Prisoner of Paradise

Starring:Ian Holm, Robby Lantz, Eleonore Hertzberg, Lone Koppel, RenÃ©e Saint-Cyr, Kees Brusse, Silvia Grohs Martin, Susanne Thaler, Hans Margules, Margit Silberfeld, Jan Fischer (II), Tommy Mandl, Paul Sandfort, Coco Schumann, Ela Weissberger, Salle Fischermann, Marlene Dietrich, Peter Lorre, Adolf Hitler, Hans Albers
Director: Stuart Sender, Malcolm Clarke (II)
Studio: Pbs Paramount
Product Type: DVD

Description

Come See The Paradise is a deeply touching love story set against the backdrop of a dramatic and controversial period in American history, It follows the romance and eventual marriage of Jack McGurn (Dennis Quad), a hot blooded Irish American, and a beautiful Japanese American Lily Dawanura (Tamlyn Tomita), at the outset of World War II.

The clash of cultures, at once painful for the two lovers, becomes insurmountable after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Lily and the Kawamuras are relocated To a bleak, outdoor internment camp in California, Jack is drafted into the Army, powerless to help the woman he loves abandoning all hope of ever winning her family's approval.

Customer Reviews:

At Long Last!.......2007-05-08

I first saw this movie on cable TV some years ago and loved it. I waited for what seemed like an eternity to get it on DVD but, finally, they made it available. I'd willingly give it 10 stars but I guess 5 is the max. It is simply excellent and a must-have movie. Now if I could only get --on DVD-- the 1985 movie "Marie" (Sissy Spacek, et al) and the 1999 movie "Gideon" (Christopher Lambert), I'd be one happy man!

Come See The Paradise.......2007-03-30

The DVD was undamaged, however the carton containing the DVD was sliced
in many places and I had to tape it back together. I had ordered a new
DVD, but from seeing the packaging, I believe you sent me a used product.

Genuine History.......2007-01-12

Found it, got it quick. Package came in okay condition. Must have busted the tab holding the dvd to the case, but the dvd was okay.
Good job Amazon :)....

Underrated, and Lesser Known, but Very Good!.......2006-12-25

When Come See the Paradise first came out late in 1990 in played in a very limited release. In it's first weekend it only played in 5 theaters, widening to a whopping 25 theaters by it's third week which ultimately led to a grand total of $947,306.00 at the box office in it's theatrical run. This one flew completely under the radar, and that's a shame.

Why? Because Come See the Paradise is a fine, well crafted movie with a subject matter that hasn't gotten much attention, even though it should have.

Dennis Quaid plays an Irish-American in trouble with the law who moves to Los Angeles and ultimately falls in love with a Japanese-American girl. This is just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. The girl's father wants her to have nothing to do with Quaid, but Quaid's Jack McGurn (McGann while "hiding" from the law) persists and ultimately wins over the girl, if not her family.

The script is well written, touching on prejudice and racism in a restrained, sober way. The movie doesn't hit you over the head with messages on the evils of prejudice and racism, instead it shows the results of such beliefs and behaviors and lets the viewer come to his or her own conclusions. The story between Jack and Lily (played by the wonderful, and quite beautiful Tamlyn Tomita) is quite touching and played in a very sensitive manner.

Of course, the movie shifts to the post Pearl Harbor events, and Jack and Lily are separated as she and her family are forced by the U.S. Government into a Japanese Internment Camp, and Jack ultimately ends up in the Army.

The ending of the movie is a bit anti-climactic, and not quite the resolution that the movie deserves (as the movie runs out of steam dramatically). But, then again, in real life would the ending of such a story have been any more satisfying? Probably not.

Alan Parker's direction is fantastic, and his script is moving and quite touching. The acting in Come See the Paradise is also quite good, as Dennis Quaid is in top form, and Tamlyn Tomita is excellent as well. The supporting cast - too many to name individually - is also quite good from top to bottom.

For a different perspective on the World War II era, or just for a really solid drama, you can't do much better than Come See the Paradise.

Enlightning Film.......2006-12-12

I use this in some of my university classes here in Japan. My students never fail to love this movie and come to think very seriously about this film's very important themes. Perhaps educators in the US might find the same usefulness in using this film to reveal such a terrible incedent in relatively recent history and dispel the illusion of "paradise" regarding the "dream.".

