Sophie's Choice Reviews

• HAUNTING

  
  By AM2PV53UX1JEQ on 1999-12-24
  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?
  
  

• What is Evil?

  
  By A1M4NJYP0WNL8Q on 2002-03-22
  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.
  
  

• Simply amazing

  
  By on 1999-03-12
  When I was assigned to watch an historical film for history class last year, I was less than thrilled. In fact, I dreaded having to sit through another hard-to-understand movie with very little real point. I decided on Sophie's Choice without knowing a thing about the film and I shudder to think what might have been had I chosen another video. Sophie's Choice gives us a look at the Holocaust from a different point of view. It doesn't just illustrate the horrors of the time; it shows us how these horrors affected survivors for their whole lives. After watching Sophie's Choice, I was stunned for days. The image of Sophie's daughter being taken to the gas chambers is impossible to shake. With its incredible cast including Kevin Kline, Peter McNichol and Meryl Streep, Sophie's Choice is rare among films. It changes you.
  
  

• A very powerful film, impossible to forget!

  
  By A2L86P3AI9VEN3 on 2001-11-03
  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!
  
  

• See it for Streep

  
  By AG0TA24LI0XV7 on 2006-08-03
  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.
  
  
  
• Meryl Streep is simply exceptional
  By A2ODBHT4URXVXQ on 2004-01-10
  Probably everyone has seen this movie, and probably everyone knows the premise, and probably everyone knows what Sophie's choice was and why it's slowly driving her crazy. But just in case there's a viewing population who is still clueless about this movie (based on the best-selling novel by William Styron), I'm not going to say too much so as not to give it away - because I was stunned with the enormity of it when I saw the movie for the first time and don't want to ruin that potential element of horrible surprise for new viewers.
  Setting: Brooklyn, just after WWII.
  Characters: Stingo (a young idealistic writer), Sophie (a Polish war survivor of the Holocaust), and Nathan (Sophie's lover, played in his movie debut by Kevin Klein)
  Plot line: Something horrible happened to Sophie during her time in a Nazi concentration camp, and details are slowly revealed through a series of harrowing flashbacks.
  Advice: See this movie. It's one of the best ever.
  
  
• I don't believe this is fiction
  By A1XPFFBT4MEBZE on 2004-09-09
  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.
  
  

• Death Dreams of Mourning
  By A3SLA4ADDSYZJ2 on 2004-12-19
  "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.
  
  
• Unforgettable
  By on 2000-05-08
  Meryl Streep's devastating performance captivated me from the first time I saw this film. I never really appreciated her before, but have been an avid fan ever since. Kevin Kline is also brilliant and charismatic as Nathan was portrayed in Styron's work. Peter McNicol captures Stingo in all his vulnerable and kind naivite. There is so much atmosphere throughout the film which covers every emotion possible. I felt so much warmth watching the friendship of the three characters unfold, chuckled over Stingo's disastrous attempts at romance with Leslie Lupidous, and then became completely engrossed in the unfolding mystery of Sophie's past. The final revelation of what the 'Choice' is left me numb with horror. But it also opened my eyes to the Holocaust as I'd never before seen it. I found this film more powerful overall than "Schindler's List", and believe it brings the suffering of those who survived the concentration camps to a new level of understanding. An important and tragic work of art.
  
  
• Excellent movie, mediocre transfer.
  By AM6JU6Q0DKV19 on 2000-12-11
  An emotionally engaging and exhausting film, Sophie's Choice is a very-well crafted drama. The character development is superb, as the viewer is presented with a penetrating analysis of Sophie in which her background and that of her lover Nathan is revealed in layers that serve to make the story even more captivating with each new chapter. A tragic story on many levels, this film left me emotionally drained. And yet I was also curious to learn more about the story behind the film even as I was shocked anew by the grotesque horrors of human cruelty represented by the holocaust.

  The DVD is okay, with muted colors and a Dolby Pro Logic sound mix that rarely ventures beyond the center channel. At least the DVD presents the film in its original aspect ratio. The extras are good, consisting of a historical documentary that weaves the story behind the film with oral history by holocaust survivors, and a theatrical trailer.
  
