Prismark10
Having seen Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam, I felt disappointed by this 'classic' film. It does just not stand up and at one point I felt it inspired Mel Brooks 'The Producers.'Anne Frank recorded her story of hiding in a loft with her family as well as others, living for several years in cramped harsh conditions hoping to evade the Nazis. What we get is an overlong, mawkish film that wants to concentrate more in the love interest between Anne and a boy called Peter from the other family. We get little of the terror that these families would had felt. The film lacks the claustrophobia that should be presented to the audience. It really is a film of its time stripped of all the harshness of war.Worse the actress playing Anne looks too old and is rather bland.
amour88
This was an amazing movie. It's long almost 3 hours but so worth it. You really feel the terror,paranoia and tension. Your heart breaks with them. It's not too accurate in regards to the book but if you can get past that it really is an excellent film. The movie is not too violent for a film that takes place during the war. Anne while going through an unimaginable situation still remains mostly positive. Her quote "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart" really captures that.Anne's story and so many others like her must continue to be told. This movie really shows what it must have been like to stay in hiding for years. Never being able to go outside,have a breath of fresh air. This is a movie I think everyone needs to see at least once.
kenjha
The famous story of the Jewish girl hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam receives an impressive screen treatment. Pretty much the entire film takes place inside the cramped attic, and it's a credit to Stevens that a three-hour film in a confined setting manages to remain engaging. Perkins has been unjustly criticized for her performance. She is perhaps a bit too perky in her film debut, but she mostly does well with her expressive face and charming manner. Schildkraut is fine as the father, as are Winters and Beymer as members of another family sharing the attic. In fact, all the acting is good with the exception of Jacobi and Wynn, who come off as rather cartoonish.
Robert J. Maxwell
It's a splendidly done movie, a tale of eight Jews hiding in a Dutch attic for two years during the war, effectively directed by George Stevens and magnificently photographed by William Mellor.And I can't watch it very often because I know how it's going to end and it's embarrassing to be moved. I feel the same way about some other tragedies. I want to warn Janet Leigh before she steps into the shower in "Psycho." I want to tell Montgomery not to send the Polish airborne into the hellish cauldron of Arnhem. I want Vincent and Paul to found their artists' colony in Arles. I don't want to watch Brutus going around begging for one of his friends to run him through with his own sword. I want to grab Romeo and tell him Juliet isn't really dead. I want Stanley Kowalski to shut the hell up and let Mitch marry Blanche DuBois, not that he'd listen.On top of that, I can't just dismiss this as just a movie, because, before that it was a play, and before that it was an historical event. Well, mostly. Someone went through the historiography of Anne Frank's diary and found it had been sanitized over the years, first by Mr. Frank, then by the playwrights. She was pretty candid about her sexual development, and not nearly as forgiving as the movie makes her out to be. She was more nearly human than the figure we see on the screen.Millie Perkins is Anne. She's not bad considering her age but there are some painful moments too. Everyone else is professional at least. The director, George Stevens, started his career with Laurel and Hardy two reelers and masterpieces like "Kentucky Kernels" but went on to develop an extremely effective directorial approach that was his alone in movies like "Shane" and "A Place In The Sun." He's very good here and uses the Cinemascope screen like a master.There are moments of suspense, terror, sentiment, and even some comedy, but the film can't escape it's historical roots. How could civilized human beings do things like this to one another?
AD
