ATM: Sophie's Choice (1982)

An excellent choice, beto.

Meryl Streep won the second of her three Oscars in this heart wrenching tale of a Polish Holocaust survivor. It's an in depth study of her reactions to one of the greatest horrors of all time, and her own personal tragedy. How human beings can be so cruel and evil is beyond me.

Alan J Pakula died in 1998 at the age of 70. Meryl Streep went on to a stellar career, winning her third Oscar for The Iron Lady. Peter MacNicol later appeared in Ally McBeal and Ghostbusters II. Kevin Klein has starred in such diverse films as A Fish Called Wanda, and Beauty and the Beast (2017).

I saw the film in the cinema way back in 1982, so I will discuss details below. Therefore:

SPOILER ALERT! Thar be details below!

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"Stingo, you look....you look very nice, you're wearing your cocksucker."

"That's my seersucker."

Ironically enough, one of the funniest lines of all time is uttered in a film which is one of the saddest and most heart wrenching of all time. I remember that line, and of course the famous line where she makes her choice.

And the final scene with its double suicide is one of the saddest of all time.

Slight spoiler ahead......

I was so blown away by this film when I watched it many, many years ago.

All the way along thinking that I knew what Sophie's 'choice' was. Boy was I so wrong.

Will comment when I watch it again.

A new movie. I'll get to it. I liked it. Meryl Streep was very sympathetic to me as a Nazi camp victim who lost her family. She was meek, haunted by her past and struggling to keep it together. I loved the moments of dancing, some joke telling and having fun as it filled her with light since her children were taken away. Their romance does seem more like a mother and son as they go to theme park's or read and maybe in a way relieve the guilt of saving her daughter.

Stingo was alot like the American dream after the big war full of romance, hope and honor. He finds out that not everything is black or white as it seemed and his anger at the atrocities were understandable. It films with with rage and thinks the woman he knew, lady liberty or Sophia, wasnt the squeaky clean woman he came to know.

In the and I felt like it touched me on many different levels. It took me a while to warm to the. Besides that I think it was great.

Good choice, beto! I saw it a long time ago, but knowing what the "choice" was, it was still heartbreaking. And it wasn't just the choice itself, but the sick pleasure the Nazi officer was getting from making her pick one of her children.

I liked how Sophie wasn't the brave, heroic type. She was a regular person, caught in a horrendous situation. And Meryl Streep was very good in the role, of course. Funny how in two of her three Oscar winning roles, she has fake teeth. I think that's the key to her success (maybe not lol).

I've always liked Kevin Kline. He also gave a great performance here. He was charming and disturbed. And it was nice to see Peter MacNicol in a normal person role, though I didn't care much for his character, or his maturing into manhood.

The end was sad, but also they finally escaped the misery they were living with. They were so desperately holding on to each other, and trying to distract themselves with dressing up and befriending Stingo, but that wasn't enough. I don't see how they could have led truly happy lives. They were too broken.

I can't even comprehend how people could rationalise killing people like that. And what people had to do to try and save themselves and the ones they loved. Makes you think, man.

What a choice you've made with this one....such a heartbreaking movie. I've only seen it once before, I think it's one of those films that you see and appreciate, but don't feel the need to revisit over and over just cause it's hard. Although, maybe we should since it's one of those slice of life films that really reminds us of our humanity and the cruelties that go along with it. By seeing a tragedy played out on a more personal and intimate scale, I believe we're better able to listen and understand it and let it affect us more. We can take the pain and empathy it provides us and see how it applies to the whole thing....not that, I'm assuming, most people need that for something like the Holocaust, but I'm speaking more generally.

Anyways, all the lead performances in this are great, and the ending still guts me. You so wish Sophie could get through what she's suffered, but I guess in the end, she found herself at another crossroads of choices, living or dying. And let's not forget the beautiful, little poem recited at the end too, ugh!