91 Sophie's Choice

 
Brief Synopsis (from Netflix)

Aspiring author Stingo (Peter MacNicol) shares a Brooklyn boarding house with winsome Polish émigré Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her mercurial lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline) -- a union unsettled by Nathan's violent behavior and Sophie's disturbing recollections of her wartime experience. Stingo uncovers the truth about Sophie, however, when her accounts of her stint at a Nazi concentration camp unravel, laying bare the real source of her torment.

Jason

Stingo, you look... you look very nice, you're wearing your cocksucker.

This movie was a roller coaster ride of emotions for me. Before we even started I was preparing myself for a very serious dramatic movie since I had a general idea of the plot and the choice that Sophie would eventually have to make, but then something happened. The movie started and this bright pink house came on the screen. Frado proceeded to comment on how pink the house was and one of the characters commented on how everyone notices how pink the house is. This made me chuckle and realize maybe there's something more to this movie then just her choice.

As the movie continued every scene would make me feel differently. Some scenes would make me laugh, like the one where my quote came from, while others would be very serious, like here choice. I was amazed at how well Meryl Streep was able to convince me she was a mentally damaged polish immigrant. I have never really been a fan of hers, but I totally get why she is praised so highly for this role. It was fantastic.

The other thing that made me enjoy this movie so much was the color. I'm sure Bryan and Alfredo are going to touch on this because we all commented on it through out the movie so I won't go into to to much detail, but the contrast between the bright vibrant "present" and the dull almost gray flashbacks gave a really interesting feel to those scenes.

Final Thought- Normally before I write these I have an idea of whether or not the movie makes my list, but I'm having trouble with this one. I mean don't get me wrong this movie is great, but its not really my type of movie. Though maybe that's how I know its great. If someone like me who usually gets board during this type of movie can be engrossed in its story then I think my answer is more obvious then I originally thought. This movie is going to be on my list though I would say not any higher then 75.

Bryan

On this bridge on which so many great Americans writers stood and reached out for words to give America its voice... looking toward the land that gave them Whitman... from its Eastern edge dreamt his country's future and gave it words... on this span of which Thomas Wolfe and Hart Crane wrote, we welcome Stingo into that pantheon of the Gods... whose words are all we know of immortality. To Stingo!

This movie experience is the reason I was excited about screening this list. I had never seen this movie before, and I have to say that it deserves it's phenomenal reputation. I was lacking in having never seen it, and I sincerely hope that the rest of the movies on the list that I haven't seen are anything close to this.

Before the movie even started I knew what Sophie's choice was. I'm not sure where I had heard this, but I approaced the movie hoping that I could enjoy the film even though I already understood the climax. I was afraid of an experience like knowing the end of an M. Night Shymalan movie. I was pleasantly surprised that my foreknowledge detracted nothing, and may have simply helped to focus me on what was important . The choice Sophie maked was revealed in the last few minutes of the film, but it was more of a culminating moment that a "gotcha!" plot twist. Seeing it coming didn't lessen it's impact, and the anticipation that built up to that moment was just as enveloping.

Meryl Streep was perfect. Simply perfect. The accent, the body language, the mannerisms, and the delivery were all beyond anything I'd ever seen. She more than carried the movie, she was the movie. Stingo may have had more lines because he was narrating, but I can't even imagine what this film would have been like if narrated by Sophie. Encountering her character through the perspective of another made her at least approachable; Meryl Streep trying to narrate a story from the perspective of Sophie would have been either less realistic and true to the character, or so convoluted as to be unintelligable. But Stingo is just the lens, Sophie is the portrait.

Jay touched on the use of color in the film, and I'd have to agree with him that it was artistic. It managed to be very conspicuous without being cumbersome, and it was impressive how the use of lighting and coloration could change the same set, the same room in a house, from an exuberant party to a mornful repose. It had the effect that many movies use the soundtrack for, like switching from a Sousa march to a melonchaly dirge.

The use of color was so effective and so conspicuous, it made me wonder if I was missing things that were more suble. How were camera angles used? How was it edited? I honestly can't say I noticed. Even trying to watch the film critically, looking for compliments and complaints, I was so swept by the tale that I could have easily missed these things.

I really can't find something negative to write about it. It's not a movie that leaves you upbeat and gay, but it shouldn't be. In fact, if this movie ended on a high note I would have been disappointed and complaining about it.

Final Thought - This belongs on the list without question. Saying where on the list, however, forces me to define how I'm ranking the movies. This isn't a movie I would watch often, nor is it one that I would add to my collection. But it would rank quite high on my list of films that everyone should see. I would absolutely put it in a time capsule of the greatest films ever in the hopes that future generations could have the chance to experience it, but if I could only take 100 movies with me into a bomb shelter, it wouldn't make the cut.

I guess my final thought on this one isn't quite final, but I'll say that 91 seems low; I would push it higher than it is. Once I've screened more of the films ahead of it, I'll try to nail down my approach better, and give a more specific answer.

Alfredo

I honestly don’t know what to write about Sophie’s Choice. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because I thought it was a bad movie or anything of the sort. In fact I liked it more than I thought I was going to. I’m just not really sure what to say about it. I can say this this though I never understood the hype about Myrel Streep but I guess I can see now why people tend to think that she’s such a great actress.

I want to write SPOLIER ALERT for what I’m about to say here but I feel as though everyone already knows what her choice is regardless of if you’ve seen the film or not. Which I think was part of the problem I had watching the movie. Again, I liked it but at the same time I feel as though I would have invested more into it emotionally if I hadn’t already known that her choice involves which of her two kids gets to live and which dies. This movie is referenced in pop culture often enough that not knowing that is almost on par with not knowing Vader is Luke’s father or that the little creepy kid with mental problems can see dead people (see future post).

One thing I did dislike about the movie, or rather that I didn’t get was the build up. At times I felt that the scenes with the three leading members were not at all needed but again I think this just goes back to the fact that I knew Sophie had to choose to keep one of her kids and I was just impatiently waiting for that to happen.

Final Thought- All in all I think this was a good movie. It was well acted and just really well shot. I can’t really call foul because I already knew the plot, if anything else it’s a testament to this movie’s power. Regardless of that though I'm still having trouble ranking it. While I think this movie not only deserves to be on this list but even deserves to be knocked up a few pegs it's not a movie I would personally own. It's not something I'd make a person sit down and watch if they told me they never saw it. Hell, it's a movie I'd expect most people not to have seen. I mean why would you if you already knew how it ends?