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| Uprising | 
 enlarge | Director: Jon Avnet
Actors: Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria, David Schwimmer, Jon Voight, Donald Sutherland
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $3.72
You Save: $16.26 (81%)
New (38) Used (20) Collectible (1) from $3.72
Avg. Customer Rating:  69 reviews
Sales Rank: 16380
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 177
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.6 x 0.7
MPN: D21891D
ISBN: 0790764318
UPC: 085392189120
EAN: 9780790764313
ASIN: B00005QAQI
Theatrical Release Date: November 4, 2001
Release Date: December 18, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New! Mint in case. Factory sealed. Cut on barcode.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Pretty Good Movie October 5, 2005
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This movie is about the Jewish uprising in Warsaw during World War 2. All in all-it's a pretty good movie--but as the movie seeks to use Goebbel's propaganda movie "The Eternal Jew"-to show how the Nazis dehumanized the Jewish people-this movie does the same thing to the Germans-not that the Nazis weren't evil--but every German in this movie is either totaly wicked--or mere cannon fodder--deserving whatever evil befalls them.
That quibble aside--the movie presents a fairly accurate account of the uprising and is worth watching. I had a hard time taking David Schwimmer in a serious role--though there was nothing wrong with his performance--and Donald Sutherland seemed ill cast- like he was merely reprising his role from "Citizen X"
Though I enjoyed this movie--I would recommend Wajda's "Kanal"-for a great movie about "the sewers" and for putting a "face" to the Jewish victims-I would recommend the Czech movie "The Shop on Main Street"
In no way denigrating this movie--which I do recommend--but I feel both of the movies mentioned are superior--for those who have more than a casual interest in the subject matter--and don't mind sub-titles.
 A Must Watch July 16, 2005
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is one of the greates holocaust movies out there. It's abaout a group of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto who know that the only way to live is to fight the Nazi's off and to escape. So they make weapons with all they can get their hands on or buy. At first they kill many Germans but soon are overwhelmed and cannot fight any longer. So they go into hiding where they plan to escape the ghetto by the sewers. But Nazis find the hiding place before the can escape and put posion gas in the hiding places. But the Jews get into the sewer system and find their way through the path that would have been their escape route with a guide. This is an excellent movie of family tradgey in the holocaust, the resistance, and what everyone in this darkest part of mankind went through. This movie should be a must watch for everyone to see what the Holocaust was.
Heart gripping July 6, 2005
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have watched this movie twice, and I think it is very powerful. It may not be the best made film I have seen, but still it is one I am bound to remember. The director of "Uprising" has made a film that touches your heart. After a while you really feel you have learnt to know some of the main characters, and it is easy to feel their pain.
As a viewer you end up with an enormous respect for these young people, and it was very painful to watch how some of their hopes and dreams didn't come true: They hoped that the allied would help them, and they sent a courier to London, but no help came. They hoped that someone was going to bomb the railway lines to the death camps and in that way halt the mass murder of thousands of innocent human beings. But it didn't happen. (I remember reading somewhere that Stalin was against this idea, because he wanted the railway lines intact when he was going to invade Poland.)
The Ghetto fighters received some weapons from the Polish underground, but far too little to continue to fight. Still, these young men and women managed to hold out against the Nazis for a longer time that the entire Polish army.
And for Adolf Hitler; a Jew free Warsaw was going to be Himmler's birthday present to "the fuerer", but instead around 500 young men and women gave him a very different kind of birthday treat.
Years later, but we must never forget... January 30, 2005
25 out of 30 found this review helpful
I have seen a variety of Holocaust films, due to my interest in World War II, and I would have to say this is probably one of the best, if not the best, that I've ever seen.
Uprising brings to us everything that Schindler's List does: touching story, great cinematography, and good actors. However, instead of focusing on a middleman such as Schindler (German helping Jews), this film focuses on the Jews helping themselves.
The emotions were strongly carried through due to overall great performances from many actors: Leelee Sobieski, Hank Azaria, David Schwimmer, Donald Sutherland, and many more.
This is film of hope, love, and cherishing life while you have it, all while in the toughest of times. These people overcame enormous odds by standing up to the oppressive and barbarous reign of the Germans, and not unlike one of the German characters, we now have it on film. Moreover, it is a great film.