  

• A shattering tale of sacrifice and survival
  By AP0DQSDFSLP4P on 2003-02-13
  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.
  
  
• One of the most poignant movies of all time. Period.
  By A1L8HRCM60W0W7 on 2003-04-06
  From a totally penetrating and naked display of emotions, to her effortless narration of German prose, or the very convincingly affectuated Polish accent, this may be one of Streep's most outstanding performances ever! 'Sophie's Choice' should be compulsory viewing for any member of the voting panel who decides Academy Award winners. Quite simply, Meryl Streep's performance is THE benchmark for that 'Best Actress' category. I've seen a lot of films and not one performance has ever (or perhaps will ever) equal her's. The manner in which she embodies Sophie is beyond scrutiny, it is too accomplished and moving for words.

  Sophie is a person who is naive, jaded, innocent, guilt stricken, soft and gentle, hard as nails, loving and giving, and both practical and poetic to a fault. She is a classic tragic figure, a lesson in how to deal with the horrors of life and how not to deal with how those horrors haunt you. She is funny, soft and sweet, and you want to put your arms around her. Then you realize that underneath that childlike woman is a woman who has given up on childhood. She is a study in contradictions, speaking English, German, and Polish to survive at all costs. Then along comes Nathan, expertly portrayed by Kevin Kline (possibly one of his most challenging and multi-layered roles), and her life takes another turn.

  But we see all this through the wondering, innocent eyes of Stingo (Peter MacNicol), and the terror, love, laughs, friendship and alienation he experiences, that we experience.

  Aside from Streep's breathtaking pivotal performance, there are so many other reasons to own, collect and cherish this film -- Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol in their once in a lifetime role (I bet you cannot imagine anybody other than MacNicol who could portray Stingo like he does!), the beautiful cinematography, the haunting score which I realized was never overly touching or pretentiously dramatic....and yes, the key scene -- The Choice of Choices -- is possibly the most poignant scene ever on film, and how Meryl interprets Sophie during this scene is, by itself, worth an award! I loved this movie.
  
  All I can say to sum up is: required viewing! An intelligent and profoundly moving film that will (I promise you) live on in your memory long after the closing credits.
  
  

• Streep and Kline in a powerful depiction!!!
  By A3TD7B0CT1NHO4 on 2002-10-10
  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.
  
  
• I would utterly recommend seeing this movie after you have read the masterpiece on which it is based upon!!
  By A1RLCTTMK0OAOF on 2008-06-07
  Sophie's Choice
  Having read the title Sophie's Choice, by William Styron, on which this movie is based upon and which is my favorite book of all the ones I have read until the present moment, because of its fantastic and extraordinary prose and drama plot, I just have to say that the movie does astonishingly depict the abovementioned literary work.
  
  I am always very cautious about watching a movie based upon a literary work (particularly such a first-rate one) since it usually does not give merit to the primary source, however, this time, I was astoundingly well impressed. Meryl Streep, as the fair, Arial featured polish woman Sophie Zawistowska, portrays excellently the drama of a woman that was and survived the Nazi's concentration camps, and for one reason or another, had the luck to come out alive and ends up living, in 1947, in New York inside her own understandable private hell. A nightmare she shares with Nathan, her lover- Kevin Kline- and their writer friend Stingo- Peter MacNicol-. Their lives are entirely full of lies and, as the drama goes on, these falsehoods begin to unravel until the ending, when Sophie conveys her most hideous choice.
  
  Steep's actuation or performance is outstanding, brilliant and beautiful, and it won her an Academy Award.
  
  I would utterly recommend seeing this movie after you have read the masterpiece on which is based upon. It is well worth the read!
  
  
  
• ASTOUNDING!
  By A28GARSDLWPKJP on 2000-07-02
  When talking about this film, you can't help but mention Meryl Streep. She IS this film. Meryl Streep delivers a performance that is technically brilliant, sincere, honest, riveting, heart warming, and heart shattering. This is the best performance by an actor that I have ever seen. Everyone should see this movie simply to watch how a character can come to life. Meryl Streep raised the standards and left us with a haunting portrait of Sophie that we can enjoy forever. Whether you like Meryl Streep or not, you will be impressed by this performance and this film. Truly A MUST SEE!
  
