Rating: 
Summary: Painful, defiant, angry, joyous
Review: This is a magnificent piece of documentary filmmaking, not only from the perspective of the production values, but especially of the reportage. It is made clear throughout the documentary how extraordinarily difficult it was to get the extremely elderly men who were the survivors of the Holocaust to think back to what must have been a horrifying period in their lives. The producers managed to get through, however, sometimes with the help of friends, sometimes on their own, and the effect is a devastating one. I cannot agree with the reviewer from Louisiana who carped about "too many Nazi movies". First of all, the Holocaust is a horror which must never be forgotten, and there is no point at which there will be too much information about a "civilized" Western European country which slaughtered millions upon millions upon millions of people at a time which is still in the living memory of countless Europeans, Americans and other citizens of the world. Second, I would have a hard time in coming up with any short list, let alone long list of written, audio or video material which treats the specific subject of the extermination of gay people in Hitler's camps. Gay men were one of the secondary groups of slaughter, of course, in comparison to the breathtaking horror that was visited upon the Jews, but they were a major group nevertheless, and if the critic in Louisiana thinks that this is a story that does not need telling, then I'm sorry, but he's wrong. It does need telling, and the point to this documentary is that not many more years will pass before all of those who survived the terror are gone, gone, gone. The fact that the Holocaust is a throbbing and living thing even in the lives of people in the late 20th and early 21st century was neatly encapsulated in "Paragraph 175" when, if I understood it correctly, a French interviewee said that the interview was the first time that he had ever spoken to a German since World War II. "Paragraph 175" brought tears to my eyes again and again, because I had to ask, again and again, "why, why in God's name, why?" Whether Nazi atrocities have been treated in the media to a greater, lesser, more significant or any other extent than the atrocities of Stalin's Gulag (and as a Latvian, I am perfectly aware of what Stalin did, thank you) is entirely not the point. No human terror can be measured up against any other. This was terror. This was pain. But the survivors also represent a point of joy. They did survive. They had something to say. "Paragraph 175" allowed them to say it. I think that we are better for the story having been told.
Rating: 
Summary: Infomative, but slow paced for no reason
Review: Paragraph 175 delves into a little discussed aspect of World War II. While Jewish people were the primary target of Nazi Germany, homosexuals were also discriminated against in the worst way. However, while this documentary is informative, it seems like it is a one hour film stretched into 90 minutes.The most annoying aspect of the film is its moments of long pauses in narration. Since it primarily concerns itself with interviews of homosexuals who survived imprisonment in concentration camps, it's understandable that the survivors have long pauses. After all, they're elderly and the pain the memories bring can make it hard to speak. But the long pauses continue when Rupert Everet does his narration as well. And they're not dramatic pauses, but pauses to fit the length of video provided. The narration either needed more material, or the film needed to condense its video. Also, as the film jumps back and forth between survivors, it never seems to have any real focus. One interviewee will be talking about one thing, and then it switches to another discussing some other topic. Though the film makes some good points and does serve to be enlightening, it's apparent that it could have done a better job in telling the stories. As it is, it seems like a rough cut of the documentary, not the final film. Despite my criticisms, Paragraph 175 still has some interesting stories to tell and some moments of true poignancy and sorrow. It's just too bad it's not polished to shine some light onto these disturbing, harrowing tales.
Rating: 
Summary: THE BASHING OF GAY MEN BY THE NAZI REGIME...
Review: This is a beautifully executed documentary that is approached with great sensitivity. An official selection of the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, the film is named after Paragraph 175, Germany's anti-sodomy law, which was enacted in 1871 and was gender specific to males. It is this statute upon which the Nazi regime relied to round up homosexual men for internment in its infamous concentration camps. Once interned, they were reduced to wearing the now infamous "pink triangle" to herald their homosexuality. This documentary focuses on poignant reminiscences by the handful of homosexual men, now in their eighties and nineties, as well as one elderly lesbian who had managed to escape from Germany to England, who survived their experiences, were still alive at the time of filming, and willing to talk about this painful time in their lives. Their stories, sensitively handled by interviewer and historian Klaus Muller, are coupled with wonderful archival footage of a Germany of long ago, and come to life under the expert hands of directors Jerry Friedman and Rob Epstein. The film discusses Weimar Germany's tolerance of homosexuality in the post World War I era, which tolerance continued up until the time the Nazis took control of the country. Berlin was a mecca for homosexuals before the Nazis took over, and Paragraph 175 was largely ignored. The film is highly successful in capturing the joie de vivre of that era, with wonderful archival film footage, stills, and music of a pre-Adolph Hitler Berlin, interspersed with clips of Marlene Dietrich in the film "The Blue Angel" (1931). The use of that film, as well as its signature song "Falling In Love Again", is a perfect marriage with this documentary, as it captures the flavor of the Weimar Republic before Adolph Hitler cast his shadow upon it. The film shows how the Nazi regime stealthily encroached upon the tolerance that had been so pervasive, rendering gay Berlin a thing of the past, no longer a mecca for homosexuals. Its rigid application of Paragraph 175 was the end of an era of tolerance. It was replaced by the persecution of and intolerance for Germany's homosexual men. The film, narrated by Rupert Everett, is a brief ode to the suffering of this segment of Germany's population, but it is, nonetheless, a powerful one. The DVD is limited in terms of bonus features. It does, however, provide two additional interviews with concentration camp survivors who shed more light on the treatment of homosexuals during the Nazi era, as well as an insightful and intelligent film commentary by the directors and producer.
