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Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9781556589430 Format: Color, EP, HiFi Sound, Original recording reissued, NTSC ISBN: 1556589433 Label: Live Home Video Manufacturer: Live Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Live Home Video Release Date: December 14, 1993 Running Time: 150 minutes Sales Rank: 17080 Studio: Live Home Video Theatrical Release Date: December 08, 1982
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
Average Rating:
Rating: - One of the best performances!
Meryl Streep delivers one of, if not her best performances in any film I have seen her in. If you are a student of film, you must see this. If you are a fan of film, you must see this. If you are neither, you still must see this. The story is not for the faint of heart, it's a very intense subject matter that will have your mind doing cartwheels. Every performance I see is compared to Streep's performance in this film, leaving me walking away from the theatre saying "well, it was good, but it was no Sophie's Choice." See this film!
Another good film: Postcards from the Edge add ... Read More
Rating: - War Trauma
Amazing, brilliant, powerful the whole movie leads to the climax which is not what you expect. Meryl Streep is again incredible! how does she do it, very very believable...
Rating: - One Character too many
I won't belabor too much on "Sophie's Choice". It has a number of haunting scenes and the preformance of Meryl Streep was certainly deserving of an Oscar. Kevin Kline was alright and I came to understand that his role was fairly essential to give us the overview of a woman defeated years before by a macabre experience. However, I found the role of the writer/narrator to be extraneous and annoying. If the book is like the movie (and I suspect it is) I won't bother with it. I would have assumed that the script writer and the director (if not one and the same) would have filtered out the writer's ... Read More
Rating: - Seeing this movie would be the right choice...
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 ... Read More
Rating: - Excellent filmmaking
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.
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