  
• Ample make this bed . . .
  By on 1999-08-10
  Besides being enthralled with the story and its stunning juxtaposition of romance and horror, the acting, music (Sophie's theme is beautiful) and cinematography, I developed a greater appreciation of Emily Dickinson's poetry which I ridiculed mercilessly while in college.
  
  
• A Beautiful Movie.
  By A4821U19QIH28 on 2000-10-16
  Sophie's Choice is a wonderful film, and one of the most tragic stories I've ever heard. Meryl Streep gives a great performance as Sophie, and Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol are wonderful in supporting roles. Perhaps one of the best movies I've ever seen, and as important for everyone to see. It will break your heart.
  
  
• Streep is Genius
  By AWGSPFBWHCI6M on 2002-12-08
  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.
  
  
• DVD is better than I expected based on...
  By A2ASIT0JYIGHTA on 2003-06-01
  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.
  
  
• the most depressing movie ever
  By A37TPSSM54B7T on 2004-02-02
  I agree with others that this is an excellent movie--Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, are wonderful, etc. I saw it first in a movie theatre when it first came out, and found it's tragedy very painful to watch, yet compelling due to the quality of the film (and actors). In later years I have tried to watch the movie several times on VHS or TV, and tried to read the book as well. I can watch and read hour after hour of true crime, but this story, either in book or movie form, is perhaps the most depressing piece of work I've ever encountered.

  First of all, the tragedy of the holocaust is unspeakable except for the fact that it must be spoken about. That element of the film, displayed through Sophie's horrific experience unfolds slowly through painful flashbacks throughout. Second, the tragic personal choice she is forced to make--which of her children will be killed--speaks for itself. Thirdly, the tragedy of her lover's mental illness, so poingnant as we watch others with the same or similar illnesses today--homeless, untreated, misunderstood...so many perishing alone in our cold and drug-laden cities. Superior intelligence, it seems, fuels the tragedy by giving the false impression that the victim has the ability to have more control over the disease than he/she actually does. And finally, the ultimate depressing element of the film was the hope that both Sophie and her lover tried to cling to; displayed in bursts of reverie, joy, and engagement in life...like the final emergence of a hand grasping a slippery float, before it sinks.

  Perhaps others can tolerate this movie better than I, but it struck a haunting chord that has never left since I first viewed the movie.
  
  

• Best performance by an actress, all-time
  By A1KY8IAFV4P1GZ on 2005-06-26
  Streep's performance here is awe-inspiring. Even Kevin Kline said so. He said that sometimes he forgot his lines, he was so transfixed by Streep's. No one else even comes close, especially not Katherine Hepburn (even less Audrey Hepburn). Only some of Streep's other roles rival this one. Beyond that, this film should have won not only cinematography that year, as it says above, but best picture. Gandhi was good, this is better. Kline holds his own with what is still his best performance, and even MacNichol is not completely swamped. I think he is miscast, but at a second viewing (and forgetting the book) he begins to grow on you. Speaking of the book, this is one film that is better than the book--for an other example, see Blade Runner. Styron's book has some nice passages, and is full of good ideas, but artistically it is a mess. It cries out for a super-edit, and this film does that pretty well.
  
  
• The Best Actress Ever
  By A2HL7R8R23NERT on 2006-04-15
  No exaggeration: This movie features the most sublime, nuanced performance by an actress I have ever seen.
  
  For the first half of the film, Meryl Streep is utterly convincing as a mysterious Polish woman living in New York after WWII. Midway through the film, she plays an earlier, very different version of her character in a concentration camp in Auschwitz. I won't bother ladling on the superlatives; Meryl rocks, and she has never rocked harder than in this role.
  
  As for the rest, Kevin Kline does a good job being alternately charming and swarthily menacing, and Peter Macnichol is his usual useless adenoidal self. (Is he three feet tall?) Trust me, it's all about Meryl: And that is more than enough.
  
