Miracle at Midnight

Starring:Sam Waterston, Mia Farrow, Justin Whalin, Patrick Malahide, Benedick Blythe, Barry McGovern, Daisy Beaumont, Nicola Mycroft, Alan Devine, Mario Rosenstock, Halina Froudist, Andrew Scott, Eva Birthistle, Sharon Hogan, Conor Evans, Peter Warnock, Paul Kennedy (III), Joe Pilkington, Leonard Fenton, Brendan Cauldwell
Director: Ken Cameron (II)
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Disney triumphs with Ken Cameron's 1998 World War II TV movie based on true events that will grip viewers from the first moment to the last. Set in September, 1945, (five years after the German occupation of Denmark began) word gets out that the Nazis will begin arresting Danish Jews, which ignites a citizens resistance movement. Dr. Koster (Sam Waterston) and his wife Doris (Mia Farrow) find themselves in the middle of the chaos and must choose between ignoring the Jewish plight or helping their neighbors. They choose the latter, risking their lives to hide Rabbi Abrams and his family. Soon, the Kosters are front-runners in a clandestine operation to transport over 7,000 Jews to neutral Sweden, while averting Nazi arrest. Waterston and Farrow are brilliant in roles both convincing and complex. Also noteworthy are Justin Whalin and Nicola Mycroft, who play the coming-of-age Koster children, Henry and Elsa. The story is equally theirs as they develop personal convictions to take a stand against Nazi atrocities. In many ways, the film is a sanitized version of wartime events (there are hints, but no footage of concentration camps), yet caution is advised when considering it as a family film. Gunfire, suicide, imprisonment, and death may be disturbing to children under age 10. For all other audiences, it is a must-see movie, a poignant drama of courage and inspiration in the face of persecution, demonstrating that, as Dr. Koster narrates, "In every language and religion, to be humane is to love your neighbor." --Lynn Gibson

Description

Here's the uplifting, true-life story of how one Danish family risked their lives in the remarkable effort to save thousands of their Jewish countrymen. To protect Denmark's Jews from the horror of Nazi concentration camps, the Christian Koster family attempts to save their neighbors. Hendrik (Justin Whalin -- SERIAL MOM, TV's LOIS & CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN) and his doctor father (Sam Waterston -- TV's LAW & ORDER, THE KILLING FIELDS) begin the dangerous task of deceiving the Nazis and hiding Jewish families. When the Koster men must themselves go into hiding, Justin's sister and his mother (Mia Farrow -- MIAMI RHAPSODY, HUSBANDS AND WIVES) are left to face capture by the suspicious Gestapo. This gripping historical drama combines with a triumphant celebration of the human spirit for a family adventure you'll never forget.

Customer Reviews:

I too watched this movie .......2007-02-11

and just had to have it for my dvd collection. It is wonderfully made and tells the story in a good light.

Miracle at Midnight is a WONDERFUL Movie! A MUST-SEE!!.......2005-06-15

I watched this outstanding Disney made-for-tv movie many, many times, and I LOVE it!!

I first saw when it premiered on TV on the "Wonderful World of Disney" show in the spring of 1998. At that time I taped it on a VHS tape off of TV, and I loved it so much that I watched it over and over many, many times.

I should have broken the security tab on the tape, but because there were still several hours of free space left on the tape (it was taped in EP/SLP mode) I thought I would wait until the tape was filled before breaking it.

Unfortunately a couple of years later, I ended up accidentally taping over this great movie with something else, thereby erasing it. I was so upset, and so I am VERY glad to FINALLY have this movie on DVD!!

Since getting this terrific movie on DVD I have watched it so many times I have lost count!! I am also going to buy the soundtrack for it too, because the music is so moving and poignant.

Miracle at Midnight is the touching made-for-TV movie based on true events during World War II. It is set in Denmark during September 1943,(the information in the Amazon.com Editorial Reviews is either a typo or other error)and stars Sam Waterston and Mia Farrow as Dr. Karl (Waterston) and Doris(Farrow) Koster, a Christian couple living in Copenhagen with their two children, 18 year old Hendrik (Justin Whalin) and preteen Elsa (Nicola Mycroft) during the Nazi occupation of Denmark.

When Dr. Koster learns that after three years of occupation, the Nazis are going to start deporting the Jewish people in Denmark, he and his family realize that they can no longer sit by and watch their friends, neighbors and countrymen, be taken, and dragged away to Nazi concentration camps and death camps. They decide to do whatever they can to help those in danger.

