Holocaust
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Movie Reviews of Holocaust
Movie Review: Still a great mini series
Summary: 5 Stars
I remember watching this when I was a junior high student. It was the first I had heard of the horrible fate of six million European Jews under Hitler's Nazi Europe. It was so moving and heartbreaking that I remember crying several times. When I visited the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., one of the curators told me that this series really gave Americans their first realistic glimpse of Jewish life in Nazi Germany
I watched it again and was still incredibly moved. The Family Weiss is the story of many families in 1930's Germany, Josef, the kind hearted doctor, heads the family, his wife Berta, the strong musically gifted mother, Karl, the shy sensitive artist so in love with his Christian wife Inga, Rudi the hotheaded athlete just coming into manhood and finally teenager Anna. Paralleling the lives of the Weiss family is the Dorf family Erik is the up and coming SS man and his wife is the ambitious proud Aryan who totally believes in the new Germany.
This movie unfolds over time and the viewer sees the seeds of Nazi destruction right from the beginning. Karl, played by a very good James Woods, is married to his wife Inga (Meryl Streep, also very good) right before laws are passed forbidding marriage between Jews and Christians. Brown shirts are visible even at the wedding.
Soon more anti-Semitic Nazi ideology is sweeping across Germany and the Weiss family is separated, Karl is imprisoned in Buchenwald and Dr. Weiss, a Polish citizen is deported to Poland, even young Anna is separated due to a breakdown. These scenes are absolutely heart wrenching, especially so is Anna's.
Feeling restless, Rudi leaves the family and joins resistance fighters in Eastern Europe. Along the way he finds a woman he grows to care for greatly. The horrors they see of mass killings are nightmarish.
Meanwhile Berta joins her husband in Poland and there they try to piece together a semblance of sanity without their children in Warsaw. Soon, though the freight trains headed toward Auschwitz arrive to empty the Warsaw ghetto.
Inga and Karl's love is touching and Inga is willing to do anything to be with her husband, even if it means demeaning herself. Meryl Streep is fantastic; she adds just the right touch of desperation in her voice whenever she even mentions her husband's name.
The Dorf family's rise to fame is parallel to the Weiss's demise and the amazing part of this story is that these two families know one another, were once cordial and friendly. So easily Erik Dorf (Michael Moriarty is good as a shy somewhat awkward SS man in the beginning) forgets his scruples all in the name of personal ambition.
This is a must see miniseries because the content is so important. I highly recommend it.
Movie Review: 40 yr later it comes across differently
Summary: 5 Stars
POWERFUL saga on TV in '78-emotionally entranced from the 40th Anniversary DVD of Holocaust. Even after seeing it on TV years ago, a revisit is well worth the time. It is a fictional account of families on both sides of the Nazi/Jewish account. It was not really Germany, but political and ambitious desire coupled with individual egos that caused the atrocity to happen. This story is about the families Weiss, Dorf, Helms, Lowy, & the Berlin SS staff.
Years after 9-11, Viet Nam, Korea, well, so many conflicts, the look back at WWII and the systematic annihilation attempt toward the European Jewish population takes on even more significance. Can it happen again? Who will say no?
In this dramatization of wartime relationships, love till death, survival struggles, accountability, and history itself, a fantastic cast was assembled. At the time some of the cast were less known, such as Meryl Streep who did magnificently as Inga. But others, Rudi (Joseph Bottoms), Dr. Weiss (Fritz Weaver), Berta Weiss (Rosemary Harris), and others made you feel a part of their family. Tovah Feldshuh as Helena turned heads with her beauty as well as her emotional acting. Capt/Maj Dorf (Michael Moriarty) was so convincing that you soon got to hate him and his 'kill anyone' drive to promotion. Artist Karl Weiss (James Woods) began a huge career after this performance. The potential for picking out great acting moments is endless over this 3 DVD-5 part miniseries. One bad role was the Weiss youngest, perhaps a writing fault, not acting.
The show is timeless, being a period presentation (1935-45). The division of families and the directions their lives take them, makes this show give a comprehensive look at what took place, not just in Germany, but Poland, Russia, 'work' camps, and more. There is no definitive DVD on the Holocaust topic. "Schindler's List" is another that should be seen by everyone for a perspective of what happened, and the fact that not all were to blame.
This is truly a must see for anyone remotely interested in knowing more of the emotion and heartache that was caused by the Holocaust. It got me thinking of my own 3/4 German ancestry, the predominant German community where I live, and the fact that politics can become so corrupted that horror can win over humanity. It's been said that some guilty Nazi participants tried to confess due to the TV airing of this saga series. It's that impacting. it does have a short lighter ending which helps settle the nerves after watching for 7 1/2 hours.