  
• Sopie's life is fiiled with the need to choose.
  By on 1999-11-20
  The life of Sophie is portrayed in vivid reality. The torment bestowed upon her during Word War II is unbearable. Sophie's existence leads her from one choice to another. Her choices destroy her existence. The misery that is her life is difficult yo observe.
  
  
• Quite Beautiful
  By A2S532MLCDR3PH on 1999-01-13
  The movie's two greatest assets are its look and actress. The movie is gold-soaked and amber-hued, the very color of nostalgia and suited perfectly to beautiful blondes. Streep is matchless protraying a wreck of a woman, Sophie. Her Polish accent and German (!!) are flawless, and there is never a false moment or move in her performance as a emotionally and spiritually damaged woman who "survived" the Holocaust and the concentration camps. Kevin Kline is magnetic as Nathan, her passionate, grandiose and occasionally deranged lover. And Peter MacNicol is youthful as the brash Southern would-be writer who falls in their orbit. The film's flaws are its pacing (deadly slow) and the ending. The "choice" the title refers to is put off so long that when it finally happens in flashback, the only feeling is not of discovery or dramatic climax, but of, "Well, finally!" And the ending is badly managed and seemed tacked on without regard to dramatic context and rather formulaic. The end isn't the dramatic climax, rather just a way to finish off the movie. Watch this movie if you want to see some good (and great) actors work their magic in a film that doesn't quite work as cinema should. It's an actor's flick.
  
  
• Agonizing - in more ways than one
  By A45DMDHO56OK6 on 2004-07-05
  This movie is simply agonizing in more ways than one. First, the bad. This movie is very lengthy - 2 hours and 30 minutes, and let me tell you, I could feel each and every minute sloooowly tick by. The story moves slowly as well, and it's hard to tell - what is real? What is false? Even when Sophie's "choice" is revealed at the end, are we, the audience, sure this is real or just a fabrication? As Sophie says somewhere in the movie, she has told so many lies it is hard to sort the truth from the falsehoods.

  The movie paints a portait of Stingo (Peter MacNicol, lately of Ally McBeal), a Southern writer who makes the acquaintance of Sophie and Nathan, his upstairs neighbors, and then can't get rid of them. Sophie's a Polish immigrant who has spent time in the concentration camps during WWII, while Nathan is a medical researcher obsessed with the evils of the Holocaust. Why did Sophie survive while so many others died? This is the question that haunts Nathan, and haunts Sophie, whose entire family was murdered in the concentration camps.

  Eventually, slowly, the story of Sophie emerges to Stingo, as we get some dramatic close-ups of Sophie telling us the story, making it feel more like a play than a movie. We flashback to life in the concentration camps, which has been prepared for us by the sadness which permeated the first half. Truths also begin to emerge about Nathan - and the tragic lives of Sophie and Nathan wind closer towards their end.

  Meryl Streep? Is just amazing. This is an awe-inspiring piece of work for Streep. She masters different dialects and speaks different languages for much of the film. Her Sophie is simply a haunting image that will stay with you long after the end credits finish. Kevin Kline as Nathan is perfect as well. Peter MacNicol? Well, I can take him or leave him.

  When the movie ends, you may have to wipe yourself off from the floor - not only from the tragic sadness and despair of the film, but from the mind-numbing length. This movie paints pictures of so much evil and grief it's hard to get over.
  
  

• A Compelling and Tragic Tale
  By A1G9FX1KV45N41 on 2004-10-20
  Set in Brooklyn in 1947, Sophie's Choice is an haunting, deep, of three people, whose lives are deeply intertwined, in Brooklyn - 1947:
  
  Stingo (Peter MacNicol): An aspiring young author from the South, who has made his way to Brooklyn to pursue his writing career.
  
  Sophie (Meryl Streep): A Polish war refugee, who has survived Auschwitz, and who's past is one of horrors we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.
  