Rating:
Summary: Less a Documentary than a Reminiscence
Review: PARAGRAPH 175 is a beautifully photographed, historicaly accurate, sensitively enlightening film about the Nazi persecution and slaughter of the Pink Triangle, as male homosexuals were designated in Hitler's concentration camps. But for once a documenting film does not focus on grotesque pictures of bodies, wretched camp conditions or images of abuse and torture. The film's makers instead opt for the more sensitive approach of interviewing the few remaining men (and one woman)who survived the period. From these elderly gentlemen we hear memories of how fun Berlin was from 1914 to 1918, the between war period when life was raucous and liberated. We then learn through their words and through film clips of the growing influence of Hitler and his own gay SA General, the response of a people wilted from WWI needing hope for a future and not realizing the depravity of the promises of the Nazi party, the ugly truth. It is this insidious perpetration of evil that becomes most pungent in the faces and words of the survivors. This is a beautifully realized documentary and one that will open eyes to a fact that most people remain unaware of even today.
Rating:
Summary: i wanted more...
Review: The truth about homosexual persecution in Nazi Germany told by 6 survivors, using real footage from the times and documentary/interview style storytelling.
I find it interesting how they only targeted gay men. Nazis declared lesbianism a "temporary and curable problem."
Anyway, an interesting little documentary... not enough substance to it though in my opinion- although that might be because none of the men wanted to talk about their experiences. I imagine they get tired of all the interviews and having to relive those things... "Do you want butter or guns?"
And the people cried "Guns!"
And at that my Father became afraid."
Rating:
Summary: Painful and beautiful.
Review: It was beautifully assembled. These men - now in their late 80's or 90's - all telling their stories of their young, full lives suddenly lost. I can't describe it - it wasn't a gruesome documentary, but it was extremely human and personal. Worthy of watching... however, makes for sadness.
Rating:
Summary: Survivors of the Pink Triangle
Review: From the Oscar-winning producers of "The Times of Harvey Milk" (Best Documentary Feature, 1984) and "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt" (Best Documentary Feature, 1989) comes this exquisitely composed film about the persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis during the Third Reich. Narrated by Rupert Everett, the film combines archival footage and photographs with recent interviews with a handful of gay survivors who were still living at the end of the 20th century. What emerges is a stunning, emotionally raw portrait of individuals who were thrown into a living hell only to crawl back out into a world where their perceptions of humanity - and self - would never be fully healed. This is a film with moments both heartbreaking (a man in his mid-ninties tells that his mother never asked even one question about his lengthy internment, and confides his unfilled yearning to talk with his father), and mind-numbing (another survivor describes the horrific meaning of the place known as the "singing forest"). One of the few works to explore the Nazi persecution of gays (along with the play and film "Bent", the books "The Pink Triangle" and "The Men with the Pink Triangles", etc.), "Paragraph 175" is by far the best at personalizing this incomprehensible chapter in gay history, and is a definite "must-see". The DVD edition is highly recommended. In addition to the film, it includes the original theatrical trailer, and two bonus interviews from the Shoah Foundation featuring non-homosexuals offering their personal accounts of how gay men were treated in the concentration camps. Fascinating and deeply moving, a worthy double-feature companion to Steven Spielberg/The Shoah Foundation's Oscar-winning documentary feature, "The Last Days".