NOT FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. CC was available. Absolutely NO Bonus material.
After 8 Emmy & 2 G.Globe wins; of course it's 5-star recommended. I'm glad I watch AGAIN.
Movie Review: Unlikely Monsters
Summary: 5 Stars
For those who may remember the initial airing of this miniseries in 1978 but didn't see it (some of us were more concerned with hitting the discos and learning the lastest dance moves)-- take the opportunity to catch up on what you missed. These characters beautifully represent all the real-life people who were caught up in the madness of WWII Germany. The cast is exceptional, playing both victims and tormentors--believable and very moving. Ms. Streep is generally mentioned most often, and of course earns her accolades, but she's matched every step of the way by the rest of the players. Decades before teen audiences were introduced to her as Peter Parker's Aunt May in the "Spiderman" series, Rosemary Harris established a solid career, and as Berta Weiss in "Holocaust", she can break your heart with one look. Michael Moriarty and Deborah Norton are horrifyingly convincing as the nice, lower-middle-class couple who fall for the SS propaganda hook, line, and sinker. Particularly disturbing is a scene showing them singing Christmas carols as a family, around the piano while one child burns photos of the victimized Weiss family in the fireplace. For me, that remains more indelible and monstrous than the usual images of the thin-lipped, cruel SS officers who tortured their victims in the concentration camps...although those scenes are chillingly present as well. Marta Dorf and her easily-manipulated husband Erik represent the most dangerous, unlikely monsters of World War II: the nice, everyday people who went about their Christian, family-oriented, churchgoing lives while they pretended they weren't actively involved in the slaughter of millions of innocent people....didn't they ever stop to imagine that it could have been their own families, their own children,literally ripped apart? Well worth your time to see this----the ending is a bit abrupt, but so was life at that time. It was real.Movie Review: Should be mandatory in schools
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, this arrives on DVD! I have it on VHS, but some works, like "Holocaust", have earned the right to be presented on DVD.
While not entirely historically accurate in the details -- most of the characters are fictional aggregates of real people -- the depiction of the events is realistic and, sadly, not in the least bit exaggerated. If anything, it had to be toned down because the brutality of what transpired is simply too intense for most viewers -- and probably movie-makers -- to stomach.
This mini-series is probably not appropriate for very young children, but it is definitely appropriate for teenagers. A place should be made in history classes (they do still teach history, right?) for viewing and discussing movies like "Holocaust" and Roots. If the school doesn't do it, the parents should.
Before people start thinking that "Holocaust" is little more than a thinly-veiled documentary, let me assure you that it's story telling at its best. In fact, there are many stories happening against the backdrop of the holocaust. Some are tragic, some inspiring, some triumphant, and some... well, some personal downfalls are just sweet to savor.
As a counterpoint to this intensely dramatic series, I recommend the blood-chilling The Wannsee Conference for a mind-numbing inside look at the event that launched the holocaust proper. For those who don't like subtitles, Conspiracy is the English equivalent, though it isn't quite as adept at providing the lump of ice in one's gut as "The Wansee Conference" gives.
Movie Review: Best fictional Holocaust movie ever made
Summary: 5 Stars
I am so happy this is finally being released on DVD after having been forgotten for so many years. Not only does this movie have some fine actors/actresses (James Woods, Merryl Streep, and more)but it is the most realistic, historically accurate depiction of the events that transpired in Germany and Europe.
Two families (1 Jewish, 1 German) are followed from the mid-1930's until after Worl War 2. Historical events are made especially personal by depicting how events affected one middle class Jewish family who chose to remain in Berlin after a multitude of Jews had fled. The events surrounding Krystallnacht, Nazi invasion of Poland, Babi Yar, Nazi euthanasia of the mentally ill, Auschwitz, Warsaw Gheto uprising, and Germany's defeat are all well depicted here.
Society here is a microcosm showing all the feelings, events and angles of the Holocaust: Jews who thought the country of Beethoven and Shiller were incapable of inhumanity, Unemployed Germans seeking livelihood who were transformed into evil monsters, drastically changed attitudes of germans towards the Jews as nazism trimuphed, complicity of Jews who collaborated, devoted German war enthusiasts appalled at learning how Jews were treated,and the anti-semitism taht ran rampant within the Polish underground.
This movie also sheds light on that perennial misguided question asked over and over: Why did the Jews allow themselves to be led like sheep to the slaughter? This movie shows how the Holocaust occurred in gradual stages and how Many German Jews especially were the most patriotic and asimilated of all Jews.
A must-see for any Holocaust scholar or ordinary American wanting to understand how it all happened.