While Dr. Koster uses his position of Chief Surgeon to protect a young Resistance fighter who was shot by the Nazis, his 18 year old son Hendrik risks his life working for the same Resistance group, commandeering and seizing shipments of weapons that were sent to the Nazis.

But it all comes to a head on Wednesday, September 29, 1943, when Dr. Koster gets word that the Nazis have planned a mass arrest and deportation of all Jewish people, at Midnight on that Friday, which is the start of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah.

Dr. Koster, his family, and his entire hospital staff, band together with the Resistance, and the Danish people,
realizing that they are going to have to work really fast if they want to save the thousands and thousands of innocent Jewish people in Denmark from being dragged off to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp by the Nazis.

They set up plans to find hiding places for the Jewish people, and get them safely through the initial raids, while they try to convince the Swedish government, to accept them, and find ways to transport them up the Danish coast to Sweden. As a majority of the Danes hate the Nazis, they are all willing to help, opening their homes, providing money and transportation.

While Hendrik works with the Resistance, securing trucks and other means to take Jewish people up the coast of Denmark to Sweden, his father, Dr. Karl Koster uses his position as Chief Surgeon at Christiana Hospital to hide Jews in the hospital, and his mother, Doris, and sister, Elsa, help out by letting their Jewish friends, Rabbi Ben Abrams, his wife, his daughter Hannah, and her fiance Michael hide in their attic.

Eventually the Nazis catch up to them, and the Kosters themselves are forced to flee for their lives. But before escaping, they are, in a matter of a couple of days, able to help save over 7,000 Danish Jews, in a miraculous rescue!

Miracle at Midnight is a TERRIFIC movie! It is just WONDERFUL having it on DVD! Now I can enjoy it for years to come!!

Great entertainment, yet more than that.......2004-05-21

This was a very captivating movie.
A Danish family becomes involved in helping Jews. The son (Henrik) is in the resistance and keeps it a secret from his family, sure they would forbid him to continue because of the danger.
The father, a doctor, decides he must do what he can to help the Jews when he hears of the news of the Germans coming to route out and kill Jews. He hides a family (friends of theirs) in the attic.
There are many tense and action-packed scenes. The acting is great.
I wish the people didn't feel they had to lie to save the Jews, though. (Corrie Ten Boom is a good example of someone who hid Jews and told the truth, being put in a concentration camp herself. What strong belief that is.)
There were also a couple of kisses (if you worry about that kind of thing), but nothing more than that.
Overall I give this movie a solid thumbs up and it is a striking example of the bravery of many people during the war. (A four and a half would be more my rating. I usually vote on the low side of things, leaving room for movies that are the absolute best.)

Miracle at Midnight.......2004-03-11

: The movie "Miracle at Midnight", directed by Ken Cameron, is about one family's effort to save Jews in Denmark. The father of this family, Dr. Karl Koster, works at the local hospital. When he hears his Jewish friends are going to be deported by the Nazis, he starts hiding them in the hospital. Meanwhile, his son, Henrik Koster, a university student, joins the local resistance. At home, Karl and his family hide the local Rabbi, Ben Abrams, and his family. Eventually Karl is able to secretly send the Jews, hiding in the hospital, into Switzerland on fishing boats. Karl and his family have to flee to Switzerland because the Nazis found out what he was doing, but Mrs. Koster was taken by the Nazis.
It is very exciting and is extremely tense in several scenes. Which literally makes you sit on the edge of your seat. The movie moves along at a good pace and is only an hour and a half. The plot is quite interesting.

Spectacular preformance, Outstanding script, Fabulous video.......2001-01-01

I love anything there is to do with the Holocaust and I've seen many movies, read many books on the subject. But this is one the the best vidoes on the subject I have ever seen! I love it! There is no better way to put it! Many times, Disney has been far below my standards of a good movie, but this is better that regularly high rated movie productions. Few books,or movies, successfully protray what happened to Denmark during WWII and before, if at all, but this beautifully shows how hard it was to stay alive in that time in the world, especially Europe. The actors and actresses were wonderful and convincing. This is a movie that.... I will be proud to have apart of my Holocuast book/movie collection. This is a must see for a person of any age. Thank you for such a tear-jerking, chair-gripping work of art.

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