Escape from Sobibar

 

Escape from Sobibar 1987

• Director: Jack Gold
• Seen by this director: The Merchant of Venice
• Based on the book by Richard Rashke
• Cast: Alan Arkin, Joanna Pakula, Rutger Hauer, Jack Shepherd
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Alan Arkin – many 
• Rutger Hauer – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Batman Begins, Bladerunner
• Jack Shepherd – The Politician’s Husband, The Golden Compass, Tristram Shandy, The Other Boleyn Girl
• Why? The subject
• Seen:  5 July 2024  

There’s something about some films from the 80s that seem so false and contrived, especially those with such serious subjects as this one. True story, or at least based on an historical event, the escape in 1943 from the death camp Sobibor in eastern Poland.

It’s so obviously a gang of actors speaking lines of stilted, unrealistic dialog. They’re all well-fed, clean and healthy. Instead of doom and danger it has an air of Hogan’s Heroes about it. No doubt unintentional but nevertheless.

It’s a worthy subject, a laudable attempt. It shows an aspect of the Holocaust that I hadn’t known about. If you can endure the amateurish productions, bad acting and glossy Hollywood romantics, it’s worth seeing. 

2 ½ * of 5