Disc Reviews

Sophie’s Choice Blu-ray Review

• 29th Jul 2014

Meryl Streep deservedly won the Oscar that year for her simply astonishing performance as the tragic Sophie Zawistowski, a Polish immigrant to Brooklyn with a dark and desperate past who begins a relationship with the unstable Nathan (Kevin Kline), all viewed from the perspective of a young aspiring writer by the name of Stingo (Peter MacNicol) who shares a boarding house with them. Over the course of nearly two and a half hours, the story of Sophie’s harrowing past as an Auschwitz survivor is gradually told, culminating in the famously moving scene where Sophie is forced to choose which of her children will be allowed to accompany her to the labour camp and which must die. By the end of the drama, Sophie and Nathan are far removed from this world and decide to take matters in their own hands, with tragic consequences.

Closely based on the lengthy acclaimed novel by William Styron, Director Alan Pakula has remained faithful to the plot arch and character driven nuances of the story, giving space for the actors to breathe and play as naturalistically as possible. This is one of the movies huge strengths, and allows for truly exceptional performances, particularly from Streep and Kline. It’s pretty tough going, some parts are very long and ponderous on first viewing, and the subject matter encompassed here of the holocaust, schizophrenia, guilt, motherhood, sex and suffering is pretty strong stuff. The character of Stingo, whilst central to the story as a way of reflecting on the characters of Sophie and Nathan, allowing us into their world and exploring the complicated relationship triad between them, is nevertheless an annoying one to me. Peter MacNicol does a great job in bringing Stingo to life, in what is arguably the finest performance of his career, but perhaps it is a testament to the quite exceptional portrayals by Streep and Kline that he is completed dwarfed by them despite his key role and love for Sophie.

Extras include the original trailer, audio commentary with the director, Alan Pakula, and a short documentary tribute to him. All of these are great and worth a watch, but I found it quite sad that this was all they could come up with. I would have liked to see a documentary discussing the book and film together, or perhaps a historical look into the lives of holocaust survivors who immigrated out of Europe. Despite this, this is a well packaged and good quality Blu-ray release. The print is of a high standard and the sound quality is as you would expect.

‘Sophie’s Choice’ is a classic movie for a damn good reason. Its powerful, and beautiful and gut-wrenchingly awful all at the same time. Don’t let the length or the subject matter put you off. ‘Sophie’s Choice’ is one of the few movies that can really claim to be about the human condition and what it means to accept responsibility for your life and the lives of others. It could have been played for shocks and sympathy, but Sophie is a strong and complicated woman, despite being a victim and the story is sensitively and elegantly handled by a true master.

Claire Hyypiä