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Uprising

Uprising

List Price: $19.98
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An accurate depiction for a movie!
Review: The movie draws real historical events and produces a compelling, evocative film concerning the heroic struggles of untrained Jewish freedome fighters. To the people who have said this film is unrealistic, they should take some history courses or read further books into the whole event. Obviously, this is a movie and some things are overly dramatized, but it still stays inline with major historical records of the period. Additionally, the negation of Catholic and non-religious help in the Warsaw ghetto was strategically absent in the film because little to none was extended during the occupation of Nazi soldiers. In the end, the movie proved to be an intense and realistic movie that I enjoyed immensely.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: More than unrealistic!
Review: This movie is posibly a creation of a Rambo fan. You can see thirty untrained Jewes killing with their bare hands hundreds of German SS soldiers, which we all know were the elite of the German Army, trained to kill and survive. The most disturbing part ofcourse is the casting. Hank Azaria and David Schwimmer alias Terminator and James Bond? I rest my case!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Compelling Movie
Review: When I first watched Uprising, I was completely glued to the tv screen. Although this movie doubtless has some historical inaccuracies, they can be easily overlooked, because Uprising makes us aware of the Nazis' disgusting and brutal treatment towards the Jewish people. Many tv war movies can be overly dramatized, so we can lose sight of the injustices of a situation, but Uprising gives us drama while still depicting the helplessness of the determined Jews. It is also worth mentioning Uprising's all-star cast, who did a wonderful job portraying the bravery and desperation of the Jews. I recommend Uprising to anyone who wants to see for themselves how the Jews united together and fought to the death against the Nazis' cruel treatment, instead of just reading about it in a history book.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: An uninvolving, emotionally stale war/drama.
Review: I can just imagine the studio pitch: It's Schindler's List meets Saving Private Ryan! And as a result, we have Uprising, an NBC miniseries that should have been a captivating account of the 1943 Jewish Warsaw Ghetto revolt. But instead, we get boring, calculated drama that simply repeats what we've seen done before and much better in previous war movies. Made-for-TV war/dramas have obviously seen better, more triumphant works (Band of Brothers, anyone?)

Uprising's greatest drawback is in its script and some of the cast. The story is a great one, but its execution is bland and decidedly rather choppy. Never does the film manage to gain any momentum going back and forth through all the subplots and individual stories. The dialogue, in particular, is horrendous (one man actually jokes that they could kill the Nazis by making them listen to folk music) and there's even a scene where one of the Jewish Uprisers dresses up in a Nazi uniform and barges into a room full of his gun-toting mates, telling them they're under arrest. Last time I'd seen idiocy like that was in Halloween 5, of all movies. The Nazis, as portrayed here, are cartoonish villains who go around excecuting Jews just to quench their bloodthirst. While I have no doubt that was obviously the case in some circumstances, not an attempt is made to show a single Nazi as a genuine, three-dimensional human being.

The cast is full of surprisingly big names, including Leelee Sobieski, Jon Voight, David Schwimmer, and Hank Azaria. Along for support are Sadie Frost (who looks much prettier than I remember her in Coppola's Dracula), Radha Mitchell, Donald Sutherland, and Cary Elwes. With such a large group of actors so varied in talent, the cast is unsurprisingly a mixture of hit and miss.

It's actually too bad they cast Sobieski in the lead. Despite an enthusiastic effort, she's just too bland and she's never displayed much acting ability in any of her previous roles and I see very little here that proves otherwise. But Frost and Mitchell, the latter of whom is one of my favorite actresses (just see Pitch Black) are both terrific, so much so that it's a shame the director chose to go with a name actress over these two. Azaria and Schwimmer are decent, unfortunately saddled with unconvincing accents. Voight is his usual villainous self, in a role amounts to constant shouting and fist waving. Cary Elwes is just terrible as the pompous filmmaker, continuing to show why his career never made it past the late 80s.

None of these characters are particularly well developed, even though Schwimmer seems the most interesting of the bunch. And while I shouldn't blame the movie for this, he shares way too much screen time with Alexandra Holden, who played Schwimmer's immature, underaged girlfriend on the sitcom Friends. Yeah, I know, not really the movie's fault, but it's odd casting that's distracting. Hank Azaria's Mordechai displays a morally conflicted center that's only touched on the surface, without a deeper exploration of how he feels about the actions he's forced to come to. He's also got a sort-of love story with Mitchell's character, and it's probably the most nonchalant of the film's subplots.

Running at three hours, Uprising is a mighty long sit, but there are a few saving graces that keep this somewhat watchable. The production values, for instance, are really quite fantastic, as far as television goes. The ghetto, the ruins, the explosions all appear authentic and impressive. If not for the often stilted editing, this might have made for a theatrical release. Avnet also shows a pretty decent idea of how to stage a battle scene, even though he's clearly aping Steven Spielberg with the color desaturation and shaky camera movements.

