Sophie's Choice is a 1982 American drama film that tells the story of a Polish immigrant, Sophie, and her tempestuous lover who share a boarding house with a young writer in Brooklyn. It stars Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Peter MacNicol. Alan J. Pakula directed the movie and wrote the script from a novel by William Styron, also called Sophie's Choice.
This is widely regarded as Meryl Streep's finest performance, and it won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. The film was nominated for Best Cinematography (Néstor Almendros), Costume Design (Albert Wolsky), Best Music (Marvin Hamlisch), and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Alan J. Pakula).
Plot
In 1947, the movie's narrator, Stingo (Peter MacNicol), relocates to Brooklyn and is befriended by Sophie Zawistowski (Streep), a Polish immigrant, and her lover, Nathan Landau (Kline).
One evening, Stingo learns from Sophie that she was married but her husband and her father were killed in a German work camp and that she was interned in the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp.
Nathan is constantly jealous, and when he is in one of his violent mood swings he convinces himself that Sophie is unfaithful to him and abuses and harasses her. There is a flashback showing Nathan rescuing Sophie from near death from starvation shortly after her immigration to the U.S.
Sophie eventually reveals that her father was a Nazi sympathizer. Sophie had a lover, Józef, who lived with his half-sister, Wanda, a leader in the Resistance. Wanda tried to convince Sophie to translate some stolen Gestapo documents, but fearing she may endanger her children, she declined. Two weeks later Józef was murdered by the Gestapo, and Sophie was arrested and sent to Auschwitz with her children. Upon arrival, Jan, Sophie's son, was sent to the children's camp, and her daughter, Eva, was sent to her death in Crematorium Two.
Nathan tells Sophie and Stingo that he has won the Nobel Prize for scientific research.
At a meeting with Nathan's physician brother, Stingo learns that Nathan is mentally ill and that all of the "research facilities" that Nathan has worked at have been "expensive funny farms."
After Nathan discharges a firearm in a violent rage, Sophie and Stingo flee to a hotel, where Sophie describes the incident giving rise to the film's title. While being unloaded in Auschwitz, Sophie was asked to choose which of her children would live and which would die. When she was unable to choose, a Nazi officer said both would be sent to die, so she chose the son to survive. The son eventually died of a plague in the children's camp anyway.
Sophie and Stingo make love, but while Stingo is sleeping Sophie, tormented by her memory, returns to Nathan, where both Sophie and Nathan commit suicide by taking cyanide.
Casting
William Styron wrote the novel with Ursula Andress in mind for the part of Sophie, but Meryl Streep was very determined to get the role. After she obtained a pirated copy of the script, she went to Alan J. Pakula and threw herself on the ground begging him to give her the part. Meryl Streep filmed the "choice" scene in one take. Being a mother herself, she found shooting the scene extremely painful and emotionally draining and refused to do it again.[1] Streep's characterization was voted the third greatest movie performance of all time by Premiere Magazine.[2]
Reception
Sophie's Choice won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Meryl Streep) and was nominated for Best Cinematography (Néstor Almendros), Costume Design (Albert Wolsky), Best Music (Marvin Hamlisch), and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Alan J. Pakula). The film was also ranked #1 in the Roger Ebert's Top Ten List for 1982 and was listed on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition).
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
- Best Actress (Streep, won)
- Best Cinematography (nominated)
- Best Costume Design (nominated)
- Best Original Score (Hamlisch, nominated)
- Best Screenplay – Adapted (Pakula, nominated)
BAFTA Awards
- Best Actress (Streep, nominated)
- Most Outstanding Newcomer to Film (Kline, nominated)
Golden Globe Awards
- Best Actress – Drama (Streep, won)
- Best Film - Drama (nominated)
- New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture - Male (Kline, nominated)
Writers Guild of America
- Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium (Pakula, nominated)
See also
Sources and notes
External links
