeless relevance. Director Istvan Szabo remained in his native Hungary during Soviet occupation, and that experience clearly informed his approach to this fact-based film about Wilhelm Furtwangler, the celebrated conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, who chose to remain in Germany as the Nazis rose to power. World War II has ended, and now Furtwangler (superbly played by Stellan Skarsgârd) must endure intense interrogation by Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel), a pugnacious U.S. Army major assigned to root out Nazi collaborators. While the overzealous Arnold deals in moral absolutes, Furtwangler's embrace of art for art's sake opens him up to charges that he supported Hitler, intentionally or not, by naively believing that art and politics could remain separate in the cauldron of the Third Reich. Based on the play by Ronald Harwood (The Pianist), Taking Sides presents a compelling collision of ideologies, probing complex personal and political motivations while presenting an authentic, emotionally charged portrait of German culture immediately following Hitler's demise. Despite its title, the film itself remains neutral regarding its central argument, leaving the viewer to ponder the weighty issues involved. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

After the Second World War, the German conductor Wilhelm FurtwŠngler (played, though not impersonated, by Stellan Skarsgard) is questioned at length by Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel), an American major, whose task is to "find him guilty." FurtwŠngler had stayed in place through the rise and fall of the Nazi regime, leading the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras in concerts that were not just sanctioned but encouraged. Even now, listeners are forced to wonder what role FurtwŠngler fulfilled for Hitler: lackey, dupe, or cultural front man? In the movie, he defends himself as a subtle resister; the screenwriter, Ronald Harwood, and the director, István Szabó, set up a hot, claustrophobic head-to-head between the accuser and the accused. The result is so conscious of its contribution to the moral debate that it forgets to wake up as a movie, and the shots of a ruined Berlin are a perfunctory joke. Keitel is an annoying presence, but maybe that's the point: Arnold is a brute, a bigot, and a philistine, but, when it comes to the sins of the maestro, he's right. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art vs. Morality?, February 23, 2004

By 

gronoway "bevier" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taking Sides [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film, which concerns the behavior of the great conductor Willem Furtwangler under Hitler's regime, is only secondarily about whether Furtwangler did or did not sympathize with the Nazis. The underlying subject is the relationship between art (specifically, music) and morality: should a great artist be expected to abandon his country in order to make a moral choice? or is his duty to keep art alive in society even if it means tolerating evil to do it? And if he chooses the latter course, how can we distinguish this from craven self-interest or even complicity? These are the questions posed to the characters and to us as viewers. A terrific and unusual film, but it will bother you if you are uncomfortable with the ambiguity at its center.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Furtwangler! A Conductor of Great Magnitude, January 18, 2005

By 

B. Saines "bsaines2000" (Bklyn, N.Y.) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Taking Sides (DVD)

I saw the play in N.Y. before I saw the movie. The late Raymond Massey Jr. played Furtwangler in the play version. With all due respect to Massey, there is no comparison to the Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard. Skarsgard is the great Furtwangler! Am I a self-proclaimed authority on the conductor? No, not really, but I have read the three existing biographies about him. I tell you that Skarsgard, without a doubt, is as close to the conductor as possible. His portrayal is worth seeing the film alone! Harvey Keitel as the interogator, WHOA! Although there are several other fine actors in this film, Skarsgard and Keitel make seeing this film a must. If your a classical music buff, what are you waiting for? The central issue of this film was, did Furtwangler offer his artistic talents to the government and thus deemed a colaborator? Or, did he simply have a love for Germany and his art to the extent he felt he needed to stay in Germany as a symbol of his and other German citizens opposition to the Nazis. Although at times he made compromises with the government, as a whole he was clearly anti- Nazi and was about to be arrested by the SS for his support of Jewish muscians just before he left the country for Switzerland. You may think I'm too sympathetic to Furtwangler, but after reading three books, I'm both a supporter of the man and his art. So,I highly recommend you see the movie and decide for your self. Lastly, while your watching this film you will probably feel that he should have left Germany a long time ago, if he really wanted to do the "right thing". However, let me tell you something most people do not know about Furtwangler. He was told by the government at one point that if he left Germany at any time, his elderly mother would be put in jail! My source is from a book written by Yehudi Menuhin's dad. Those of you who know classical music are familiar with the close relationship between the Menuhin family and Furtwangler. See the movie, there was no one like Furtwangler!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Difficult Subject, A Brilliant Result, June 22, 2004

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Taking Sides (DVD)

TAKING SIDES achieves what so many other attempts at exploring the extremes of the human psyche under duress do not. That nether land of doubt that exists when aftermath 'truths' can only be postulated and not proved is the fodder from which writer Ronald Harwood (who also wrote 'The Pianist') has created a terse and tense examination of the investigation by the Allied Forces of Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler. Was he a Nazi sympathizer or a protector of Jews during the Holocaust? Director Istvan Szabo maintains the format of the original play to keep the story confined to the interrogation room, straying only momentarily to develop the characters of this quasi-trial. Stellan Skarsgard is extraordiarily fine as the controversial Furtwangler, even taking on his body language and conducting moments to the realist edge. As the Allied Forces interrogator Steven Arnold, Harvey Keitel is brilliant - seethingly angry, a hell-bent Major who refuses Furtwangler any semblance of respect. Assisting Keitel are his secretary Emmi (in an astonishingly fine performance by Birgitt Minichmayr) and an Allied observer David (the equally fine Moritz Bleibtreu), a Jew who still holds the subject Furtwangler in deep respect. But the magic is in the duets by Keitel and Skarsgard, sparring with personal venom and personal despair. We are not given a decision as to the truth of Furtwangler's investigation, but we are told the results of the interviews. All of the music is Beethoven and Schubert and Bruckner (the use of the Adagio from the Bruckner Symphony No. 7 is especially eloquent and meaningful) and is played from recordings by Furtwangler and the Berlin Philharmonic as well as by Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle of Berlin. This film is every bit as fine as the author's film of his THE PIANIST, but for some unknown reason it simply opened and closed in the theaters without making the impact it so justly deserves. Highly recommended on every level.