BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

jchano123 Sophie's Choice is a 1982 film directed by Alan J. Pakula, and based on the novel by William Styron. Meryl Streep, playing the titular role, was great in this. Her accent was incredibly convincing and she looked almost uncannily to Gillian Anderson in the late 90s, another favorite star of mine. The sets were very vividly colored and nice to look at. I also liked how the colors and cinematography changed to dark and gritty for the holocaust scenes, but bright and happy for the other scenes. For the most part the film felt relatively uneventful and more of a character study. It was very slow moving which could get tedious, but at the very least was entertaining because of the characters and their brilliant portrayals by the cast. I also found it bothersome that the film took an entire 90 minutes to actually feature get to the flashbacks of the holocaust. You could watch an entire other movie in that time. The sequences that actually feature Sophie's journey through the holocaust are incredibly made and perfectly acted, but since there are so few of them, they turn out to only be a small portion of the film.I also wish the film showed more of Sophie's struggles in the holocaust. For example, when she tells the story about stealing the ham for her mother, which consequently got her arrested, there is no flashback. The audience is told what happened instead of being shown. The scene worked well since Streep was great in telling the story and conveys great emotion in her voice, but I just would have liked to have seen what happened since movies are built around the concept of 'show, don't tell', and usually work better that way.One part I found inaccurate was Nathan's obsession with the Nazis and his insistence that they were never brought to justice. The film never goes as far as to mention the Nuremberg trials, which is exactly what the allies tried to do - bring the war criminals to justice. The trials happened in 1945 to 1946, and the film is set in 1947, so the public would have known of their existence by that time.There was a lot of swearing in this movie, however, I don't think they swore so much in the 1940s. We swear much more now because there's so much in movies and TV, which influences us today, but not nearly as much in the past.There are many great examples of the false hope of the holocaust in this film. After begging a commander she is serving, Sophie convinces him to release her son, but he never ends up keeping his word. This helped show the continual disappointment and betrayal of the holocaust. I also didn't understand the importance of the subplot where Sophie agrees to get a radio so she can help escape. She is caught by the commander's daughter and befriends her after fainting, but the scene doesn't go anywhere and their relationship isn't revisited. If anything it could be another example of false hope and failure in the holocaust, but since there are so many other examples of this in the film, such as the betrayal of never seeing her son, this subplot could have been taken out with no effect on the story. Additionally, the false hope was ultimately reflected and reinforced in the ending, where Sophie and Nathan commit suicide. The ending wouldn't have been as effective if this hadn't happened.Sophie's titular 'choice' was incredibly heartbreaking and hard to watch. This is attributable to the great directing and acting in that specific scene. The film leaves a lot to imagination. What else did Sophie go through? It leaves the viewer wondering why she survived, which was very effective. This film, in the end, brings up a very important point - not only Jews were victims of the holocaust. They played a big part in it, but there were many others who suffered just as much as them, and it is important they are represented.

powermandan When you look at 1982 in film, you will see things like Star Trek II, Fast Times At Ridgemeont High, ET, Blade Runner, Tootsie and Gandhi. Sophie's Choice is the most underrated as well as the best. Gandhi may have won nearly every major award and ET may be the most beloved, but this tops both films. ET's only massive strong point is the ending which the movie builds up to, Sophie's Choice also builds but has vast strength from everything that comes out. Gandhi is pretty much the inferior version of Lawrence of Arabia, massively dragged out. There is not one dull moment in Sophie's Choice. It is worth seeing why this is not a dull 150 minute movie.Peter MacNicol plays a young writer, known as Stingo, who moves into a duplex in New York and hits it off with his neighbours, Sophie and Nathan (Streep, Kline) right away. As Stingo grows closer to Sophie and Nathan, winning their trust, he can tell that they are harbouring deep secrets that will change him forever. Peter MacNicol and Kevin Kline are extremely underrated actors. Both of them are extraordinary. Then there's Meryl Streep who gives the best acting performance in film history by a female. A few years ago when I saw American History X, Edward Norton's performance in it became the best I had ever seen. I said nobody, male or female, could top this. Then I saw Sophie's Choice. Does Meryl Streep do a better job of acting than Edward Norton? I don't know, tough to say. But I do know that Norton is the best male performance and Streep is the best female performance. She is the main character who's background gets dived into the most. We see her experience in war and her choice. They are haunting and you will never forget what they do to you.

CL Goodman I am forever blindsided by the inhumanity of the Nazi war machine, collective insanity! With that being said, the movie title is a bit misleading --- In my humble opinion, It was not a singular choice Sophie made but many choices. Some viewers of this movie contend that Sophie's choice was the one she made to save her son over her daughter. The title is deceptive and leads the viewer to conclude it that way with little effort on the viewer to go beyond that.Sophie is rifled with choices. Stingo vs. Nathan, life versus death (during the war and in its aftermath). Be loyal to her dad's worldview and that of her husband, or support their enemy. Be truthful in her post as Nazi aid and secretary, or save herself from certain extermination. The list goes on and on.I found the acting to be superb but found the overall movie to be just competent, nothing amazing.

Atli Hafsteinsson Sophie's Choice is one of those films I always meant to watch, and finally got the chance. It is best to go into it with as little idea as to what it's about as possible, as it's a slow film with a lot of layers that get peeled off one by one. A young would-be-author from the South moves to Brooklyn and befriends his neighbors, the couple Nathan and Sophie. All three hit it off, but Nathan's bipolar tendencies do puncture their friendship at times. Sophie, however, is a calm soul as kind as she is tortured by her past in Auschwitz. As the author, Stingo, gets to know them better, he is also taken deeper and deeper into Sophie's past, where a hidden pain resides.Sophie's Choice brilliantly captures two polar opposite worlds. The colourful and tranquil Brooklyn is contrasted strikingly by a late 1930s Poland occupied by Nazis, where the colour drains so much out of the film that any further and it would be black-and-white. The present in Brooklyn is a good haven to have and catch our breath between glimpses into Sophie's horrible past.At the end of the day, in spite of the emotionally shattering story, Sophie's Choice is a story about hope and redemption. The performances certainly helped. Peter MacNicol and Kevin Kline are both wonderful as polar opposite personalities, united by a common love for literature.But Meryl Streep is utterly mesmerizing as Sophie. It's not for no reason that this was one of those Oscar-nominated performances of hers that gave that extra edge and got her the statue. All of Sophie's mannerisms, her accent, her speaking German and Polish, her searching for words in English to express what she wants to say, her restrained kindness, her pain; none of it overdone. The director even trusted Streep enough to take long shots with her as she gets into deep characterization. This is quite simply one of the finest female performances in cinema.I did fear, throughout the film, what exactly Sophie's choice was, and I was right, for it is a scene that crushes your heart. But the film comes together in the end and ends in an emotionally satisfying way in spite of everything. Steel yourself for an emotional journey and give Sophie's Choice a view, it's a film as uplifting as it is depressing, and unmissable for cinema buffs.