Sophie's Choice

Starring:Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol, Rita Karin, Stephen D. Newman, Greta Turken, Josh Mostel, Marcell Rosenblatt, Moishe Rosenfeld, Robin Bartlett, Eugene Lipinski, John Rothman, Joseph Leon, David Wohl, Nina Polan, Alexander Sirotin, Armand Dahan, Joseph Tobin, Cortez Nance, GÃ¼nther Maria Halmer
Director: Alan J. Pakula
Studio: Lions Gate
Product Type: DVD

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

Customer Reviews:

Great central performance, but not a great film.......2007-06-30

I was drawn to watch this film because it has recently been nominated into the American Film Institute's Top 100 U.S. films. Bearing in mind the effusive reviews for the film already posted on Amazon.Com, I will probably get slated for only giving this film 3/5. Oh well.
The main good thing about this film is primarily Meryl Streep's amazing performance as the title character. Her performance is simply perfect. The emotional resonance of her performance is fantastic, her Polish accent is flawless, she even speaks Polish and German convincingly in the flashback scenes. It ranks alongside Falconetti's performance in Drayer's "Passion Of Joan Of Arc" as one of the greatest in cinema.
However, one performance does not a great film make. What else is great about this film? Keven Kline overcooks his role as Sophie's crazed lover: all charm and wild eyes, charisma turned on at will as if it comes from a tap. Peter MacNichol struggles to bring life to what is basically a dull character: he does his best with what is given to him in the role of the wide-eyed Southern boy.
Nestor Almendros's photography was fantastic in Mallick's "Days Of Heaven". In "Sophie's Choice" he approximates the former film's Autumnal sunlit ambience when the characters (occasionally) move outside: otherwise the camerawork is dull and uninvolving. The washed-out look of the Concentration Camp sequences is well done: approximating the muted colours in many Nazi films, it certainly works in its grimy, unappealing way.
Perhaps the key problem with the film is that it key moment of dramatic tension, the moment that gives the film its title and is the underlying cause of Sophie's toments is held back to the end of the film. Moreover, it is the kind of dramatic moment, having happened in the past, which offers no hope of salvation for either Sophie or the audience. It is sadly reduced to "just one of those" things which happens to people. The dramatic crux of the film is therefore fatally undermined.
The film is not that bad. It's just not an AFI Top 100 film. As a performance, Streep's is top-notch. It is just the film is too long, unfocused and finally unrewarding as either entertainment or dramatic lesson.

Flawless performance by Streep........2007-05-07

I watched Sophie's Choice for the first time last night, and despite having watched numerous Holocaust movies, this one truly touched me. Meryl Streep truly shines as the tragic Sophie, who lives with harrowing memories of her wartime experiences, whilst dealing with the complications of a tumultuous relationship with her live-in mad lover, played convincingly by Kevin Kline. Also of noteworthy performance is McNichol as Stingo, the aspiring writer who also narrates the story...his infatuation and later love for Sophie is true, even after realising Sophie's dark past. The most painful scenes were the flashbacks to Sophie's retelling of her wartime experiences. The "choice" that is the movie's title is rendered in an amazingly heartbreaking performance by Streep, one of cinema's most gut-wrenching scenes ever, and something I will never forget. Truly memorable!

Streep's best performance.......2007-03-07

there is always that one performance in a actors career thats defined as there best and for the great Meryl Streep, her role as Holocaust survivor Sophie brilliantly conveys a person of heartbreak, riddled with guilt, and just so volnerable. pulling of a flawless polish accent, Streep plays Sophie, a polish immagrent who is haunted by her horrible past in WWII during the Holocaust and her stay at a concentration camp. Kevin Kline plays her temptatious lover Nathan and Peter MacNicol is Stingo, the man who Sophie and Nathan befriend. as Stingo becomes more involved in there life, he learns of Sophie's past and the horrible decision she had to make. Kline and MacNicole both provide excellent buffers as to not be outshined by Meryl Streep. the other great thing about this film is the cinamatography, it shifts very nicley from the comforts of Broklyn to the horrors of Europe. there are many great Holocaust films but Sophie's choice is definently at the top three along with Schindler's List and The Pianist. if you want to see a truley powerful film that will leave you heartbroken at the end then Sophie's Choice is the film

Life as an ordeal of traumas.......2007-03-06

Sophie's Choice is a very powerful story of a woman whose strength did not desert her in imaginably some of the most traumatic moments in a person's life. Whether it was her abysmal life in German concentration camps or her Brooklyn existence with her schizophrenic boyfriend, Sophie did not have much to fall back up on with the exception of her inner core - a core that was so solid that it did not falter, did not waver, did not even flinch as she lost everything that a human heart deems precious. In the end she appears calm and poised even after having lost what every one holds dearest to heart - life.

In her Academy winning performance, Meryl Streep is peerless. Arguably it is one of the most powerful and yet sublime performances ever - an incredibly realistic portrayal of a character whose numerous shades of existence are impossibly difficult to depict. Streep delivers what easily can contend for an Academy among Academy winners. Other actors, the direction, the script and the milieu are all flawless but this movie belongs to Streep who stands head and shoulders above the rest in a performance bound to leave an indelible impact on the audience.

THE BEST ACTRESS...EVER!!.......2007-02-01

Meryl Streep is sensational. No words can do justice to describe how amazing her performance is.

Charlie Rose with Meryl Streep (March 22, 2000)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Meryl Streep (March 22, 2000)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

One True Thing
Postcards from the Edge
Silkwood
A Cry in the Dark
The French Lieutenant's Woman

ASIN: B000KC8JYC
Release Date: 2006-11-06

Description

Actress Meryl Streep on her passions, her family, her films, including The Bridges of Madison County, Sophie's Choice, Kramer vs. Kramer and her latest, Music of the Heart, in which she plays a high school music teacher, a role that earned her a twelfth Oscar nomination.

