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Sophie's Choice | 
 enlarge | Director: Alan J. Pakula
Actors: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter Macnicol, Rita Karin, Stephen D. Newman
Studio: Lions Gate
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $4.68
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Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 1821
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 150 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5 x 0.6
MPN: 60487
ISBN: 0784011710
UPC: 012236048701
EAN: 9780784011713
ASIN: 0784011710
Theatrical Release Date: December 8, 1982
Release Date: April 21, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New and Factory Sealed Item Fast Shipping
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Product Description
Sophie is the survivor of Nazi concentration camps who has found a reason to live in Nathan a sparkling if unsteady American Jew obsessed with the Holocaust. They befriend Stengo the movies narrator a young American writer new to New York City. But the happiness of Sophie and Nathan is endangered by her ghosts and his obsessions. Meryl Streep won an Oscar for her performance as Sophie. System Requirements:Directed by Alan J. Pakula Writing credits Alan J. Pakula Starring Meryl Streep Kevin Kline Runtime: 151 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 012236048701 Manufacturer No: 60487
Amazon.com essential video
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 67 more reviews...
 Seeing this movie would be the right choice... August 27, 2008
Andrew Ellington (Mulholland Drive)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I think that `Sophie's Choice' is not a film you can enjoy the first go around. No, I think it takes at least two viewings before you can behold all that the film really represents. It's kind of like `Million Dollar Baby', another film that doesn't really make an impression until the second viewing. The reason for this is that you aren't really sure what all the fuss is about until the final moments of the film. Both films seem like average movie going experiences until the emotionally crippling finales that open your eyes to a whole new way of viewing the film. The second time around you are able to appreciate so much more because you know exactly what kind of film you're watching.
The film follows a young aspiring writer nicknamed Stingo who moves into a boarding house in Brooklyn where he shares occupancy with a young and beautiful Polish immigrant named Sophie. Sophie herself is nice enough, but her boyfriend Nathan is another story, one moment kind and affectionate and the next moment thrown into a jealous and unjustified rage.
The film feels as though it is nothing more than a film of friendship and restrained affection (especially between Stingo and Sophie) and moves along as if the film is more concerned with Nathan and his effect of those around him than anything else; but as the film progresses towards the halfway mark the focus shifts and we realize that Sophie has a past so dark and horrible one can't help but be engrossed in it. In fact, the best scenes of the film appear in gritty black and white and are spoken in German as Sophie recounts her life before Brooklyn.
The acting in this film has been lauded, especially with regards to Meryl Streep, and that Oscar was more than earned (she donned a perfect Polish accent and learned to speak German for the role) but Meryl was not the only one pulling her weight. Kevin Kline, who made his big screen debut with this film, does a good job with depicting his characters emotional state. He comes off a little over-the-top and obnoxious until his character is fully explained, and then everything starts to fall into place. Peter MacNicol was unjustly snubbed of an Oscar nomination, for his portrayal of Stingo is brilliantly controlled, matching Streep step for step but never overshadowing her. He allows her to bloom but never fades away from view, keeping his viewpoint foremost in our minds. This is Sophie's story told through his eyes, and we never forget that.
And then there is Meryl, and what a revelation she is here. Many have lauded this as her finest performance (Premiere Magazine has this listed as the #3 greatest performance of all time) and even if I slightly prefer her `A Cry in the Dark' performance I cannot deny that this is truly outstanding in every sense of the word. I was utterly absorbed in her from the get go, and her final scene, that final revelation when you realize what choice Sophie had to make (it is now what you expect) she breaks your heart into a million pieces. Streep has always been and will always be one of my favorite actresses of all time, and years, decades, centuries from now she will be remembered along with the greats like Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn and (cross your fingers) Kate Winslet (LOVE) as one of the greatest actresses to ever grace the big screen and invade our hearts.
So, in closing I must say that `Sophie's Choice' lives up to the hype. It may not seem like it at first, but that's only because the film deceives you into thinking it's something that it's not. Believe me, once the weight and or gravity of the film hits you it will change everything and you will see the film in its entirety in a whole new light.
Excellent filmmaking July 2, 2008
nodice (Manchester, Ga United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was my first time viewing the film-even though I knew going in what Sophie's choice was. (It's not like movie goers keep secrets) and I have to say this is an excellent character study film. Meryl Streep definitely earned her Oscar with this one. Amazing she could sound native on just a three month emerge study. Sophie's story is heart breaking. An A+++ script, wonderful direction. A definite classic.
 I would utterly recommend seeing this movie after you have read the masterpiece on which it is based upon!! June 7, 2008
Aglae de Mizrahi (Weston, Fl)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
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!
A film you will never forget March 13, 2008
jswell (Chicago, IL)
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
Quite simply, Sophie's Choice remains, for me, the most unforgettable Nazi concentration-camp movies ever made. In fact, because it is not ENTIRELY set during WWII, it has the Shakespearean "comic relief" that the Bard included to break the tragedy long enough to let the viewer "catch their breath".
And, of course, this is truly needed to offset and heighten the ultimate tragedy. A MUST for ANY serious film collector.
Beautiful Film, but... February 17, 2008
Laura Knight-Jadczyk (France)
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
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.
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