  Nathan Landau: Sophie's mercurial and volatile lover, who is obsessed (if that is the right word) with hunting for escaped Nazis, and whose moods swing between joy of life and extreme generosity one moment and vicious, black rages the next.
  
  The first half of the movie revolves around the close friendship between Stingo, Nathan and Sophie, as well as the passionate relationship between Nathan and Sophie. The second part takes us to Sophie's nightmarish experiences during the Second World War, and ultimately the heartbreaking scene where a Nazi officer forces her to decide which of her two children will survive and which will be taken off to die in a crematorium.
  
  It is a movie both about the pathos and anxiety of each individual, and of the agony and evil of a world gone mad i.e. Europe during the holocaust, at a time when we are faced with mass terrorism , sympathy for terrorism and a resurgence of anti-semitism and totalitarian ideas.
  
  
  
• unbelievable!!!
  By A2ZNEAV4A8QDU8 on 2005-02-03
  the scene that i was really mesmerized how a great convinsing actress meryl is when she was "marching" together with a woman"most probably a hitler collaborator" the setting was a muddy field almost a size of a football field ,with the background showing delapidated makeshift cells for the would be victims of the eventual holocuast....meryll is very malnourished and cathectic and hopeless affect! i commend the director who was smart not to cut this very important scene!!! i's almost imposible to use a "double" only meryl can do it!!!!i can not imagine the reactioons of the post-holocoust survivors the moment they see this particular scene!!! BRAVO AND BRAVO TO MS. MERYLL STREEP!!!!!! !
  
  
• Beautiful Film, but...
  By A2VMVTDYQDA6L8 on 2008-02-17
  I read Styron's novel, Sophie's Choice, when it first came out. I was mesmerized all the way through. I didn't go to see the movie in the theatre because, knowing the story, I didn't want to be depressed. A couple of years ago, I bought the movie, but it sat on the shelf for a long time, unwatched until last night when I viewed it with my family, none of whom had read the book.
  
  My Polish husband left the room about half way through because he just couldn't stand to be reminded of things that were way too real for him. The rest of us continued to watch, hypnotized by the inexorable unfolding of the tragedy. After it was over, nobody spoke for a very long time. It's that kind of movie.
  
  There is something about the movie, though, that disturbs me. You see, the book had a certain emphasis that was excluded from the movie version. In Styron's novel, he is explicit about the parallels between the Nazi/Jew atrocities and the terrible abuses of the American South against Black Americans. This was an important theme - the universality of suffering - that he then developed more fully by making Sophie, a NON-Jew, the center of the story. In the novel, the suffering of the Jews IS discussed, but it is made quite clear that Hitler's main target was the Slavs. He carefully makes his case that the Holocaust is NOT an exclusively Jewish experience or tragedy. The fact is, 6 million Polish citizens were killed by the Nazis, only half of which were Jews. The other three million victims were Polish Christians and Catholics. For the Nazis, the Poles were, in fact, the First Target: "All Poles will disappear from the world.... It is essential that the great German people should consider it as its major task to destroy all Poles." (Heinrich Himmler)
  
  Hitler quickly took control of Poland by specifically targeting and eliminating the Polish Intelligentsia. During the next few years, millions of other Polish citizens were rounded up made slaves for German farmers and factories or taken to concentration camps where they were either starved and worked to death or used for scientific experiments.
  
  The Jews in Poland were forced inside ghettos, but the non-Jews were made prisoners in the concentration camps very early, as well as inside their own country. No one was allowed out.
  
  That's what Sophie's Choice was about, mainly: the suffering of the Poles, and Sophie exemplified this suffering. But this major theme has been completely lost in the movie version.
  
  Nathan, the "spokesman for the Jews" in the story, is a paranoid schizophrenic which might be considered a subtle way to portray the "paranoid" nature of the Jewish claim for Holocaust exclusivity. Entwined with the major theme of the book is Nathan's inability to cope with the fact that Sophie, a Polish-Catholic, experienced horrifying sufferings that were claimed to be exclusively Jewish.
  
