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Movie Review
Sophie’s choice is a choice where any alternative has significant negative consequences. As defined by Collins dictionary it is “a choice between two persons or things that will result in the death or destruction of the person or thing not chosen”. I had heard the phrase referenced many times in articles/ serials etc. and it made me curious to find out its real meaning. The phrase is attributed to Meryl Streep’s movie ‘Sophie’s Choice’, based on William Styron’s novel of the same name. When I watched it, I had some idea about what to expect, yet, it shook me to the core.
It’s a difficult watch. Stingo, a wannabe author narrates Sophie’s story as told to him by Sophie herself. Sophie is a beautiful Polish immigrant he meets in NY, who has survived Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp. Ironically, Sophie is not Jewish but a Catholic. Even if she tries to laugh, dance, and be merry, there is no escape for Sophie from her past and there is no hope of redemption from the act of choice she was forced to make. It’s a sad sad tale, woven in the shades of suffering, pain, madness, friendship, love, longing, and death. And one can only hope that the horrific choice she was asked to make, no other human is tasked to do it ever again. An exceptional performance by the unarguably best Meryl Streep takes the movie to another height. She has won an Oscar for her performance!
The cruelty inflicted by the Nazis on the Polish people, jews and non-jews alike, their helplessness against the senseless acts that have no logic or reason, the stripping of their dignity, violation of basic human rights, and the randomness of fate, jolts you out of your comfort zone.
The movie is still very relevant in today’s time and age.
