Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

dbdumonteil ...but you must not forget.Chomsky's "Holocaust" stands as the best mini-series ever made in my book .The performances are uniformly good,from Meryl Streep to Joseph Bottoms and from James Wood to David Warner.All have to be praised.The actors were so involved Michael Moriarty (who portrays Erik Dorf) said that he cried after playing the Xmas party scene .Marta Dorf (Deborah Norton) epitomizes the Neo-Nazi we may encounter even today:she never believed that her husband was wrong "let's light a candle for his soul ,children" and she never will ,whereas Dorf perhaps understood his crimes when he saw the photographs in the American officer's office."Holocaust" is full of great scenes ,but I think it should be reserved for students over 12,because some moments are unbearable .It should be shown in every secondary school in the world.A deeply moving sequence shows Berta Weiss (the marvelous Rosemary Harris) saying goodbye to her pupils :she urges them to become educated persons ;she leaves them with sweet memories of "the taming of the shrew" and with a song she could not even sing one last time with them.If you should see only one mini-series,it would have to be this one.A must.

edwagreen One of the most outstanding television mini-series that was ever made. Obviously, this won the Emmy for best mini-series and was truly well deserved.The story deals with the Weiss Family of Germany. They thought that they were true Germans never believing that they would be caught up in the madness of Hitler's Nazi Germany.Despite the warnings of Dr. Weiss's patient,Dorf, who quickly rises in the Nazi hierarchy, the Weiss Family remains in Germany as Hitler seized power and the nightmare for the Jewish people begins.This series made stars of Michael Moriarty.(Dorf) He plays the character drawn into the Nazi party with a chilling unfeeling for humanity rarely seen in movies. Dorf would be the typical character who would have said that he was forced into doing what he did since he was caught up in this period of frenzy. His ambitious, evil wife also helped push him into this way of life. Meryl Streep and James Woods also became well known as a result of this masterpiece production.Nothing was hidden in making this grand production. You see the kosher butcher stores fall victim to Kristallnacht-the night of breaking glass. You see victims being marched off to the gas chambers.This was certainly movie making at its best. Even the mini-series of todays are lacking in contact, interest and boldness of production.

kenbarr-ny "Holocaust" is a valuable dramatization of the Holocaust and its effects on ordinary people. The Weiss family, a prosperous Jewish family living in Berlin when the Nazi's came to power, suffer greatly as one would expect. It is the Dorf family, led by Michael Moriarity as Erik, whose suffering may be of more interest to the viewer. They suffer from a collapse of morality, and as the mini-series shows, their horror takes longer to develop yet is terrible in its wrath. Excellent work by Frtiz Weaver, Sam Wanamaker, Meryl Streep, Rosemary Harris, Joseph Bottoms, and Robert Stephans. David Warner is positively chilling as Heydrich, a role he would reprise in other works about the period. The viewer should keep in mind that "Holocaust" was originally aired on TV and was constrained by the standards and practices of the 1970s. Yet, it helped pave the way for more depictions of this period of history, including the dramatizations of Herman Wouk's "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" and quite possibly helped create an audience for "Life is Beautiful," "Jakob the Liar" and the incomparable "Schindler's List."

ncgordon651 While the Holocaust has been treated in many excellent films and television shows, the 1978 TV mini-series "Holocaust" remains one of the finest. This was the second mini-series ever produced for television, and like it's predecessor, "Roots," the producers attempted to create something that would rival the best that Hollywood could produce for the movies, with the added ability of telling much more of the story by virtue of having much more time to do it in. Thus, the 1978 television mini series "Holocaust" is as well-produced, written and acted as Spielberg's extraordinary film "Schindler's List."Particularly good performances are given by Meryl Streep as the aristocratic German wife to a Jewish artist, Karl Weiss, played by James Woods. (Did you know that Woods can be as good as a good-guy as he can as a bad-guy?) Karl Weiss is the eldest son of a prominent Berliner Jewish family. We follow him into the concentration camps, including Treblinka (the "show" camp) and eventually to Auschwitz (Oswiecim). Streep follows, sacrificing everything to try to stay with him, or at least near him, and to keep him alive. Grandpa Weiss is a Jewish German patriot who fought for the Kaiser during WWI and is proud of it, and never can come to terms with the betrayal of his fellow patriots. Fritz Weaver is Papa Weiss, whose story takes us through the siege of the Warsaw Ghetto as he attempts to create some kind of order and safety in the midst of chaos and doom.David Warner is remarkably sinister and urbane as Reinhard Heydrich, who came up with the legal gobbledygook to create the "Final Solution." Michael Moriarity plays Heinrich's assistant Erik Dorff, a former student and friend of the Weiss family. Moriarty chillingly portrays the seductive nature of National Socialism for the intellectual: He is given the choice of becoming a Nazi, and later Heinrich's assistant, or becoming cannon fodder on the Russian Front. He chooses the former, and goes about his task of carrying out the annihilation of the Jews, including his former good friends the Weiss', with cool logical efficiency. This may be Moriarty's finest hour as an actor.Other actors of note include the actor's actor Ian Holm, former Brittish grand dame of the theater Rosemary Harris, Joseph Bottoms, Sam Wanamaker and Tovah Feldshuh.This is entertaining history at its very best. Don't miss it.