A few months ago, I was flipping channels when I came across the tail end of Sophie’s Choice. I remembered a little of it from high school. Something about a concentration camp survivor…

I didn’t remember being especially impressed by the movie the first time I saw it, but now the power of the last few scenes mesmerized me. The next time I had a chance, I rented a copy of the movie and watched it from the beginning.

The Plot

World War II has been over for a few years.

Stingo (Peter MacNicol) is a sheltered young Southern man with a small inheritance who dreams of becoming a famous writer. In the spirit of literary tradition, he moves to New York, where he locates a cheap apartment in Brooklyn. The night he moves in, he finds a warm note from his upstairs neighbors, Sophie (Meryl Streep) and Nathan (Kevin Kline). They welcome him to the building and invite him to dinner.

But before the dinner can take place, Stingo hears a violent fight going on outside his apartment. Nathan is screaming at Sophie, shaking her and accusing her of being unfaithful to him. Sophie, in tears, begs Nathan not to leave her. Stingo tries to protect Sophie, but Nathan mocks his Southern accent, shouts a few last words at Sophie, and storms out of the building.

Sophie apologizes to Stingo for Nathan’s behavior and brings him dinner on a tray. As the two talk, it becomes clear that Stingo is developing a crush of epic proportions. And with Nathan out of the picture, he feels he just might have a chance.

The next morning, however, he is awakened by both Nathan and Sophie climbing in through his window. Nathan is effusively friendly and apologetic. He invites Stingo to join him and Sophie for a day at Coney Island. Despite Stingo’s initial misgivings, he agrees, and a deep friendship between the three is formed.

Stingo learns that Nathan is a brilliant, high-strung research biologist, working on “something big” for a pharmaceutical company. Sophie is an ex-Catholic Polish concentration camp survivor, still haunted by memories of her father, her husband, and her two children murdered by the Nazis.

As time passes, though, Stingo realizes that all is not as it seems. Nathan is prone to violent, jealous rages which seem to come out of nowhere. And Sophie has secrets buried deep under layers of deception. Loving them both, Stingo struggles to understand the contradictions he sees in his friends. But even knowing the truth about Sophie and Nathan may not be enough to help him save them from themselves…or from each other.

The Actors

Peter MacNicol is charmingly innocent as Stingo, a well-meaning man unused to deep passions or hidden pasts. He is the most shallow character in the movie, shallow at least in the sense that life has not yet scarred him very deeply. But MacNicol plays the role with gentleness and sensitivity and manages to hold his own amidst the emotional turbulence of the other characters.

Kevin Kline nails the part of Nathan, a mentally-ill prodigy whose struggles for stability always end in disaster. This is an especially demanding role because of Nathan’s irrational mood swings. Sometimes, he is a gentle lover, a good friend, and a charming mentor. Other times, he is cruel, hateful, and violent.

For instance, when he first reads a nervous Stingo’s novel in progress, he salutes his friend, “We welcome Stingo into that pantheon of the gods whose words are all we know of immortality.” A few scenes later, he becomes convinced that Stingo is sleeping with Sophie and lashes out at him that his book is nothing more than “puling adolescent self-pity for your poor dead mother…You might be on the verge of a whole new art form: the Southern comic book.” That Kline is equally convincing in both these scenes speaks to his brilliance.

Meryl Streep spent more than a year working with a language coach to learn fluent German and Polish, and to perfect Sophie’s accent. Indeed, if I had not known she was an American actress, I would have believed she spoke English as a second language. Accent aside, Streep is also sympathetic and convincing as a woman who has survived a hell none of her friends can begin to fathom.

Sophie’s hopelessness is clear in Streep’s every word and gesture: this is a character who is willing to take a little happiness where she can find it, but who knows the happiness will always vanish, leaving her with more pain than before. Like Nathan, Sophie is a multi-layered character with many secrets. For instance, although initially we are led to believe that Sophie led a pleasant life before the Nazis intruded, we eventually learn that she has been mistreated in one way or another since birth. Pushed and pulled in all directions, she is ultimately forced by the Nazis to make the hardest choice a mother could ever make. A choice for which she will never forgive herself.

The Script

The two-and-a-half hour long screenplay is written by Alan Paluka and based on William Styron’s book of the same name. It is an intelligent, thoughtful piece of work, deftly balancing past nightmares and current conflicts. The viewer is perpetually kept off-balance. Just when you’re sure you’ve finally figured out exactly the way things are, a new piece of information is thrown in, and you must revise your impressions all over again.

I was especially impressed by some of the concentration camp scenes. They are done entirely in German, with English subtitles. (Again, Streep sounds as if German were her native language.) In a few very short, gut-wrenching segments, Paluka clearly illustrates the torments endured by Sophie and some of the reasons behind her current neuroses.

There are a few humorous scenes in the movie. (Stingo’s attempted seduction of a dirty-talking virgin comes to mind.) But the smiles are few and far between. Make no mistake about it: this is at minimum a three-handkerchief movie.

Social Issues

Sophie’s Choice is driven by characters more than issues. That’s as it should be. But in exploring the characters, the film does manage to take a look at some important social concerns.

First, of course, is the horror of the Holocaust itself. The concentration camp scenes show the physical brutality: starved bodies, roughly shaved heads, tattoos on arms, arbitrary executions. These scenes also, however, show the emotional pain, the constant humiliations suffered by the prisoners. At one point in the movie, Sophie comes to work as a secretary for the Commandant. She is not physically brutalized, but she is treated with less regard than the family would show an animal. For instance, she is not allowed to keep any personal items, even a pair of shoes, and the children of the household, respectful to other elders, treat her with indifferent rudeness. “You stink!” the Commandant’s thirteen year old daughter tells her.

Like most victims of severe, ongoing trauma, Sophie does whatever she has to do to survive: she lies, she steals, she tries to use the fact that she is not Jewish to get special privileges, and she ultimately makes the horrifying choice which provides the title of the movie.

Although the movie never uses the terms “post-traumatic stress disorder” or “survivor guilt,” Sophie’s anguish clearly does not end with the Holocaust. Afraid that no one would love her if they knew about her past or what she had to do to survive, she surrounds herself by a thick layer of lies and contradictions. She also has no sense of her own worth and explains her attraction to the volatile Nathan by saying, “He maked me want to live for him.”

Sophie’s Choice also does a good job of showing the three-stage cycle of domestic violence (tension-building, abusive episode, kind and loving phase). Nathan’s outbursts are always followed by extravagant apologies and lavish gifts, and Sophie always takes him back.

The movie does stumble a little bit in its attempt to tackle Nathan’s mental illness. His diagnoses (paranoid schizophrenia and cocaine dependence) are not even provided until more than halfway through the film, and his prognosis is always portrayed as bleak—even hopeless. While it is true that the treatment of mental illness was in its infancy during the 1940s and 1950s, one gets the feeling that the film uses Nathan’s problem as a plot device more than anything else. Certainly, it is not afforded the same thoughtful exploration as Sophie’s issues.

Age Concerns

Parents should be aware that there are some four-letter words and explicit sexuality in Sophie’s Choice. On-screen violence is kept to a minimum, but the viewer is made well aware of the atrocities occurring off-screen.

This film is probably not a good bet for young viewers, who most likely would not be able to understand the complex themes and might be disturbed by the scenes of children being torn, screaming, from their parents.

I believe the movie is appropriate for teenagers and young adults, although I will admit that when I saw the movie as a teenager I didn’t “get” several of the important issues it raises.

In Summary

Sophie’s Choice is an intelligent, thought-provoking drama. The acting is brilliant and the script masterful. I highly recommend it.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older