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The sunny streets of Brooklyn, just after World War II. A young would-be writer named Stingo (Peter MacNicol) shares a boarding house with beautiful Polish immigrant Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her tempestuous lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline); their friendship changes his life. This adaptation of the bestselling novel by William Styron is faithful to the point of being reverential, which is not always the right way to make a film come to life. But director Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) provides a steady, intelligent path into the harrowing story of Sophie, whose flashback memories of the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp form the backbone of the movie. Streep's exceptional performance--flawless Polish accent and all--won her an Oscar, and effectively raised the standard for American actresses of her generation. No less impressive is Kevin Kline, in his movie debut, capturing the mercurial moods of the dangerously attractive Nathan. The two worlds of Sophie's Choice, nostalgic Brooklyn and monstrous Europe, are beautifully captured by the gifted cinematographer Néstor Almendros, whose work was Oscar-nominated but didn't win. It should have. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (41)

Streep and Kline in a powerful depiction!!!
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.

A shattering tale of sacrifice and survival
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.

Agonizing - in more ways than one
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.

the most depressing movie ever
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.

Meryl Streep is simply exceptional
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. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Overlooked classic
Dreyfuss is brilliant in this rarely seen gem. He's a freelance private eye juggling an ex-wife and her guru, two precocious kids, a leftist ex-radical mother, a new romance with an old flame, and a trunkful of counter culture ideals seemingly UN-chic in the wasteland known as the 1970's. All this and a great murder mystery to boot. Am I the only one who saw it? At this price I guess I will be. If you get a chance to see it, do...it's great! Too bad Leon's song is left out--what were they thinking? ... Read more

Reviews (2)

AGING, GOOD COLD WAR NAZI STORY
Probably, my pro-Kojak sentiments coupled with this movie's courageous story line led to my exaggerating an "objective" rating for this movie. A fairer rating for this movie may be 4 stars (but there's no 4-1/2).

The action and style is classic Kojak; even "Styros" (Terry Salvalas' real life brother) acts in this movie. Salvalas and Susan Pleshet did a good job of carrying the story of a Nazi concentration camp survivor tracking down aging Nazis to execute them, taking justice into his own hands. The one glaring flaw is that Pleshet's character (an ambitious State Department attorney on her way up ... who is supposed to derail Kojak's murder investigation) is not likely to have faced a lifetime prison term by handing over to Kojak "Top Secret" files ... just to prove to Kojak that she can be trusted. But otherwise, I think the movie made its point that mass murderous Nazis were (and continue to be) protected by various branches of the United States government. So making an action-adventure "crimmie" about it took some guts and deserves some glory.

This movie is worth seeing for entertainment and for educational values.

This movie has a better story line than any of the series.
A great story! Kojak investigates a series of recent killings that involve Russian Jews that worked with the Germans 40 years earlier to help imprison Jews in Hitler's concentration camps. Kojak is tied closely to the case by friends that are in the middle of the case. Susan Pleshette gives a great performance as Kojak's unofficial assistant and possible love interest. Max Von Sydow is, as always, great. ... Read more

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Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote often about despair and redemption, the subjects of his novel on which this Paul Mazursky film is based. Ron Silver plays a Holocaust survivor who has moved to America and married the Polish gentile who hid him from the Nazis. An intellectual, he is not satisfied with this simple peasant woman and so he has an affair with a sultry émigré (Lena Olin). His life is then made more complicated by the reappearance of his wife from the old country (Anjelica Huston), who he thought had died in the Nazi death camps. Mazursky and his terrific cast find the pain, irony, and sad humor in this material, capturing Singer's tone and bringing it to life. --Marshall Fine ... Read more

Reviews (7)

grief, love, forgiveness
I saw this movie after reading Steven Pinker's non-fiction book on socio-biology, "The Blank Slate." Pinker recommended this movie based on a tale by Isaac Bashevis Singer, for its study of the human condition, ripe with irony, seasoned with despair, love and forgiveness.

The casting is excellent, and the acting is first-rate from beginning to end. Male viewers will wonder how Herman Broder gets so lucky, having three different but highly appealing women in love with him. Tidily, the three women are from three boroughs of New York City, a typical Singer touch, and the movie includes a scene where Broder stands at the subway entrances deciding which direction to take.

