Written by William Styron and Alan J. Pakula
Directed by Alan J. Pakula

Alan J. Pakula directed this masterpiece based on a book by William Styron.  As much as it’s a play on the viewer’s emotions, it does so quite successfully without becoming so overdramatic that it’s laughable.

Peter MacNichol is Stingo, an aspiring author who travels to New York City to seek fame and fortune.  He lands in a boarding house in Brooklyn where he meets a Polish immigrant by the name of Sophie (portrayed by Meryl Streep).  Sophie has a rather tempestuous relationship with Nathan (portrayed by Kevin Kline).

Stingo grows closer to Sophie and Nathan and is soon hearing stories of her experience in Poland during the war, including her time in an internment camp.  This time is depicted as a flashback and is as emotionally charged as one would expect. The title of the film refers to the choice she would have to make while in the camp, one no parent should ever have to.

The acting here is the best I have seen, and it’s what makes the film.  Rather than pulling a Spielberg and trying to get the imagery of a scene to draw out the viewer’s emotions, Pakula lets the actors do it.  They do it simply and honestly within the stories.

MacNichol and Streep play off each other quite well.  There’s an attraction there as Stingo falls into the trap of thinking he can rescue her from herself.  Their bond helps her let her guard down and tell her story to him, but it’s a situation everyone knows isn’t going to end well, including Sophie.  MacNichol is fantastic as the wet-behind-the-ears writer who has a very innocent view of life.  He needs to meet someone like Sophie to teach him the emotional impact behind world events.  It’s easy to read about a war or the experiences in a camp. It’s a totally different thing to hear emotionally charged testimony from someone who was actually there.

Streep plays her role perfectly as well.  Sophie survived, yes, but that was it.  She has been existing since then – looking for redemption and trying to forgive herself for what happened.  That she hasn’t spent the ensuing years looking for the child that survived is telling as well.  Her telling of events is charged emotionally and Streep tells the stories when she is narrating in such a way that it gives these moments plenty of impact without her overacting in the situation.  Without her saying show, she conveys that Stingo is the first person she’s let into this part of her world and her past.  It’s why she lets Nathan abuse her – what he’s doing on the outside reflects what she’s doing to herself on the inside.  There is love between them – that much is illustrated in one of the flashbacks – but Nathan’s emotional and physical abuse is actually much more of what Sophie craves.

These scenes in the present time of the film are fantastic and are powerful enough.  Then there are the scenes of what happened to Sophie under the Nazis – her arrest and internment.  These are powerful for the way they are understated and not drawn out.  The viewer experiences things the way Sophie did, rather than having crucial moments drawn out or repeated to tug all the more at the heartstrings.  These are the moments that make Sophie’s Choice a better film of the Holocaust than Schindler’s List was and I can’t help but wonder if Pakula would have made a better film than Spielberg did.

On DVD there aren’t many extras.  With the film’s running time being more than two hours, I wasn’t expecting there to be much anyway.  The commentary on the film by Pakula is pretty interesting to listen to, and there’s a short documentary on the subject.  The film looks good on DVD, but again this isn’t a film that’s driven by what you see in terms of camera angles or scenes drawn out against background music designed to tug at the viewer’s emotions.

Meryl Streep definitely deserved the Best Actress Academy Award, and I can’t believe Sophie’s Choice wasn’t nominated for more.  It’s a film that captures the emotional fractures caused by the Nazis and the Second World War, yet does so without going over the top.  That Pakula wasn’t even nominated for Best Director is more than a slight – it’s a true sin.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with Director Alan J. Pakula
• Documentary: Death Dreams of Mourning
• Trailer
• Cast & Crew Biographies
• Production Notes