Average customer rating:

Great ensemble piece
Loriann Ringgold
Please, spare me the reptile.
Long overdue story that needed to be told
Music to melt the heart

Paradise Road
Starring: Glenn Close , Frances McDormand , Pauline Collins , Cate Blanchett , and Jennifer Ehle
Director: Bruce Beresford
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000056BSH
Release Date: 2001-03-13

Amazon.com

Earnest and well-meaning, this film also accumulates power as it goes along, despite its inability to generate any moral complexity. But then how complex can you get in a story about the Japanese imprisonment and mistreatment of an international group of women (including Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, and Julianna Margulies)? Written and directed by Bruce Beresford, it's based on a true story. Japanese brutality has been well chronicled before; the real story here is the way these women of different social and ethnic backgrounds achieve a sense of solidarity in the face of potentially deadly abuse. Strong performances and many uplifting and moving moments. --Marshall Fine

Description

In a time of war, an extraordinary group of women turned a song of hope into a symphony of triumph. From the director of "Driving Miss Daisy" comes a true story of courage, triumph, friendship and strength starring Glenn Close ("Dangerous Liaisons"), Oscar®-Winner Frances McDormand (1996 Best Actress, "Fargo") and Emmy Award Winner Julianna Margulies (TV's "ER"). This compelling drama reveals the heroic actions of a group of women held prisoner by the Japanese during World War ll. These diverse women from different countries, speaking different languages, unite to form a vocal orchestra-creating a life affirming symphony of human voices.

Customer Reviews:

Great ensemble piece.......2007-07-02

I enjoyed this movie as a great ensemble cast. However, I distinctly remember at least one scene in the original movie that is missing from this version - when the women are returning from burying one of their dead, the Japanese forbid them to sing, so they pick up rocks and tap the rhythm of "Bolero". Why would this scene be cut out? It was a pivotal scene. In any case, still a good movie, and I enjoyed seeing so many of my favorite actresses together.

Loriann Ringgold.......2007-06-14

This is a must see movie about a group of women taken hostage during the Pacific Campaign of World War 2. Their Japanese captors are cruel and less than civil throughout their confinement. This is based on a true story. The performances are stellar. I would recommend this to be seen in a family setting with discussion after the movie.

Please, spare me the reptile. .......2006-02-19

I am disturbed greatly by this film. Glenn Close is entirely unbelievable as a prisoner of war... more, a bourgeois / socialite / horror. The only thing that made me smile throughout the film was the lesbian subtext of Cate Blanchett and Frances (uber-german stoic) McDormand's relationship.

Long overdue story that needed to be told.......2006-01-08

It amazes me that so much has been said about the unjust internment of Japanese people in the U.S. during World War II, but so little has been said about the INFINITELY more brutal internment of innocent civilians in Asia by the Japanese at the same time. This film could not have done a better job dramatizing these events according to mainstream Hollywood standards. There's probably some sugarcoating of events, but not as much as I would have expected.

Music to melt the heart.......2005-10-04

A chance viewing - the DVD is not yet available in Europe - and one of the most heartrending stories to come out of the Far Eastern sector of World War II; there have been many tales of derring-do and bravery among soldiers captured by the Japanese, but nothing to match the indomitable spirit of these innocent American women (and children) imprisoned after the fall of Singapore. Their "vocal orchestra" (NOT a chorus, as their director, played superbly by Glenn Close, insists), achieves the seemingly impossible task of transcribing over 30 works, including Dvorak's New World Symphony (we hear a condensed version of the slow movement with a modern Dutch chorus on the soundtrack) via the prodigious memory of one of the prisoners, a British missionary (Pauline Collins), and through their performances in the camp transform the violent relationship between captor and captive into something approaching a human understanding. Nothing is held back in portraying the initial brutality, which makes the contrast with the quiet and unquenchable optimism of the inmates (in spite of many differences of temperament and background) all the more stark.
A splendid supporting cast (Cate Blanchett, Frances McDormand); 2 hours of compelling viewing.

