Sophie's Choice (1982)
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Stingo, a young writer, moves to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin work on his first novel. As he becomes friendly with Sophie and her lover Nathan, he learns that she is a Holocaust survivor. Flashbacks reveal her harrowing story, from pre-war prosperity to Auschwitz. In the present, Sophie and Nathan's relationship increasingly unravels as Stingo grows closer to Sophie and Nathan's fragile mental state becomes ever more apparent.
23 connections found
View:
23 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Sophie's Choice to
In America, an influx of migration (predominantly from Europe, both pre- and post-war) has inspired countless films such as America, America (1963), The Godfather Part II (1974), Hester Street (1975), Sophie’s Choice (1982), Golden Door (2006), and the appropriately-titled The Immigrant (2013) with Marion Cotillard.
It is great that this story got told, and told well, but in the pantheon of artistic explorations on the subject, it’s more akin to Sophie’s Choice as a harrowing individual narrative about the toll surviving a social atrocity takes on even its heroes.
No one wants to see themselves as the bad guy, which is why it wasn’t the Germans who made “Schindler’s List,” “The Pianist” or “Sophie’s Choice.”
Tom Hanks, once again, shows his tremendous acting ability and here takes on the task, a la Meryl Streep in “Sophie’s Choice,” in creating a realistic accent and, convincingly, speaking a foreign language like a native.
It could be argued that certain portions of "The Pianist" have an overly familiar ring to them, and certainly some of the scenes depicting the cruelty of the Nazis are reminiscent of similar moments in "Schindler's List," "Holocaust" and even "Sophie's Choice."
Advertisement
When we talk about great accomplishments in acting, the conversation usually turns to feats of physical transformation or wrenching psychological deep dives — your Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot , your Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice .
At Oahu's international satellite center, Cal Zapata (Hamish Linklater, TV's 'The New Adventures of Old Christine') is unnerved when people like the Secretary of Defense (Peter MacNicol, "Sophie's Choice," TV's 'Ally McBeal') start looking to him for answers about the five objects hurtling their way towards him from outer space.
Putting a German army uniform on a contemporary American actor (Tom Cruise in Valkyrie ) makes for instant risibility, while placing a beautiful movie star in a fake concentration camp (Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice ) could be said to make a mockery of the real victims’ undocumented suffering.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer, director Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to his weirdly compelling The Lobster, draws on Greek mythology for its title and its central conceit, a sort-of modern-day Sophie’s Choice .
A creepy combo of The Twilight Zone and Sophie’s Choice, the film stars Lobster star Colin Farrell as Steven Murphy, a surgeon who has befriended a teenage boy named Martin (Barry Keoghan).
Imagine Sophie’s Choice about to meet The Shining, approaching from either side of Cape Fear.
By the time all family members have come to accept the unacceptable and start kissing up to daddy not to pick them, Lanthimos and his pitch-perfect cast (everyone speaks in a mesmerizing monotone) have created a Sophie’s Choice of biblical proportions.
Advertisement
Micro-scopeLubna Azabal shines as a woman forced to make a sort of Middle-Eastern "Sophie's Choice" in "Incendies."
Not since "Sophie's Choice" has a mother's love for her children inflicted so much pain.
The film, so effective in its first half and featuring a touching performance from "Patti Cake$'s" Danielle Macdonald, gradually unravels, one ludicrous cliche impossible to take seriously, a pulled punch of a "Sophie's Choice" dilemma a groaner, the ending both implausible and syrupy.