Highly recommended.

Great film, awful DVD
I concur with other viewers who found the DVD unacceptable in sound quality. Oddly enough, it gets excellent reviews as a DVD transfer. They must have had a different copy. But the film itself remains as fresh and exciting as when it first was issued. Mazursky captures the spirit (if not all the nuances) of I. B. Singer's marvelous novel about Holocaust survivors in New York in the 1950s. None of the reviewers here seem either to have read the book or really understood the point of the film -- Herman Broder, ghost writer, who was hidden during the war by the Polish servant who saved him and marries her (Jadwiga), finds passion with Masha, who survived the camps with her mother (Eros and Thanatos certainly go together here), and discovers his first wife (Tamara), who was shot with her children by the Einsatzgruppen and left for dead, is actually alive. Each represents a different facet of the catastrophe, conveniently divided among the New York boroughs. Anyone, by the way, who has read anything of Singer, including this book, would recognize his very typical take on male sexuality. I would advise viewers to see this film (or see it again) and think more deeply about what's at stake in this ironic tragicomedy than look for mindless and shallow entertainment.

Great movie. Lousy soundtrack remaster. Disappointing!!
I have to concur with another posted review. Played a rented DVD on my home 2-speaker system. The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is flat, muffled, and during several outdoor scenes, features a digital "howling" harmonic from background sound FX (street traffic, maybe?). It made the film difficult to listen to, and disappointing. The laserdisc release featured "Dolby Surround" audio (now called Dolby 2.0), which would indicate that someone messed this new release up in the transfer. Shameful.

Enemies - a Love Story
I have recently bought the video of this film and very much enjoyed it. The acting, direction, music and photography were all excellent. However, I do have one gripe and that is the sound quality. I had to re-run the tape several times to find out what the actors were saying. I don't know whether it's a sound fault or the actors mumbling. Whichever, it marred the film for me. I do love the film, though, and have played it several times.

Enemies : A Warner Bros. Ripoff
I don't know about anyone else but I bought this dvd having seen it when it was first in theatres and remember it being enjoyable. The story of a Jewish immigrant in New York who finds himself either married or invovled with three different women at the same time. So far so good but here's where my problem comes in. I put in the dvd ready to enjoy myself and I couldn't hear what was going on. The sound quality on this pressing was TERRIBLE! The music and dialogue kept going in and out and was muffled so bad that I didn't even get a chance to see 10 minutes of the movie. It says it was in dolby digital stereo and I have a surround sound system and I still couldn't hear without turning the volume way up and it still was muffled. I returned the movie and didn't bother getting another fearing they were all pressed the same way. Did anyone else run into this problem or did I just get a bad copy... ... Read more

Reviews (9)

50's Romantic Comedy
Very cute movie ...Doris Day, Rock Hudson type romantic comedy. I loved it ..Elizabeth Perkins is very sexy ....

Experiment based on the differences of men and women.
The title of this movie is literally what it is: he said, she said. If you look closely at the credits the movie has two directors and two writers as well as two leads for a reason.

Basically the movie is two mini-films telling the same story of a couple meeting, competing, coupling, and spliting twice. The first half centering on Kevin Bacon was written and directed by men and the second half, centering on Elizabeth Perkins was written and directed by women. Not only do they use the same basic plot, but they use the same scenes, each shown not only from the POV of a different character, but a different gender.

Each mini-film alone would be a passible romantic comedy, but what makes the movie really work is the contrast. After seeing his side: what was important, what was stupid, what was good, what was bad we see hers and realize how something that is absolutely nothing to one is the most important thing in the world to the other. Most importantly the differences reflect generally common wisdom on the topic. Once has to ask if this is intentional or the natural byproduct of the differences between men and women.

Bacon is, as usual, himself (Kevin Bacon, much like John Wayne, plays himself in most movies and certainly the ones where he is at his best). However, the everyman Bacon is the perfect choice for this role. Perkins is very good as the self-assured but still vulnerable woman from the first generation of post-feminist revolution career women who has feet in both the feminist (career) and pre-feminist (marriage and family) world. She is as fully realized as her later sisters such as Ally McBeal and Bridget Jones.

