Sophie's Choice
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Movie Reviews of Sophie's Choice
Movie Review: "Let no sunrise yellow noise.....interrupt this ground."
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw "Sophie's Choice" in 1982, when it came out in theatres. Shortly thereafter, I read the William Styron novel on which it is based. In the past 25 years (hard to imagine it has been that long ago) I have watched the movie many times, and reread the novel 4 or 5 times as well. I won't recount the outlines of the story (see the many customer reviews for that), but simply wish to say that of all the movies I've watched, this is the one that is most enduring, and in such a haunting, complex way. I think the ultimate test of a great movie is time - and after 25 years, this film continues to move me, and to linger again long after the final credits have rolled. All the aspects of a great movie are here: acting (incomparable by Meryl Streep), story-telling (I think it's one of the best translations of a novel to the big screen), cinematography (the shots of Sophie's face as she recounts her grim past to Stingo are almost artwork), and musical score (haunting, and deeply sorrowful,yet somehow hopeful).
Also, the story works on several levels, as a history of the Holocaust (as seen from one person's experience), as a study on the nature of evil (and the devastating effects of a survivor's guilt), and ultimately, as a love story.....rising paradoxically above all the grief. The final images of this powerful film are indelible, and life-affirming.
The documentary that accompanies the movie on the DvD is also quite informative, and includes many interesting insights from the actors, the director, Styron himself, and two Holocaust survivors, who bear witness to the very real tragedies of the many real-life Sophies whom were "among the butchered and martyred children of this earth."
Wilfred Owen, the great English poet who died in the trenches of WWI once wrote, in a preface to a volume of his poetry: "My subject is not poetry, but war, and the pity of war....the poetry is in the pity."
"Sophie's Choice" is a movie that will touch a similar poetry in the human heart. Over and over again.
Movie Review: Puts the "I" in "Intense"
Summary: 5 Stars
Quick. Name me just one bad Meryl Streep performance (or even one mediocre one). I'll wait. (And Mamma Mia doesn't count.)
You're right. There isn't one.
And perhaps Streep's very best role is in the haunting, troubling SOPHIE'S CHOICE. I've seen this film on several occasions, and it's blown my socks off every time. Set in post-World War II Brooklyn, this is a story containing nuance, tenderness, guilt, remorse, discovery. . .raw emotion. And the focal point is Meryl Streep's role as Sophie, a Polish immigrant trying to overcome a most horrific past.
Told from the point of view of young Southern writer Stingo (a very fragile-looking Peter MacNicol), we witness the developing relationships of the three main characters: Stingo, Sophie, and her lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline, who brings this bipolar biologist to vivid life). Stingo, in effect, becomes a third wheel to the couple, and realizes there is more, much more, to Sophie and Nathan than meets the eye. And as we move deeper into the story, we the viewers become privy to more and more of the troubling details of Sophie's European past, until the details become not troubling, but horrific, when Sophie must make a most heart-wrenching choice concerning her two children.
While Kline and MacNicol are exceptional, Streep is absolutely flawless as the beautiful, yet mortally wounded, Sophie. Streep is indeed the motor that drives the intensity of this story--a story that will break your heart as it ends. Streep is not a good actress, she's a great actress; to say SOPHIE'S CHOICE is her very best role gets no argument from me.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
Movie Review: A very powerful film, impossible to forget!
Summary: 5 Stars
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!
Movie Review: A Compelling and Tragic Tale
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: HAUNTING
Summary: 5 Stars
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?