fortuenti I was in college in '78 when instructed to watch this as an assignment. It was moving to say the least. Woods, Moriarty, and future superstar Streep are forever embedded in my memory for those superbly acted roles. Watching it now [2012] for the first time since then after so many other films and documentaries of the period, it's almost like I saw it very recently--it was/is THAT moving.When the SS tears in to the artists' studio, it looks **SO American** anymore --- just like today's SWAT team looking for stash of the "drug dealer" who sold 3.5g Cannabis to "Confidential Informant." Never would've imagined in 1978 that the horrors of the Third Reich would be so prevalent in 21st Century USA ... BUT THEY ARE!!! Most people were in denial then as they are now. Watch it. Beware. Governments in the USA have become entities unto themselves. Wake up people. RON PAUL & GARY JOHNSON FOR THE PEOPLE -- ALL OTHERS ARE NOT!There IS a holocaust today in the USA. HISTORY DOES REPEAT ITSELF when people become complacent and obedient. Never doubt that there is a bunk in their prison waiting for YOU or a loved one.SEARCH KEYWORDS: RADLEY BALKO overkill-rise-paramilitary-police-raids-America

jzappa This simply and aptly titled miniseries is not only titled that way, but is told that way as well. Aptly, it is about a circle of German Jews who simply live their lives until they are accosted by the hate campaign against them, which takes them completely aback, and which works the way it worked with virtually every circle of German Jews during the reign of the Third Reich. Their spiral into misery, their loss of freedom, is like a dog whose master drops them off at the pound and drives away, never to come back: Like such an unfortunate animal, they simply have no idea why the master they loved and lived with turned their back coldly and left them to whatever misery would work like clockwork till their lonely, sorrowful and mystified deaths. That is not to say that each of the characters ends up this way. Every character undergoes deeply nuanced strands of this saga.The narrative stems from a Polish émigré, a much-liked general practitioner in 1935 Berlin where he lives with his wife Rosemary Harris, her parents, and their three children. When his oldest son, played by James Woods in a curious uber-American casting choice, marries Meryl Streep, comparatively apt in casting as an Aryan German, he is confronted by Anti-Semitism but justifies it and the family resolves not to leave the country. Michael Moriarty plays the husband of one of the doctor's German patients, a scrambling lawyer who strives for a real living and class progression by joining the fledgling yet prevailing Nazi Party. Within three years things will have transposed markedly for them all.The performances are all persuasive in some way or another. Michael Moriarty is chilling in his indirect self-assertion, unbending in spite of his character's realization of the immediacy of his personal involvement in the histrionics. An early Meryl Streep performance cannot help but be noticed in particular, demonstrating even before Sophie's Choice her realistic emotional responses and how especially aware she is of her character's personal backdrop. Even James Woods merges his expressively temperamental facade with an inward timidity; despite his strange presence, the drama comes naturally to his grand gestures.Holocaust is, yes, a melodrama, but it is also quite unrelenting in its depiction of early Nazi hate campains, and a lot of its drama means going to the far lengths of the everyday horrors of Nazism. It is obligated to take itself seriously and fulfills that duty to the subject matter with a feeling of epic entitlement.

bigdave11 Despite its length this still manages to hold attention throughout. The performances are excellent throughout, especially Meryll Streep as the 'good' German. The character of Eric Dorf very cleverly portrays the aridity of the Nazi mind and the fact that many of these monsters were terrifyingly 'ordinary' individuals who issued edicts condemning millions to their death as easily as they would order a change in traffic regulations. It has been many years since I first saw this on BBC TV and never forgot it. It is now available on DVD, though only it seems in France where a 4 disc set is available with a choice of English or French soundtrack. Highly recommended.

peanut9244-1 As a family member of one of the actors I cannot give a true statement.It would be considered one sided and biased.BUT as a person into WWII history I personally feel it was very well documented and was more realistic than one thinks.This movie was to true to life in some areas that it makes one think of Shindlers List.One gets the sense that the war was more personal with hitler than one think.When the Captain finally realizes that hitler is not playing with all oars in the water is the part of the movie that really makes sense.