IMDb > Escape from Sobibor (1987) (TV) > IMDb user reviews

IMDb user comments for
Escape from Sobibor (1987) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

Filter: Hide Spoilers:
Page 1 of 6:[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [Next]
Index 59 reviews in total 

24 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
edge of seat!!!, 15 December 2004
10/10
Author: jeff carroll from Napier, New Zealand

I first got this out on video many years back. Being interested in the holocaust from a young age,and having traveled through Poland in the early eighties I got this out of interest.Amazing to think it was done for television and not cinema. I,was on the edge of my seat all the way through,could hardly breath all through the film,did not take my eyes off the screen.The ending is both shattering and uplifting.Even more so knowing the outcome of some of the lives. And how simply fitting a denouement on the end credits the result of the police investigation, give that policeman a medal. On the whole the acting is exceptional, and by that I mean one forgets the actor and sees only the person as real. In fact it has that real life documentary feel to the story. Most satisfying to have seen it before Rutger got semi-famous.

Was the above comment useful to you?

19 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
lasting impression, 9 November 2004
Author: paulvaughanthomas from Swansea, Wales

It was interesting to read another viewer's comments about this film. I have seen Schindler's List and it didn't touch me anywhere near as deeply as Escape from Sobibor. I first watched it in my teens and it was this film, more than anything I'd seen previously about the Holocaust, which had the greatest impact. The story, of course, is based on truth and is full of painful, heart-wrenching scenes. Nothing has ever presented the Holocaust to me in a more vivid, more graphic, more powerful way.

It's amusing that some people can watch a film and it barely registers with them. Others can see the same film and have a completely different reaction to the experience. But that's people for you, the great variety that is the spice of life. For me, Escape from Sobibor was a very emotional experience and it had a major impact on me. But don't take anyone else's word for it. We all see things differently - go and see it yourself.

Was the above comment useful to you?

19 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
A fantastic movie that tells a true story of bravery and determination during World War II, 10 May 2003
10/10
Author: David krasnow (stargirlrk@yahoo.com) from Ann Arbor, MI

This movie is fantastic, no doubt about it. It takes place in the Sobibor death camp in Poland during World War II, where Jews are sent to be killed but where also there are over 600 Jews and Russian POWs working. It shows many of the hardships that Jews faced during this time and the brutality of the German SS officers. Alan Arkin is a Jew in working in the camp who is somewhat of a leader among the prisoners there, and with trains of people coming into the camp every day, a train carrying several Russian POWs comes (all Jewish, that is why they were sent there instead of a regular POW camp) and Rutger Hauer is the leader among them. Arkin and Hauer soon work together among other prisoners to devise a way to escape, originally planning an escape that involved only a dozen men but they eventually decided it had to be the entire camp population of 600, or else the 600 people left there would most likely be slaughtered. The film is full of suspense and based on a true story that happened at Sobibor, which was the biggest camp escape during the war. This movie is in some parts shocking when, like Schindler's List and other Holocaust films, it shows naked women and children being led into the gas chambers and a woman being executed simply for bringing her baby into the camp. This movie is a great film and I am surprised that it was only a made-for-TV movie, for it has the true qualities of a theater movie and it also has a great musical soundtrack. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments.

Was the above comment useful to you?

20 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
One of the Best Movies of Jews Concentration Camp in the Second World War, 7 February 2004
9/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The uprising of the Jews in the death camp of Sobibor, with the escape of three hundred Jews, is brilliantly presented in this awesome movie. The excellent Alan Arkin performs Leon Feldhendler, a natural leader, organizing and motivating the prisoners. Rutger Hauer, in an excellent shape (in 1987), has also a marvelous performance as Alexander 'Sasha' Pechersky, a Russian POW. The gorgeous Joanna Pacula plays Luka, a very brave woman. The explanation of Leon to a new prisoner, why they should dance, play, laugh and make love after the execution of their families, is very touching and respectful. It is indeed an amazing lesson of survival. I have to confess that I am tired of corny movies like `The Pianist', which only shows disgrace and misery of some Jewish persons in the Second World War. We, viewers, are aware of the massacre of Jews in the WWII, but I note that this type of movie is becoming more brutal and explicit. Is it because the world society in 2004 can support watching such brutalities? Is it an adaptation of a historic fact to the violence of the present days? But `Escape From Sobibor' portraits Jews not only as passive victims going (or staying) in the slaughterhouse like a lambs, but also as a very brave people, fighting for survival. It does not mean that the brutality and sadism of certain SS officers is not shown, like the killing of the mother and her baby, or the shot of twenty-six defenseless prisoners, or the use of the whip by some German. But again, it is not explicitly shown as in some movies, with blood, pieces of brain etc., with the only intention of shocking the viewer more than necessary. All the cast has an outstanding performance. The direction is stunning: the scenes of the escape are very real. For example, when the desperate prisoners climbs the wire while escaping is very impressive. Just for reference, another excellent movie about this theme is Jon Avnet's `Uprising'. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil) `Fuga de Sobibor, O Campo do Inferno' (`Escape From Sobibor, the Hell Camp')

Was the above comment useful to you?