  The monstrous decision that Sophie is forced to make (sometimes idiomatically used as way of describing a choice between two unbearable options, a "Sophie's Choice"), is not even fully portrayed in the film version. In the novel, Sophie describes the fussing and whining and crying of her daughter who was sick with an untreated ear infection prior to being forced to make the choice. It is suggested that her choice was partly influenced by her irritation at the child which makes it all the more monstrous.
  
  Meryl Streep gives a fabulous performance as do Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol. All three are perfect for their roles. The movie is only slightly slow, but still manages to carry the viewer along. It could have been a better movie if the nuances of Sophie's choice as well as the primary themes of the book had been included. These elements would have made it stupendous instead of just excellent.
  
  All through the book and movie, Sophie faces choices and in every instance, she chooses from a position of illusion of safety and fear, and it seems to be suggested that when she chooses, someone dies as a consequence of her choice.
  
  For example, after her father and her husband have been taken by the Nazis (at that point, you would think that Sophie would have realized that there was no rationality to Nazism since her father and husband were supporters of the Nazis and died anyway), she has a lover, Józef, who, with his half-sister, Wanda, is a member of the Polish Resistance. They ask Sophie to translate some stolen Gestapo documents, but fearing she might get into trouble, she refuses. Two weeks later, Józef is murdered by the Gestapo. One gets the impression that if Sophie had helped, this might not have happened, but that is uncertain. It is only a short time later that Sophie is arrested and sent to Auschwitz with her children. So, again, holding back, acting out of fear for the self, trying to protect the self, is not seen to be a good choice.
  
  When Sophie is in line at Auschwitz, she again tries to save herself and her children by telling a doctor that she is a good catholic, a supporter of the Reich, etc. Even though she is pretending to support the Nazis out of fear for herself and her children, and trying to save them, it is this act that precipitates the terrible choice. There is clearly no humanity in the Nazi mentality and that is something that Sophie never seems to grasp. She continues to think that they are normal humans, that they can be reasoned with, their consciences appealed to, when it is clear they are psychopaths and have no consciences at all. This occurs again in her interactions with camp commandant Hess. She refuses to help others by stealing a radio, and caves in to her fears again and pretends to be a Nazi supporter to try to save herself and her son.
  
  Again and again Sophie makes the wrong choices. Finally, Sophie seems to understand that saving herself isn't worth what she has paid with the coin of her soul. She returns to the deadly embrace of her Jewish lover who, in his paranoid schizophrenia, takes both their lives.
  
  Perhaps a prophetic lesson for our own times. It's a beautiful film, but it could have been better with very little effort.
  
  
• Amazing..
  By on 1999-06-21
  I own this video, but rarely watch it, as I do not want to lose any of it's eloquent, thought-provoking brilliance, as I tend to do after multiple viewings of any particular movie. This uncommon, beautiful movie, full of unexpected plot twists and revelations, is sage yet pure, solemn yet witty. Meryl Streep's performance is superb and plausible, as are Kline's and MacNicol's. The choice itself goes far deeper then the choice she must make with her children... It's much more than that. It's a choice most people probably could never comprehend. All we can ask is why.
  
  
• Streep proves she is the best!
  By on 1999-06-15
  I am so interested in analyzing films that I took a couple of cinema studies' classes in University, although I'm in Finance. I usually consider all aspects of the film (performances, script, direction, set design, lighting, millieu, mise-en-scene, etc.) before judging if it's good or bad. But with this film, Meryl Streep did it for me. Her amazing performance blew me away. It is the best performance I have ever seen so far. Other great performances by actresses: Jessica Lange in "Frances", Lili Taylor in "I Shot Andy Warhol", Meryl Streep in {"One True Thing", "Silkwood", "The French Lieutenant's Woman"}, Sally Field in "Norma Rae", Elizabeth Taylor in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?", Bette Davis in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?", and others. I have also made lists of the best performances by actors, the most risque movies ever made and others. If interested, e-mail me.
  
  

• Out of Africa
• The French Lieutenant's Woman
• Schindler's List (Widescreen Edition)
• Falling in Love
• The Bridges of Madison County (Full Screen Edition)