- Joined
- Jul 3, 1997
- Messages
- 66,558
- Real Name
- Ronald Epstein
UPRISING
"We will live our lives with honor and we
will die by honor -- Jewish honor"
I have a feeling that not many of the other
fine review sites have given this new release
by Warner Home Video the attention that it deserves.
I wanted to be certain I did. Uprising is an
original TV movie made for what appears to be one of
the cable networks (due to the nudity and graphic
violence portrayed). I had never heard of it until
I received a screener from Warner Brothers about
a week ago.
I wanted to review this film, because I have
great interest in the Holocaust period. While
there are some fantastic documentaries available
on DVD (INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS and
THE LAST DAYS), it is encouraging to see more
programming slowly surfacing. While many of us
still patiently await the release of Spielberg's
Schindler's List, the masterpiece film about
a man who saved 1100 Jews, I think audiences will be
just as inspired by Jon Avnet's Uprising, a
powerful story of Jews saving themselves. This
is a remarkable film featuring a powerful cast.
This is the true story of a large group of Polish
Jews, who starting in 1940, built a resistance known
as the ZOB (Jewish Fighters Organization) and fought
against the invading Germans upon the Warsaw ghetto.
Led by Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria), the ZOB
take such dangerous duties as smuggling arms and
explosives, and even infiltrate the Aryan side of
the city. Though they lack the cooperation of
Jewish Consulate, Adam Czerniakow (Donald Sutherland),
it is the growing atrocities by the Germans that bands
this underground group together.
The story remarkably tells the story of Jewish
heroism through characters such as Tosia (Leelee
Sobieski), and Yitzhak (David Schwimmer). These
are people whom the Germans refer to as a "small
group of bandits" who held off German military for
longer than the entire country of Poland.
In 1943, as the Germans proudly marched into
the Warsaw ghetto singing songs, it is this band
of Jews who held their ground through days of
battles that ultimately shamed Major-General
Jurgen Stroop (Jon Voigt).
Warner has done an incredible job of presenting
this movie in a handsome 2-disc Collector's set.
Packed in a large cardboard case, an insert slides
out and opens up to a 3 panel gatefold that
holds the 2 discs in plastic housing.
The film itself looks and sounds great. Presented
in enhanced widescreen, the picture looks very clear
and clean throughout. The 5.1 Dolby Surround sounds
excellent -- especially in the many assault scenes
that make up the 3rd hour of this film.
There are 2 feature-length commentaries: one with
Director/Co-Writer Jon Avnet and the other with
stars Hank Azaria, David Schwimmer, Leelee Sobieski,
and Jon Voigt.
Disc 2 is packed with Special Features that
begins with Breaking down the wall, a
post 9/11/01 behind-the-scenes documentary on the
making of the film. Director Jon Avnet wanted to
make this film because this is the very first
Holocaust film that tells the story of Jews fighting
back rather than resisting. There are interviews
with all the major actors (Azaria, Sobieski, Schwimmer,
Sutherland) who reveal the spirit of the characters
they play.
Resistance is an extraordinary historical
look at the 1939 Jewish ghetto resistance. Using
archival footage, still photos and with interviews
from surviving resistance fighters, we get a
first-hand look at period and lives this film
was based upon. What I found to be astounding was the
fact that the Jews of this period wanted the memory
of what was happening to them to be preserved. They
documented everything around them and hid them in
milk containers and buried them underground. The
documentary also looks at the strength of film as a
propaganda machine the Germans used in gaining
support for Jewish extermination. This is a powerful
documentary that is even more moving than the film
itself as it shows the reality in pictures and words
from the people that survived it.
Rounding out the Special Features is a Cast
and Crew filmography, 2 trailers, and enhanced
features for your PC DVD-ROM.
Final Thoughts
It bothers me that this title is going to be
overlooked by most, and ultimately overshadowed
by Schindler's List, when it makes its way
to DVD in a few months.
Although this was never a major theatrical release,
I am surprised at just how well made this was for
a television release. It's a powerful fact based
saga that thrives on the spirit of the Jewish
heroism in the face of death. It was the spirit of
their deaths that shaped a new generation of Jews.
Rent this -- purchase this -- but above all, see it!
2-disc deluxe set available Now for under $15