Rating: 
Summary: Tells Us Nothing New About the Third Reich
Review: I have always felt heartfelt admiration for those who survived Nazi Germany: for the Jews in the Concentration Camps, for the minority groups that Hitler persecuted, and the Allied Soldiers who fought them. I have seen and read countless stories of Nazi atrocities, and they are plentiful, going back to the early 1980s. Now that we are in the 21st century, does anyone dare ask the question, "Do we really need another Nazi documentary?" This DVD tells us nothing new. We know that Hitler hated Jews and Homosexuals. We have been reminded of it. And reminded. And reminded. And then reminded again. Why? The standard answer is, of course "Yes, lest we forget." I could agree with that, if the sentiments were sincere. But at this point in History, one has to question the motivation for making a Nazi Germany film. At this point, the Nazi atrocities have been memorialized in countless ways, so forgetting them seems impossible. The public's fascination with the Nazis now borders on morbidity, an unhealthy and creepy fascination. And film makers are cashing in. Am I the only one who finds the idea of cashing in on a national tragedy, well, creepy? And if its so important to remember history's atrocities, then why is one hard pressed to find a DVD on the Gulag in Russia? Or the Rape of Nanking in China? As with other atrocities, the survivors of these acts are quickly dissappearing, and no one seems to care. Those atrocities have a much greater chance of being forgotten, and are largely unexplored. "Why?" is a daunting question which never gets asked. This is not meant to be anti-semitic, by the way. But Nazi Germany was only a moment in the long history of Jewish persecution. Nazi Germany lasted little over a decade. Jewish persecution from Islamic fundamentalists has been going on for THOUSANDS of years. Those fanatics, who have always threatened Israel, now threaten the US. Yet we continue to obsess about Hitler. Why? Yes, there is a danger of fogetting the Holocaust. But the Jewish people in particular face the current foe Islamic Fundamentalizm. There is a new part of history that needs to be examined, and should be examined because of its immediacy. Remember the Holocaust, but not at the expense of other tragedies. The film world needs to move on. The subject of Nazi Germany has been exhausted, then re-exhausted, and then exhausted again. Time for new territory.
Rating:
Summary: Tells Us Nothing New About the Third Reich
Review: I have always felt heartfelt admiration for those who lived in Nazi Germany: for the Jews in the Concentration Camps, for the minority groups that Hitler persecuted, and the Allied Soldiers who fought them. I have seen and read countless stories of Nazi atrocities, and they are plentiful, going back to the early 1980s. Now that we are in the 21st century, does anyone dare ask the question, "Do we really need another Nazi documentary?" The standard answer is, of course "Yes, lest we forget." I can agree with that. But if the memory if Nazi Germany is adequately solidified. But if its so important to remember history's atrocities, then why is one hard pressed to find a DVD on the Gulag in Russia? Or the Rape of Nanking in China? Like all other atrocities, the survivors of these acts are quickly dissappearing, and no one seems to care. Those atrocities have a much greater chance of being forgotten, but no film maker seems to care. What about the THOUSANDS of years of Jewish persecution by Islamic Fundamentalists.? Those fanatics, who have always threatened Israel, now threaten the US. Yet we continue to obsess about Hitler. Why? As for this title, it doesn't enlighten us on anything. We know that Hitler hated Jews and Homosexuals. But they weren't the only ones affeccted by his reign of terror, a fact that is continually omitted in the records of Nazi atrocities. The film world needs to move on. The subject of Nazi Germany has been exhausted, then re-exhausted, and then exhausted again. Time for new territory.
Rating:
Summary: Voices from Our Past
Review: From Common Threads to The Times of Harvey Milk, Rob Epstein and Jeffery Friedman have documented the lives of gay men and lesbians throughout the 20th century. Adding Paragraph 175 into this collection is a crown lewel of their masterful work. Documenting the experiences of homosexuals during the infamous Nazi regime in Germany, the filmmakers interviewed the few remaining people who suffered under the infamous paragraph. These men are a brave and stalwart group. As they tell their stories, the pain and horror they are forced to relive is evident. The filmmakers fortunately step out of the way and allow these men to speak. In fact, one of the best things about this documentary is that it is not a slick, clean production, with all of the extra things edited out. It's rough, to allow us to see their humanity. Some of these men had never spoken of their experiences publicly. The DVD offers an insightful if sparse producers'/director's commentary, along with additional interviews not included in the film. The music is gripping, especially the inclusion of Marlene Dietrich's version of "Falling in Love Again". So much has been done in the last years to document and remember the experiences during WWII. This film adds an important voice to that chorus, allowing all of those who suffered under the tyranny of one man's dementia, their prominent stanza.
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