What does it take to live when your chances are equal to a zero? What does it mean to survive at the expense of the others? WWII, Greece, Germans, Jews, camps, death... A young, strong boxer has a chance to fight. The SS would have fun betting on it. If he wins, he gets to live a little longer and a loaf of bread. Many people get a piece of this bread but most of all is his father and a brother. They are all he still have. He wins and lives. The looser dies. Every time he wins, he saves whatever left of the family. Every time he wins, he kills the looser. At the end, only he survives. The whole family is dead. All friends are dead. Was he right? Was not it easier to die? Yes, it was easier to die but he selects the difficult way of living being responsible for deaths of other fighters. He was able to prolong lives of the loved ones. He lived to tell the story and to fight another day. His spirit was not broken but triumphed.
This is an outstanding film with an excellent cast and the deepest power I have seen for a while. All I can say is see it for yourself and enjoy the best.
Horrifying account of the depravity of man
I have just finished viewing this movie and am speechless. First, to have the movie shot on location at Auschwitz with the remains of the camp in use and in view was numbing. To actually see the "mock" selections, assurances of a hot shower and the lie of the "health camp" for children put a touch of realism to some of the Holocaust survivor accounts that I have read. I did not live through the Holocaust but if this movie was one tenth of one percent of what it really was like, may God comfort and be merciful to the survivors and their families. I have never heard of the main character, played by Willem Dafoe, but he must have been a very brave man. I salute you, sir and as a Christian, I ask your forgiveness for what was done to the Jewish people in the name of Jesus Christ. I cautiously recommend this film for any serious student of the Holocaust, and urge that the message therein never be forgotten or repeated. Thank you.
Better, more realistic than Schindler's List/Dafoe is Great
Triumph of the Spirit is probably the most realistic dramatic recreation of the horrors of Auschwitz I've seen. Director Robert Young is a pro at bringing controversial independent films to fruition, and Dafoe gives one of his best performances here. He portrays Salamo Arouch, a Greek Jewish Olympic boxer deported to Auschwitz. This true story was filmed on location at Auschwitz and Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and we are shown the death machine in full operation. Again there is an intensity and realism to this film that makes Schindler's List pale in comparison.
Edward James Olmos portrays a gypsy singer who becomes a key ally of Salamo; Gypsy entertains the SS and Salamo boxes for them while they hope for the Russians to come. One relatively minor flaw of the film is that the actors who portray SS and camp guards seem benign, almost nice at times, and I really doubt the actual female guards were as good looking as a few of the Frauleins here.
But a good touch of realism is the languages. The Germans speak German, the Poles speak Polish, and the Russians speak Russian all without subtitles (compare this to Schindler's List). And the make up job was great; the victims really looked like they were on death's door.
If you want to know about the Holocaust this drama is near the top of the list with the best documentaries. And Polanski's "The Piano" should be good too.
The title of Tim Blake Nelson's harrowing drama of Jewish death camp prisoners who rise up against their captors to "destroy the machinery" refers as much to the compromise and cloudy morality of collaboration as to the gray world coated in the smoke and ash of the crematoriums. Inspired by real-life events at the Auschwitz death camp, The Grey Zone stars David Arquette as a soul-deadened laborer whose being fiercely jolts to life when he finds a young girl alive among the gassed corpses. He's the heart and soul of an outstanding cast that includes Steve Buscemi and Daniel Benzali as revolt leaders, Allan Corduner as the shunned camp doctor, and Harvey Keitel as the commandant. Nelson's rapid pacing, intimate shooting, and terse, jagged dialogue give the moral debate a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Tim Blake Nelson DVD Release Date: Released the 18 March 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $13.48YOU SAVE $1.5!
Buy it
Sobibor was one of the concentration camps that killed Jews during World War II. It was the most secret camp that the nazi party established. "Esacpe from Sobibor" is a touching and very, very sad movie of how the Jews that were being held at Sobibor planned an escape. This movie is my favorite holocaust movie; and there are a lot of them.
"Escape from Sobibor" is my favorite Holocaust movie because it is very suspenseful. The Jews make a plan and as the movie develops you gain more of an interest for this movie and what will happen to the Jews. The actors were very good and depicted the Jewish people in Sobibor very well. The concentration camp depicted what it was really like to be at one of the camps during WWII.
I will continue to watch this movie over the years. i recommend... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jack Gold DVD Release Date: Released the 31 July 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
List Price: $14.95 Your Price: $14.95YOU SAVE $0!
Buy it
Originally broadcast in November 2001, this exceptional made-for-television film recalls Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan while forging its own distinct identity. It was the first American film to dramatize the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, during which an underground collective of Polish Jews dared to defy the Nazis. Hank Azaria leads an all-star cast as resistance leader Mordecai Anielewicz, and the film follows his close-knit collaborators (including David Schwimmer and Leelee Sobieski) and their battle against the Nazi general (Jon Voight) assigned to clear all Jews from Warsaw. The uprising was eventually crushed (some heartbreaking outcomes are listed in the closing credits), but director Jon Avnet expertly maintains a sense of courage and hope... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jon Avnet DVD Release Date: Released the 18 December 2001 Usually ships in 6 to 8 days
List Price: $19.98 Your Price: $17.98YOU SAVE $2!
Buy it
This wonderful film by Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Total Eclipse), based on an autobiography by Solomon Perel, concerns a Jewish-German boy who manages to conceal his identity from the Nazis and ends up a member of their Youth Party. An admirably full experience, the film is both black comedy and horror show, with the central character taking the full measure of everyone's perspective on the war and Nazi crimes. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Marco Hofschneider - René Hofschneider - Solomon Perel Director(s): Agnieszka Holland DVD Release Date: Released the 04 March 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.95 Your Price: $13.46YOU SAVE $1.49!
Buy it
Though only a short subject, this groundbreaking documentary remains one of the most influential and powerful explorations of the Holocaust ever made. Director Alain Resnais bluntly presents an indictment not only of the Nazis but of the world community, and the film is all the more remarkable for its harsh judgment considering the time in which it was made, less than a decade after the end of the war, when questions of responsibility were not yet being addressed. Juxtaposing archival clips from the concentration camps across Germany and Poland with the present-day denials of the camps' existence, the film seeks to once and for all expose the horrifying truth of the Final Solution, as well as to address the continuing anti-Semitism and bigotry that existed long after the war's end. An... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michel Bouquet Director(s): Alain Resnais DVD Release Date: Released the 24 June 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.95 Your Price: $11.96YOU SAVE $2.99!
Buy it