The Warsaw ghetto uprising as more than a moral victory November 8, 2004
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
"Uprising" is a story of the Holocaust that really could not be told until NBC showed this two-part made-for-television movie in 2001. The story of the Warsaw ghetto uprising has been told before. In the 1978 mini-series "Holocaust," a major subplot had to do with Moses Weiss (Sam Wanamker), who becomes active in the uprising before being caught and shot by the Nazis at the end. Other movies dealing with the Holocaust have touched on this heroic but futile act of resistance against Hitler's army. This time, however, the point is to cast the uprising in terms that count for more than a moral victory.
When Poland fell to Nazi Germany the city's Jewish population was put into a walled in section of the city, thereby creating the ghetto. In the summer of 1942, after 300,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka the first reports of mass murder were heard in the Warsaw ghetto. Mordecai Anielewicz, then 23-years-old, and other young Jews formed the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Fighting Organization), issuing proclamations calling for the Jewish people to resist being sent away in railroad cars to the death caps, and firing upon German troops trying to round by Jews for deportation.
The "Uprising" began on April 19, 1943, when German troops and police entered the ghetto and were repulsed by the fighters. It is believed that less than a thousand such fighters held off the heavily armed and better trained Germans for almost a month, using mostly pistols and Molotov cocktails, but on May 16 the revolt was finally crushed. Seven thousand of the 56,000 Jews captured were shot, and the rest were deported to either killing centers or concentration camps to be exterminated by the Nazis. At one point the Warsaw ghetto consisted of 450,000 human beings.
The point of "Uprising" is not only that for the first time somebody stood up against German occupation, but that some of the fighters did indeed survive. Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria), Yitzhak Zuckerman (David Schwimmer), Tosia Altman (Leelee Sobieski), and many others depicted in "Uprising" are historic figures. Azaria and Schwimmer obviously stand out, not because of the roles they play in the narrative but also because the actors are going to great pains to remind fans they are not just comic actors. Also standing out are Sadie Frost as Zuckerman's wife, Zivia, and Stephen Moyer as freedom fighter Kazik Rodem, who wrestle with the hard questions of not only knowing what to do, but how to do it. Director and executive producer Jon Avnet has recreated the ghetto in great detail and makes full use of cinematographer Denis Lenoir and composer Maurice Jarre to make sure this television movie looks and sounds like a theatrical film.
"Uprising" repeatedly asks the question of how a moral person can sustain a moral code in an immoral world, and the uprising serves as the obvious answer. Where "Uprising" is different from its predecessors is how Avnet recasts history to emphasize a sense of how the Jews "win" here. Even though the Nazis will kill 99% of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, they did not get them all and they did not get them fast enough to please Himmler and Hitler. Nazi General Jurgen Stroop has to endure being out thought and out fought by a bunch of rabble, all the way having his failure filmed by documentarian Fritz Hippler, who is working on "The Eternal Jew" because for some reason the Nazis do not find the German people to be anti-Semitic enough. The Nazis continue to commit atrocities throughout this movie, but the emphasis is clearly on what the other side is doing.
"The Grey Zone," which also came out in 2001, is of a similar mind in terms of presenting Jews fighting back, and depicts the October 7, 1944 uprising when members of the 12th sonder-kommando succeeded in blowing up two of the four crematoria at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The sonder-kommandos were the ones who escorted their fellow Jews to die in the gas chambers, then took the bodies to the crematoriums, and disposed of the ashes. For four months the sonder-kommandos carried out their duties, and enjoyed certain privileges (compared to the other inmates), and then were executed. This group of Jews also decided to fight back and like those who resisted the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto, deserve to be remembered. But only once we have accepted the total horror and scope of the Holocaust can we tell stories such as these, ever mindful that they represent a minority report. How many of you were stunned with a train full of Jews left Auschwitz in "Schindler's List"? The incident was true, but it becomes difficult for us to accept that other side of the story given the overwhelming death count of the Final Solution.
The two commentary tracks are a mixed bag. Avnet spends too much time commenting on the historical accuracy of the action and not enough talking about his decisions as a director, particularly with regards to what changes he had to make when his planned theatrical film was downgraded to a television movie. Azaria, Schwimmer, and Voight recorded their commentary two weeks about September 11th, and engage each other to talk about the production and their performances. Sobieski's comments were recorded separately and edited in, and like Avent, she has a hard time going it alone. There are two documentaries accompanying "Uprising." "Resistance" is a too brief look at the history of the resistance movement in the Warsaw ghetto, although it does provide background on the characters and interviews with some of the surviving fighters. "Breaking Down the Walls: The Road to Recreating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising," is a behind the scenes featurette with clips and interviews. However, anyone inspired to find out more about the history of the events dramatized here will find plenty of resources easily accessible on the Internet.
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