Escape From Sobibor (1987)

Rotten Tomatoes: 82%

Box Office: 5.1 million USD

My Rating: 4/10

Description: When a trainload of Polish Jews arrives at Sobibor, they are told that it is a work camp. The prisoners are separated into groups based on useful skills, and everyone else is sent away to the showers. Soon enough, they realize that they are in a death camp and they are only being kept alive to perform tasks for the Nazis. The prisoners are subjected to sadistic punishments and torture, especially by SS officer Gustav Wagner (Hartmut Becker). Soon enough, the Jews in the camp, led by Leon Feldhendler (Alan Arkin) and assisted by a troop of Russian Jews, make a plan to escape and kill the Nazi guards.

My Thoughts: For the first twenty minutes or so, I was really impressed; the writing and acting started out great, and I was blown away by the story structure... but then I realized that the movie was just straight-up trauma porn. Yes, there's the theme of Jewish resistance, but there are many parts that are just out of pocket. For example, there is an execution scene that lasts between five and ten minutes. I completely understand that the movie needed to establish the stakes and how brutal the Nazis were, but there are other ways to get that message across. In another scene, a large group of prisoners are forced into the gas chambers. We can hear screams from the inside as smoke rises from the chimney, which was both illogical (it would have been impossible to hear screams from outside, and the crematoriums would not have been running yet) and gratuitous. Obviously, this was a Holocaust movie for non-Jews. Out of everyone, non-Jews should see Holocaust movies the most (granted that it isn't one of those Holocaust movies that think they're trying to be groundbreaking but just comes off as pretentious garbage that profits off of generational trauma), but if you're related to survivors, this movie will take an emotional toll on you. I've seen documentaries and films about the Holocaust that were very off-putting and upsetting, but watching this one made me feel physically sick.

Best Line: "I don't have a Christian name. Only a Jewish name. My name is Herschel Zuckerman. Don't you ever forget it!"