Add in Sharon Stone as the tramp (and a more interesting one than Basic Instinct for my money) who realized she was in love but too late, Nathan Lane as the perfect mix of caring boss, and stir in good writing in pacing and the result is a funny and insightful romantic comedy and an above average movie.

he said she said
its one of the most romantic movies i ever seen!

What can I say? I love this movie!!
What I can say about this lovely movie is that it was a very original idea to show the two points of view (male and female) about the developing of their relationship. Full of tiny delicious details, both stories are perfectly credible in real life, and at the same time show moments of comic fantasy as metaphors of the way people interpret facts in real life (the narrative resource that makes the Ally McBeal's tv serie rocks!). I think the audience could identify themselves in the main characters, and that the main concept of the movie was cristal clear at the end of the movie, that, no matter the whole bunch diferences between the two stories, and between them, they loved each other. Two ways to see it, but one and only true feeling: LOVE.
AND THAT'S THE WAY I SEE IT!!

Missing something...
Bacon plays the perfect bachelor -- committed to his errant ways and happy to play the field. Elizabeth Perkins is the self-assured single woman, suspicious of field-playing men. Together they forge a new life, but with mixed results. When the relationship blows up, each tells their story from their own viewpoint. And, of course, the finer details differ greatly in each story, particularly when it comes to who was to blame for their problems.

It's a winning idea, and it's creatively delivered. However, the chemistry between Bacon and Perkins never quite gels. Part of me almost wants to tell Bacon to run off with Sharon Stone halfway through the movie. The script was a bit uneven, leaving several low-points throughout the film during which I was able to fetch a snack or two without missing much. However, the payoff is romantic and sweet enough to make "He Said, She Said" a good-enough movie that I wouldn't mind seeing again. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Douglas Katz' Age Isn't Everything
Jonathan Silverman, he of some of the worst films ever made, proves he is a good actor who has made some bad choices.

Here, he is Seymour, a young man who is obsessed with becoming an astronaut. His parents, Max (Paul Sorvino) and Rita (Rita Moreno), let Seymour move back home after college. He goes into business to make his parents happy, but still misses not following his dreams.

As Max and Rita grow impatient with Seymour around the house all the time, Seymour wakes up a few times one night with the urge to pee. In the morning, he limps into the kitchen, hacking and coughing and speaking like an old Jewish man. Suddenly, he has aged inside while his physical appearance does not change. Seymour's grandparents (Robert Prosky and Rita Karin) suddenly have more in common with their twenty-something grandson than they realized. These two bicker, waiting for death. Seymour goes to doctors and shrinks, who diagnose him with an aging disorder that has put his body at approximately eighty three years old.

Seymour blames God, and tries to get bar mitzvahed again. The rabbi refuses. He visits a clinic where they have the technology to record a patient's dreams and play them on a video recorder (I am not making this up). Just as he is about to receive help, the clinic is closed for tax delinquency. As Seymour careens toward death, he buys a cemetery plot. His friends do not know what to do with him, his parents resent him as their marriage falls apart, and he even manages to distance his grandparents. The climax does not satisfy an already impatient viewer.

Annoying. Jonathan Silverman is likable, handsome, and has screen charisma. The minute he turns into an old Jewish man, I wished the merciful angel of death would visit immediately. He toddles around, using more Hebrew words than a Jackie Mason concert, and I just hated him. Moreno and Sorvino are completely miscast as his parents. Prosky scores some nice scenes, and is almost unrecognizable as Grandpa Irving.

Douglas Katz directs his own script, but this is not a light and fluffy body switch comedy along the lines of "Big" or "18 Again!" Katz tries to turn this into an artsy think piece, and any humor he tries in the first half of the film is jettisoned in favor of morbid humor in the second half. For a comedy, I only laughed once- when Seymour pushes a wheelchair bound old woman down a hill. More wicked humor like this would have helped. Instead, there is a running gag (about doctors inserting their fingers into Seymour's backside) that never made me crack (ha!) a smile.