Average customer rating:

The story of Kurt Gerron as one who did not get away

Prisoner of Paradise
Starring: Ian Holm , Robby Lantz , Eleonore Hertzberg , Lone Koppel , and Renée Saint-Cyr
Director: Stuart Sender , and Malcolm Clarke (II)
Manufacturer: PBS Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007NFLSG
Release Date: 2005-04-12

Description

The documentary tells the true story of Kurt Gerron, a successful German-Jewish actor and director, who after being sent to a concentration camp, was forced by his captors to direct the pro-Nazi propaganda film, "The Fuhrer Gives a City to the Jews." In addition to exploring his life, it details the remarkable detective story in which Gerron's film, lost for decades after World War II, was tracked down and painstakingly put back together.

Customer Reviews:

The story of Kurt Gerron as one who did not get away.......2005-04-28

"Prisoner of Paradise" is an Academy Award-nominated documentary that tells the story of Kurt Gerron. A beloved and well-known German-Jewish actor, director, and cabaret star in Berlin in the 1920s he is most remembered for co-starring with Marlene Dietrich in the classic film "The Blue Angel." He also appeared opposite Peter Lorre in "Bombs Over Monte Carlo" and sang "Mack the Knife" in the original production of "The Threepenny Opera." But footage of Gerron to present the idea of the archetypal Jew in early propaganda films such as "The Eternal Jew." The reason Gerron is the subject of this PBS documentary is because of the last creative effort of his life. It was Gerron who directed the Nazi propaganda film made about the Theresienstadt concentration camp, which was known as "The Model Ghetto."

Theresienstadt was the German name for Terezín, the name of a former military fortress and garrison town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. During World War I the fortress was used as a prisoner of war camp and Gavrilo Princip, who started the war by assassinating Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife, died of there in 1918. The Gestapo took over the fortress in 1940 and the following year was turned by Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the SS, into an internment camp for local Jews. By the summer of 1942 that population had been exterminated and the site was a closed environment for privileged Jews from Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria.

When the Nazis permitted a visit by the Red Cross to counter rumors about the extermination camps, thousands of Jews were deported to Auschwitz to avoid the appearance of overcrowding in Theresienstadt. Fake shops and cafes were built to make it seems the Jews were living in relative comfort. There was even the performance of a children's opera, "Brundibar." The hoax was such a success the Nazis decided to make a propaganda film at Theresienstadt and shooting began in February 1944 with Gerron as director. When the filming was done most of the "cast" were transported to Auschwitz. Gerron and his wife were executed in the gas chambers on October 28, 1944. However, the film he made (Often called "The Führer Gives a Village to the Jews" but was actually entitled "Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet"), was never released although edited pieces were used for propaganda purposes, which is why only segments of it remain today.

Narrated by Ian Holm, "Prisoner of Paradise" explains how Gerron, unlike Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and other German-Jews in the motion picutre industry, did not get out of Europe. When Jews were no longer allowed to work in Germany, Gerron fled first to Paris and then Amsterdam, which became the last refuge for Jewish artists. There were opportunities for Gerron to go to the United States to work in Hollywood, but he passed them by and when he was desperate for an offer his letters went unanswered.But he ended up in Theresienstadt. This documentary by Malcolm Clarke and Stuart Sender combines film footage from Gerron's movie career along with still photographs from his life, footage shot by the Nazis in Theresienstadt and elsewhere, contemporary footage of places such as Theresienstadt, and interviews with people who knew Gerron throughout the period being covered, such as the young girl who remembers him from happy days at a resort.

The documentary begins with Holm describing a utopian community of artists, which, of course, turns out to be the Theresienstadt of Gerron's film. The most poignant moment comes when we hear Gerron sing "Mack the Knife" while one of his old suits is displayed surrounded by candelabras and studio lights on the Marlene Dietrich stage at Babelsberg Film Studios. The most ironic comes when film of Gerron doing a magic trick is superimposed with images of transport trains heading for the death camps. However, the most horrifying artifact in the documentary is that of a map that the Nazis used for the "impromptu" tour of the ghetto taken by the Danish Red Cross inspectors. Every stopped was planned, timed and choreographed just like it was just one long tracking shot for a movie.

The Red Cross inspector, who is interviewed on film, had asked the commandant to keep the choir together they heard singing together. You will not be surprised as to how that particular story ends. But the point of "Prisoner of Paradise" is not to surprise you with new information about this particular aspect of the Holocaust. Remembering Gerron's story because his face and name are preserved on film also allows the nameless faces of his final film and all those whose lives were used as photographic lies for their own deaths to be remembered as well.

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