Sophie’s Choice (1982)

Sophie’s Choice
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Written by Alan J. Pakula from the novel by William Styron
1982/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube (free)

Stingo: You were sent to Auschwitz because you stole a ham?
Sophie: No, I was sent to Auschwitz because they saw that I was afraid.

Meryl Streep certainly deserved her Oscar for this moving film.

The setting is Brooklyn, New York in the years following WWII.  The protagonist is a young aspiring author named Stingo (Peter McNichol( who has followed his dreams to the Big City.  He gets a room in a boarding house.  His upstairs neighbors are Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) and his lover Polish emigree Sophie (Streep).  Nathan works at a pharmaceutical company and Sophie works as a secretary.

Nathan has fits of jealous rage in which he hurls the most horrible insults at Sophie and later at Peter.  When the fit passes he is a funny, charming eccentric once more and devoted to Sophie.  He is a Jew obsessed with the unpunished crimes of the Holocaust and Sophie is a Christian concentration camp survivor.  The three become fast friends.

As the story progresses we learn that Nathan and Sophie are hiding secrets.  Sophie’s choice is revealed as the film concludes.

It took me years to get around to this for the first time as I wasn’t looking forward to the Auschwitz content.  But it is an excellent film that I liked even better the second time.  It looks beautiful and the acting is outstanding.  Recommended.

Meryl Streep won the Best Actress Oscar. The film was nominated in the categories of Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Original Score.. Kline really deserved a nod in his film debut.