Escape from Sobibor (1987)

Perfect cast and a good story

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The saddest part of Escape From Sobibor is the uniqueness of the story. Sadly enough there were no mass revolts in the concentration camps, people just accepted the cursed fate that brought them to places like Sobibor.Probably a combination of charismatic leadership and just one too many straws that broke backs led to what happened. In Sobibor in East Poland the main leader is played in this film by Alan Arkin in maybe one of the best roles of his career. Who also turned out to be a valuable asset was Rutger Hauer and a group of Russian prisoners housed there who with a bit of military discipline were invaluable as this story is told.The two saddest scenes are what happened to Joanna Pacula's baby whom she was trying to hide. And young Jason Norman when he sees the gas chambers in operation and knows where his family wound up.Escape From Sobibor is definitely not for the squeamish. But films like this should be made and remade and never forgotten.

Much film has been done about the holocaust from virtually all angles, and this film fits right in amongst them. Now, I wouldn't say it is the best, not by a long-shot, but it has suspense and more-over and more importantly, a reality background which the film-makers kept close to, backed with closing pictures of the camp today and what happened with some of the survivors. That adds to the value of this film.However, the film is not as good as it could have been unfortunately. I found the acting being less than average at a few points but especially Rutger Hauer do a good job throughout the film. Then we have my pet peeve that everybody speaks English which removes some of the authenticity but its OK. The SFX was less passable, but again, OK. I found a couple of factual errors as well, but nothing that distracted the overall impression.Overall though, I would recommend this to watch as a complement to The Grey Zone. They both show uprisings in camps, but The Grey Zone do it much grittier. Simply put, this is a good movie.

At the end of this film, I cried. This is a very moving and powerfully told story, a film that never falters with a boring scene either during it's up-tempo sequences (action scenes/encounters between prisoners and captors) or its down-tempo sequences (the emotional and philosophical grounding of the story with prisoner interaction). It'll leave you cheering when the prisoners take their opportunity to action their revenge, yet at that same time leave you only too aware that in the big picture they're ultimately jousting with futility (most escapees were eventually recaptured & killed).In my book, the definitive Holocaust film, and as such should not go unseen by anyone. This film speaks as much to the human condition as it does to the details of the Nazi horrors.

I saw this one ironically a short while after I'd seen Schindler's List. I would have to agree with a lot of people on the comments and threads that this was better than Schindler's List.The best thing about this one is that the Jews fought back. Not only did they fight back but they freaked out the Nazis so much that they leveled the entire camp. I thought that was just the perfect icing on the cake. It's kind of comforting in a small way to know that the good guys can win when they fight back.*****Spoiler Time***** The part where they show the incinerators and the scene where the woman and baby are murdered are particularly difficult to watch. I can't help but feel like my guts have been torn apart when I see a child die in a movie. When it happened at the hands of the Nazi's it just seems to make it worse.There has been more than one friend, family friend and acquaintance that has seen this in school. I think that's a must see! Rutger Hauer was particularly good in this. You really get attached to his character and that shows a side of the war that's not as commonly mentioned. The Russian-Jews really perished a great deal at the hands of the Nazi's.Rent this one or buy it if you can find it!