By the time the senseless ending rolled, I came to hate every character here. Watching this movie was a chore, and I am a lesser person for it. Skip this at all costs.

the reverse of Big, sort of
This is a very unusual movie. It is not a comedy, It is not a drama, it is not a fantasy. It is sort of all of them rolled into one. At times you think it's some kind of documentary spoof, but not all the time. Though it is not a great movie and kind of drags, it has a good story to it and has some really good acting. The best scenes in the movies are the interview by the teacher and father are the most powerful. Silverman and Sorvino fans might want to catch this film but it is deffinately not for everyone ... Read more

Reviews (3)

the pickle
this movie sucked big time, trust me my uncle was in this movie and it sucked

(pause) Sour.
It's always good to watch performers like Danny Aiello, Shelley Winters, and Dyan Cannon in an imaginative enterprise...like this movie was supposed to be. Maybe "The Pickle" was to be Paul Mazursky's "Stardust Memories" [Woody Allen's highly personal and decidedly off-beat effort]. All three try to wring life out of an unfocused, one-note script, leaving the viewer with the uncomfortable feeling that the performances are merely drammatic exercises in an acting class.
The premise is interesting: Aiello, the serious director of "art" films can no longer make a buck doing 'em, so he is convinced that in order to keep the home fires burning he must...stretch a bit. Like make a all-out crowd-pleaser with all the trendy, commercial stuff you can think of, with a totally spaced out science fiction backdrop. So the burned out Director reaches into his own psyche for whatever feels right, whatever works. When he was a child he was rewarded with a nice juicy pickle. So a pickle takes on guargantuan proportions and seemingly human intelligence.
One depressing and pointless scene blends into the next.
While the premiere of the film takes place its' embarrassed Director attempts to take his life in a hotel room and Aiello's acting is strong, but again pretentiousness reduces the impact. Little Richard fans note that the Architect makes a second Mazursky appearance - the first being the '86 "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" with a production number of the 1956 recording of "Good Golly, Miss Molly".

¿More pickle juice!¿
Danny ("The Professional," "Jacob's Ladder") Aiello plays a once-respected director who whores himself out to do a big budget sci-fi action flick, hysterically rolling-out his anxieties, fears, and mid-life neuroses on the eve of the film's premiere. Shelly ("The Poseidon Adventure") Winters is Aiello's tough, no-nonsense mum, and the movie-in-a-movie is actually pretty cool, featuring Ally Sheedy, Griffin Dunne, and Little Richard as the president of an alien world, whose inhabitants eat only beef. "More pickle juice!" ... Read more

Description

On their quest for the best mountain bike ride on Earth, an adventurous couple travel to nine of the world's most spectacular countries. Their journey, along with a few celebrities (movie-star James Hong), mountain-bike pioneers and gravity-defying stunt-riders, is documented in this "endless summer on wheels." See America's Southwestern vistas; Canada's pristine wilderness; Costa Rica's lush jungles, rain forests, volcanoes and beaches; Greece's ancient ruins and home of the gods, Mt. Olympus; Switzerland's snowy summer Alps with the Matterhorn; Great Britain's moors, forests, streams, waterfalls and castles; South Australia's Flinders Ranges and Kangaroo Island; Tahiti's jagged volcanic peaks and tropical water wonderland; and India's incredible Himalayas, exotic animals and spiritual culture. Highlighting the video is World Trials Champion, Ot Pi, performing some of his greatest stunts near and around historical landmarks in Athens, Greece. With James Hong,

Mark Schulze, Patty Mooney, Charles Kelly, Gary Fisher, Jacquie Phelan, Ot Pi, and a host of other intriguing individuals. Original musical score (in hi-fi stereo). ... Read more

Reviews (41)

Streep and Kline in a powerful depiction!!!
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.

A shattering tale of sacrifice and survival
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.

Agonizing - in more ways than one
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.

the most depressing movie ever
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.

Meryl Streep is simply exceptional
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. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

If you like "Barnaby Jones" star Mark Shera then buy this
Actor Mark Shera Best known for his role of "J R Jones" of "Barnaby Jones" fame made his TV acting debut in the TV Movie "Nicky's World' playing the role of "Nicky". ... Read more