MovieChat Forums > Sophie's Choice (1983) Discussion > Would this film have been better if.....

Would this film have been better if.....

posted 10 years ago by josepawlowski
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I'm sure many people are like me, and were long aware of this film before viewing it. The acclaim of the "choice scene" had led me to believe that this was a Holocaust movie with an extremely moving and famous scene. Although the dynamic with Nathan and Stingo makes for an above average film, if the movie were strictly about Sophie surviving Auschwitz, it may have very well been one of the greatest films ever made. Obviously, Sophie's struggles to function, and the "choices" she makes in her new life in America give us a full picture of her character, but when I watch Sophie's Choice, it's like I'm being shown a pretty good film that briefly flashes into what would have been a much much better film. In a perfect world, the flashback scenes from Sophie's Choice would have been used in a film more like Schindler's List.

[–] lulupalooza 10 years ago

I feel similarly. While Streep's performance was excellent throughout, the Holocaust scenes were by far the most intense. Once we were pulled into that storyline, I wanted to see more about that horrific period of her life. I think instead of the approximate ratio of 80% (present time) to 20% (past time) that we were shown, the film would've benefitted from a complete opposite approach. The scenes with Nathan could have been truncated (likewise those with Stingo: e.g. the sex-crazed girl), but still tell enough story to help us understand Sophie's "other" choice...to go back to a deranged Nathan and die.

Sophie's first choice to select a child, under duress, was the most difficult and painful selection she would ever make in her life. Her last choice to rejoin her mentally ill fiance was an easier one, made without duress, by surrendering her secret struggle to live with guilt, regret, and sadness. Sophie couldn't be there for her children when they were in jeopardy, but she could be there for Nathan - who was ultimately at risk with his own secrets - when she knowingly left the security of Stingo to join Nathan out of selfless love...regardless of outcome.

"Don't get chumpatized!" - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)