To ask about Sophie's Choice

[GunpowderGelatine]

I bought it today, a bit reluctantly because I know the plot line. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being not especially bad to 10 being soul-destroyingly traumatising, how distressing is this film to watch?

@FunSponges That's "My Sisters Keeper" by Jodi Picoult

Fun - that was my sisters keeper

@funsponges I'm pretty sure that's my sisters keepers you're describing.

Oh right.

I ALWAYS thought My Sister's Keeper and Sophie's Choice were the same films. Duh.

Won't watch either tbh.

Methyl Streep is outstanding in this film

10
Once seen, it repeatedly comes back to haunt you.

Yes definitely not appropriate for the faint of heart. However I’ve quickly read the book and personally preferred it over the movie. It’s a bit like Ballet Shoes. The film was not good but I was addicted to the book. It is one of my childhood favourites. I still have a copy of the book somewhere in the apartment. My stepdaughter is reading it now she just started it.

I have heard the story and could never watch the film. Have seen Schindlers List, couldn't watch that again either. Have been to Auschwitz a few years ago. Have only seen a bit of The Boy in the striped pyjamas and haven't read the book. Apparently my 11 year old is getting the book and film this year, does anyone know if it's suitable for this age? I know children need to be taught about the Holocaust but don't want her to get nightmares.

Agree with pp, pre children an 8 or 9, post children unbearable.
I was babysitting when it first came out. The couple went out to the cinema and came out propping each other up, still sobbing. I didn’t watch it until I was in my late twenties, that was before my dad were born but it is still in my mind.

Dds not Dad .

i thought "my sisters keeper" was called Sophies Choice,yo are not alone

10, it's decades since I saw it and I still torment myself thinking about how. Would make that decision.
And I don't like Meryl Streep anyway.

Agree Meryl Streep was amazing in it

The 'choice' scene is brutal...I watched it when I was pregnant which was perhaps not the best idea, especially as I had recently visited Auschwitz

It's a film worth watching imo..just make sure you have a box of tissues

I've not seen the full film but I've seen "the choice" scene on YouTube. What I find harrowing is the very real fear in that little girl actress's face as the scene progresses. She might just be a very good actor but she looks bloody terrified. I read that they shot that scene several times, even through the first take was perfect, just so the child's reaction would be more scared and fearful. It must have been quite traumatic for her. Not sure about the ethics of that?

@paleshelter which book is DD getting this year? Striped pyjamas? I don't think it would be suitable for an 11yo at all, it's quite distressing

Boy in the stiped pajamas is pretty appropriate. It is written as a book for that sort of age group and pretty much everyone I know did it at 11. Honestly the film hit me way more years late than watching it in class at 11 as you’re more viewing it as something to analyze and write essays on rather than really as a standard film.

I regret ever watching it. It stuck with me forever after. I am cinstantly plagues by little thoughts, like when I tell the kids to get in the car and I know statistically the passenger rear seat is the most dangerous one in a crash, I wonder if I subliminally picked which kid sits there... stuff like that. It really broke me a bit. Although a good movie, I wouldn't watch again and if I could go back I wouldn't watch at all. I found it more long term traumatic than Schindlers List.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very widely taught in upper KS2. We used to teach it in y7 or y8 but the majority of our students have now read it in primary school.

MrJolly yes it's the Boy in the striped pyjamas DD is getting this year in primary 7 so ages 11. I feel she's too young but have not read the book, apparently the school show the film too so she says. My father used to watch all the documentaries on TV about the Nazis and the Holocaust, I remember seeing things on TV when I was young that still upset me now. Will see what happens in the school, thanks for the info.

@Paleshelter

I’d say it’s much less hard going than the documentaries as you just don’t see the scale as much or really any imagery that’s that shocking. It’s much more about the relationship and similarities between the two boys that shows how there really is no difference between the German and Jewish child. The ending is definitely shocking but more through implication rather than any outright violence. I think it’s a really good introduction to the history of it even if they haven’t already covered it in primary school.

There are a few reasons people survived the camps. Firstly people were used for labour to expand the 'empire'. A generally educated and skilled workforce for free. In concentration camps prisoners were forced to work. At these camps 100,000s of people still died either at selection or from starvation, brutality and illness but many survived (just). There also was horrifc medical experiments carried out on people. In other camps (extermination camps) people were usually killed within hours. Additionally it's very difficult to kill t many people and bury them. Furthermore the Nazis were run by evil fuckers who enjoyed causing pain and suffering.

Thanks Happy , just don't want her to be traumatised! Although think it is very important that children learn about the Holocaust. I read the Diary of Anne Frank at age 11, obviously is different but I knew then about the camps and what happened to Anne and her family.

It's a pretty boring film to be honest. The parts of the story set after the war I just grazed through. The famous scene is shocking though and I'm not usually bothered by stuff like that.
There are holocaust movies with worse scenes in though. So I would say about a 5.

Films like Escape from Sobibor and the TV show War and Remembrance about the holocaust really upset me.
Meryl Streep stars in the TV show Holocaust, which is very good.
But yes, Sophies Choice is definitely a film you need to think about. I've no doubt for some people, a very distressing film indeed.
It's not easy viewing.
The character Kevin Kline plays, makes me want to kick the TV.

I read it when my children were little and I sobbed!