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose (August 17, 2000)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

The Devil Wears Prada (Widescreen Edition)
A Prairie Home Companion
Uncommon Women and Others (Broadway Theatre Archive)
Dancing at Lughnasa
Alice at the Palace (Broadway Theatre Archive)

ASIN: B000HBL8AI
Release Date: 2006-12-21

Description

A rebroadcast of a con versation with actress Meryl Streep on her passions, her family, her films, including The Bridges of Madison County, Sophie's Choice, Kramer vs. Kramer and her latest, Music of the Heart, in which she plays a high school music teacher, a role that earned her a twelfth Oscar nomination. This segment originally aired on March 22, 2000.

Average customer rating:

Great central performance, but not a great film
Flawless performance by Streep.
Streep's best performance
Life as an ordeal of traumas
THE BEST ACTRESS...EVER!!

Sophie's Choice [Region 2]
Starring: Meryl Streep , Kevin Kline , Peter MacNicol , Rita Karin , and Stephen D. Newman
Director: Alan J. Pakula
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

The French Lieutenant's Woman
Out of Africa
Postcards from the Edge
Falling in Love
The Bridges of Madison County

ASIN: B00004I9PK

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

Great central performance, but not a great film.......2007-06-30

Flawless performance by Streep........2007-05-07

Streep's best performance.......2007-03-07

Life as an ordeal of traumas.......2007-03-06

THE BEST ACTRESS...EVER!!.......2007-02-01

Meryl Streep is sensational. No words can do justice to describe how amazing her performance is.

Average customer rating:

Sophie's Choice [Region 2]
Starring: Meryl Streep , Kevin Kline , Peter MacNicol , Rita Karin , and Stephen D. Newman
Director: Alan J. Pakula , Mark Rydell , and Jon Avnet
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0000CDUX5

Average customer rating:

A Package of Perfection!....

On Golden Pond/Sophie's Choice
Starring: Meryl Streep , Kevin Kline , Peter MacNicol , Rita Karin , and Stephen D. Newman
Director: Alan J. Pakula , and Mark Rydell
Manufacturer: Live / Artisan
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( O ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00005NX16
Release Date: 2001-10-23

Amazon.com

On Golden Pond
Writer Ernest Thompson, who came up with the original stage play of On Golden Pond and adapted it for film, is lucky to have two giants of the screen give dignity and breadth to his sometimes trite dialogue. Henry Fonda, in his last role, plays a prickly English professor at the disagreeable age of 80. Visiting his summer house by a Maine lake with his wife (Katharine Hepburn), the old man forges an unlikely bond with a lonely boy, comes to terms with his daughter (Jane Fonda), and suffers disorienting effects of mild dementia. Even playing a tired old man, Fonda is an absolute lion of a movie star, and Hepburn brings her special spirit to the part of his worried bride. The onscreen relationship between Henry and Jane Fonda naturally makes one think about their much-discussed difficulties offscreen, but that's a side benefit in a movie that is really just a celebration of simple human decency. --Tom Keogh

Sophie's Choice
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

Description

ON GOLDED POND: For Norman and Ethel Thayer, this summer ON GOLDEN POND is filled with conflict and resolution. When their daughter Chelsea (JANE FONDA) arrives, the family is forced to renew the bonds of love and overcome the generational friction that has existed for years. Norman (HENRY FONDA) must find his way through his anger and fear of growing old, while Chelsea struggles to rebuild their relationship. Ethel's (KATHERINE HEPBURN) consistent support of her "knight in shining armor" is inspirational in its simplicity. This is a movie to ponder and always keep in your heart. SOPHIE'S CHOICE: Screen-favorite Meryl Streep received an Academy Award ® for her portrayal of Sophie Zawistowska in this penetrating drama set in 1947 post-World War II Brooklyn. Kevin Kline plays her all-consuming lover, Nathan. The story revolves around Sophie's struggle as a Polish-Catholic immigrant in the United States who had survived a Nazi concentration camp. The lovers' drama unfolds through the observations of a friend and would-be writer, Stingo (Peter MacNicol). As the trio grows closer, Stingo discovers the hidden truths that they each harbor, resulting in a narrative that is both captivating and moving.

Customer Reviews:

A Package of Perfection!...........2003-07-07

"On Golen Pond" and Sophie's Choice" are timeless films with enchanting actors, that once seen, will stay with you always.
Bravo to Artisan for putting together this package of perfection on these Special Edition DVDs at a reasonable price, for us to enjoy for years to come. I'll be focusing this review mainly on the DVDs because there is not much info here on the technical aspects of them, and I wanted to share with you what a good buy this is.. For those that have by some chance not seen these wonderful films, there is some great storyline info in the editor's reviews section.

The DVDs (Both in their own Keep case packaging), are beautifully
transfered. They are presented in widescreen on "reverse Spiral Dual Layer Discs",have an excellent picture with beautifully vivid colors, and the sound is fantastick in Dolby 2.0 surround.Special features include Director's commentary, a documentary, Production Notes, Cast and Crew info and have Spanish subtitles as well.
If you find these films as endearing as I do, you should be thrilled with the treament they recieved on these DVDs.

I should also mention that Henry Fonda, Kathryn Hepburn and Meryl Streep were all honored by Oscar for their outstanding work in these films.

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

Great central performance, but not a great film.......2007-06-30

Flawless performance by Streep........2007-05-07

Streep's best performance.......2007-03-07

Life as an ordeal of traumas.......2007-03-06

THE BEST ACTRESS...EVER!!.......2007-02-01

Meryl Streep is sensational. No words can do justice to describe how amazing her performance is.

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