- Actors: Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria, David Schwimmer, Jon Voight, Donald Sutherland
- Directors: Jon Avnet
- Writers: Jon Avnet, Paul Brickman
- Producers: Jon Avnet, Bill Haber, Hester Hargett, Jordan Kerner, Lisa Lindstrom
- Format: NTSC
- Number of tapes: 1
- MPAA Rating:
- Studio: Warner
- VHS Release Date: Mar 1 2002
- Run Time: 177 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00005QATI
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #14,335 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Originally broadcast in November 2001, this exceptional made-for-television film recalls Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan while forging its own distinct identity. It was the first American film to dramatize the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, during which an underground collective of Polish Jews dared to defy the Nazis. Hank Azaria leads an all-star cast as resistance leader Mordecai Anielewicz, and the film follows his close-knit collaborators (including David Schwimmer and Leelee Sobieski) and their battle against the Nazi general (Jon Voight) assigned to clear all Jews from Warsaw. The uprising was eventually crushed (some heartbreaking outcomes are listed in the closing credits), but director Jon Avnet expertly maintains a sense of courage and hope amidst the palpable horror of the Warsaw Ghetto. Combining physical and historical accuracy with intimate character details, Uprising is suspenseful without being sensational, thus honoring one of the greatest symbolic victories in all of Jewish history. --Jeff Shannon
Video Details
After Germany invades Poland in 1939, the Nazis decree that 350,000 Warsaw Jews be forcibly moved into a cordoned area known as the Warsaw Ghetto. Idealistic teacher Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria) decides the Jews must rise up against the Nazis and creates the Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO). He tries to secure the support of Adam Czerniakow (Donald Sutherland), the morally conflicted head of the Warsaw Ghetto's Jewish Council, but Adam declines because he knows that any act of resistance will provoke the Germans to retaliate by killing innocent Jews. Determined to mobilize a resistance alone if he has to, Mordechai recruits his friends and covert couriers whose ability to pass as Aryan helps them smuggle in arms and explosives from the Aryan side of the city, building up an arsenal to fight the Nazis.
When the Germans begin deporting 300,000 Jews to the Treblinka death camp, the JFO begins acts of resistance that culminate with ghetto fighters firing their first gunshots against the Nazis. When it becomes clear that the JFO is a force to be reckoned with, the German High Command sends in General Stroop (Jon Voight), who is determined to end the uprising in two or three days.
Capturing the horror that unfolds is Fritz Hippler (Cary Elwes), a filmmaker assigned by Hitler's chief propagandist to promote anti-Semitism with a film about Jewish life in the ghetto.
When the Nazis continue to suffer more casualties in their battle with the ghetto fighters, General Stroop decides to raze the ghetto. But even that can't stop the JFO. Forced to go underground into bunkers but energized by their success, the resisters fight on, ultimately holding off the Nazi army longer than the entire country of Poland. They're determined to live with honor--and if need be, die with honor--while lighting the torch for resistance in the occupied territories.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's about time,
By A Customer
This review is from: Uprising (Widescreen) (2 Discs) (DVD)
This film to me is amazingly brilliant. As someone who has studied this topic since I was ten, it was amazing to see the Uprising portrayed like that. Some people I've spoken to about the movie found some of the jokes humourless. I soon found out that was because they didn't realize that the characters in the film were actually only teenagers or people in their mid 20's during the uprising. Once they found that out they found it acceptable that these poor kids were allowed to be kids sometimes.I was surpirised at the level of inaccuracies in the film. There weren't that many. The mistakes were important, as they were to do with Bund activity, and other related topics, but the rest of the film was very accurate. If you get the chance, sit down and watch the movie, and don't see thirty year old actors, see 18-24 year old kids, and then consider how truely amazing these peoples feats actually were. Even though they knew that most of them would die, they fought for Jewish honour, and helf out for longer then the Polish and French armies. If that doesn't prove that their uprising achieved in proving that the Jews did fight back, I don't know what could.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
So Much Hype, So Little Fact,
By W. Wierzewski (Chicago, Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Uprising (Widescreen) (2 Discs) (DVD)
I have personally lived through the German occupation of Poland, and I recall those times very well. Jon Avnet's film shows, once again, that film-makers generally have no idea what it was actually like during the German occupation of Poland. The uniforms shown at the beginning of the film, supposedly worn by Poles, are actually the ones worn by the Soviet Army! The numerous other inaccuracies and biases in this film only serve to harm human inter-relationships. The Polish side of the German occupation is completely invisible in this tendacious film. Polish life under German occupation was not much better than those of the Jews. Nevertheless, the Polish spirit was such that it was the Poles who organized the first and longest-lasting resistance to the German occupation. The idea behind showing young Jewish adults willing to fight and then die with dignity is certainly worth showing. But let us also remember that this was only a tiny segment of the entire Jewish community--in Warsaw and elsewhere. The film fails to indicate why the majority of Jews continued to support the policies of Czerniakow, and others who thought like him. At the same time, the film does not show why the majority of Jews, even in 1943, did not support the young Zionists who had been involved in the Uprising. In conclusion, the film fails to illuminate the American audience about the actual realities and plight of the Jewish community, and is totally silent about the parallel Polish side in its suffering and its fight against the Germans.The film is, unfortunately, another exercise in futility.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good movie - and read MILA 18,
By
This review is from: Uprising (Widescreen) (2 Discs) (DVD)
This is a very good TELEVISION movie. We can not forget that it was made for TV. A good companion for this movie it would be to read "MILA 18", by Leon Uris.It is s solid movie. Of course, when someone talks about the Holocaust, the person is prone to receive a lot of backlash and/or praise. Jan Avnet tried his best, chose good actors (who gave solid performances) to tell this tale of heroism. It's a highly recommended TV movie, that's for sure.
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