And even though most of the movie is a mess of emotional detachment, there are a few mildly powerful moments. But a few good aspects don't make a good movie, and Uprising proves the case. It's long, it's poorly written, and it's too excruciatingly dull to make for even a so-so recommendation. Watch it ONLY if you're really into war films or intrigued by the historical premise.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: History Not to be Forgotten
Review: An excellent movie. Very dramatic depiction of a sad chapter of history. The sense of the rapid distruction of the Warsaw Ghetto is incredible. I recommend this one to anyone. Not for the faint at heart. This is not a children's movie.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Brave effort
Review: A full telling of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto is rare - normally it's a short segment of a longer tale about WWII or the Holocaust. So this DVD is a welome addition to historical drama and complaints about a lack of pace or action are unfair.

The Jews walled up in the ghetto did not have huge arsenals of weapons and the people who became heroes were ordinary citizens -hence the lack of a huge cast of big-name stars is welcome. And the performances coaxed from the likes of Cary Lewes, as the sickeningly anti-semitic film-maker Fritz Hippler are worthy of praise. And it was a revelation to see David (Friends) Schwimmer turning in such a heart-rendering turn as one of the heroes of the revolt (and he gets full marks for a realistic but not-over-the-top accent).

Where the drama falls short - as all are bound to - is the inability to reveal the true horror these human beings were forced to endure - and for how long. A 10-part mini-series mihght give some idea of scale of time. The drama Tenko, about women interned by the Japanese, ran for three series! Also missing was the role played by very young children in getting information and food in and out of the Aryan side of Poland.

However, not enough people know enough about this dark period of history so Uprising should be seen.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: In the Ghetto
Review: The Warsaw Ghetto is not a place you would have wanted to hang out while visiting Poland during World War II. I really enjoyed this video as it gives a very authentic view of life there for the Jews who refused to give up and be taken by the Gestapo. These are sewer heroes and people tenacious of life. Real people doing things no one would dream of doing in a normal world. While graphic at points, there is no over-kill (no pun intended). Leon Uris wrote what was probably the definitive description of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto in "Mila 18". This movie has much of the same flavor. If there were any problems, it would be the slightly shallow acting of one or two people but they compensate by their obvious desire to convey a message of despair and rage. The heroism of these men and women is the strongest part of the film. They surprised themselves when they lasted as long as they did. I would certainly recommend watching this and remember what happened. It can happen again. History is a good teacher.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Very Sad Disappointment
Review: 'Uprising' relates the dramatic story of armed Jewish resistance to the Nazi's when the final 'cleansing' of the Warsaw ghetto was to take place. These determined fighters held the Nazi's at bay longer than anyone (including themselves) dreamed possible. Sadly, this film makes this exciting story rather dull and a chore to watch thanks to lazy acting and the constant use of heavy handed and rather silly affected accents that are wholly unneccessary. Bright spots include Jon Voight's portrayed of SS Officer Jurgen Stroop who struggles to put down the uprising, too bad there wasn't more of him. Donald Sutherland also does what he can in his role as head of the Jewish council, but again, his fleeting moments on screen can't save this picture. In addition to the uprising there is a side story involving Fritz Hippler, a young protege of Dr. Goebbles, who produced the infamous propaganda film, "Die Ewige Jude" (The Eternal Jew). Hippler is indeed an interesting, if obscure character, who is rarely referenced, much less portrayed on film. The question is, what exactly is his character doing in this movie? When I find myself waiting for a 'War' film, for lack of a better word, to end, I know its a loser. A couple of good action scenes even can't grasp the third star for this film. A much, much better portrayal of the heroic ghetto struggle can be seen in the remarkable 1978 film-mini series, 'Holocaust'. Do yourself a favor, search for that one, skip this one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Good Film About the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Review: Give the makers of "Uprising" a break. They made a good film - not a great film - but a good one, about a key event of WWII and the twentieth century. There are historical inaccuracies, as there have been in all movies which portray historical events, and there are many points of interpretation and emphasis which are worthy of debate. So what? Look at the schlock on the shelves in your video stores! Who else, lately, has even tried to do what these folks did? They caught the drama, the heartbreak, and the incredible, desperate heroism of the fighters; the scenes of the woman swinging around the chimney top and hurling Molotov cocktails at the Wehrmacht justify this good, honorable film. It's a TV film, not a history book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellently Flawed
Review: This is an excellent film which deserves to be honored with several emmys. Yet, I found myself annoyed by the one church scene which seemed to indicate that Catholics didn't care about the plight of the Warsaw Jews. This is simply hogwash! Perhaps Jews and Catholics may have not gotten along otherwise, but when people are dying they unite for the common cause of living, and do not symbolically "close windows" like in this film. Furthermore, a great many Polish Catholics were slaughtered during this very time, and were hardly basking in rich delight while people were dying around them. Despite this one GLARING FLAW, I think "Uprising" rightly deserves the honor of the viewing community.


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