15 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Schindler's List SURPASSED!, 26 August 2000
9/10
Author: Christian Edinger from Copenhagen, Denmark

This is one of the most terrifying accounts of the atrocities which took place during World War II. In terms of realism it far surpasses Schindler's List, to the extent that it's quite frankly hard to sit through. But the sheer realism is also what makes it such an important piece of filmmaking. Certainly, Escape from Sobibor has coursed some reflection on my part.

IMDb rating 10/10

Was the above comment useful to you?

8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Good television movie about the famous breakout from horrible concentration camp, 3 April 2006
7/10
Author: ma-cortes

This excellent TV movie deals about extermination center Sobibór and the subsequent escape led by Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer . We see the horrors,murders,massacres against the prisoners.Thus,when the incoming transports ,mostly Jews, SS soldiers made instant decisions,those who were fit to labors were sent into the camp,others including the children ,were dispatched immediately to the gas chambers.The movie gets a breathtaking and exciting getaway with a sensible score by George Delerue. The film is well realized by Jack Gold.

The picture is based on real events,these are the following : Sobibór,Chelmno,Belzec and Treblinka were four large death camps in the Lublin district of Poland transformed into extermination centers to implement the policy of genocide thought at the Wannsee Conference. Sobibór was an extermination camp of killing center of Jews including children and located near the Bug River on the border of the German occupied eastern territories .Some 35.000 Dutch Jews,originally assigned to Auschwitz were sent to Sobibór.All four camps were under the command of SS Odilo Globocnick.There was some minor industrial activity linked to the war effort but the main work was the execution of inmates.Victims were brought to the camp in unventilated transports, and all but a handful were gassed after arrival,the gas chambers could accommodate hundred prisoners at one time using Zyclon B which was a crystallized prussic acid which dropped into death chamber ,most of their corpses were burned in open pits.On October 14,1943 about 150 inmates broke out in a desperate riot.Sorbibor along with Treblinka and Belzec,was evacuated in the fall of 1943.

Was the above comment useful to you?

11 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Saw it years ago & it stayed with me..., 6 June 2005
9/10
Author: findor_tallwillow from Toronto, Canada

I saw this movie when it first aired on TV. I was 16, and was beginning to realize that the world wasn't a very nice place.

This movie showed me just how nasty it could sometimes be.

After seeing this movie, I went out and bought the book that inspired the telefilm. Since then, I've re-read it several more times, finding the story more inspiring and more tragic with each read.

I'm older now, and despite seeing "Schindler's List", this movie is the one that I think about, when I think about the terrible waste that WW2 was. And how awful we can be people who bleed the same colour the rest of us bleed.

Was the above comment useful to you?

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Painful, yet strong, 14 September 2002
10/10
Author: BatStarIndyFreak from UT, USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I watched this twice and both times it had a stronger emotional grip on me than did Schindler's list (all due credit). While Schindler's list gave you a dose mainly about just how the Jews were treated physically, Sobibor better tackled the psychological tension the Jews experienced.

*SPOILERS* I felt my inwards just pull apart as I had to see Jews taken from an escape attempt put in front of a firing squad only to be forced to pick a substitute or else the whole crowd would be killed off. Same with when I saw the mother's baby discovered in the sewing shop. The Nazi officer took the baby, thinking the mother should be grateful he is killing the baby and not her. She gets shot and killed and you hear the baby screaming until the next shot is fired, EXCRUCIATING! but it happened and we have to grasp that to understand just how evil this world can be. A true masterpiece at that!

Was the above comment useful to you?

8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
The perfect picture of a death camp..., 25 April 2003
Author: daria84 from Ecuador

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

If you are interested in knowing more about WWII or thought movies such as "Schindler's list" were good, you will like this one.

It;s about a death camp, Sobibor, where Jews are taken and later exterminated, and a group of Jews and a Russian officer plan to escape and succeed. Of course not all made it, many died in the process, but in the end a lot of people got their freedom.

This movie is surprisingly good, the cast and acting is good indeed, and the plot is very believable. This movie is the perfect picture of a death camp, all the horrors people suffered there, the fear and their struggle to defeat dead every single day; and all the cruelty shown by the SS soldiers, who were murders in cold blood of innocent people.

Anyways if you are looking for a movie about death camps or related to the Holocaust, you will find this one quite interesting indeed. ****1/2 out of *****

Was the above comment useful to you?

7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Exciting is the word..., 23 December 2002
9/10
Author: k_nil75 from Larvik, Norway

..for this somehow little known WW2 movie.If you liked "The Great Escape" or "Schindler`s List" for ex.,you`ll love this movie.It`s just as realistic and well played as those two.Production is high and the setting is very...yes,realistic.There are several gruesome execution scenes in this movie and it will make you hate the Nazis to the bone.What sick people!! I almost covered my eyes several times,but a movie like this is very important information of what happened in the death camps. Arkin,Hauer and Joanne Pacula are all great in this terrific WW2 escape movie.If this movie had been an theatrical release and not a TV miniseries,it would have won several Oscars,no doubt.Watch it!(if you can find it).

Rating 9/10

Was the above comment useful to you?
Page 1 of 6:[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [Next]

Add another review

Related Links

Plot summary Ratings Awards
External reviews Parents Guide Plot keywords
Main details Your user reviews Your vote history