|
|
List Price: $29.95Amazon.com's Price: $26.99 You Save: $2.96 (10%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Now!
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781567303438
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1567303439
Label: New Yorker Video
Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: New Yorker Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 27, 2004
Running Time: 105 minutes
Sales Rank: 38844
Studio: New Yorker Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2001
Editorial Review:
Description:
From the Academy Award' winning writer of The Pianist comes the provocative story, based on true events, of Wilhelm Furtwängler, arguably the most distinguished conductor of his generation.
After Hitler took over power in 1933, many Jewish artists were forced to leave Germany. Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgård) chose to stay, serving as one of the Nazi`s foremost cultural assets. Though never a member of the Party, Furtwängler was the recipient of government honors and appointments, associated with party members. However, the conductor often used his position and contacts to save hundreds of Jewish musicians from the concentration camps.
When Major Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel) is given the task of carrying out pre-trial investigations against Furtwängler, his aim is to prove that the conductor’s artistic genius contributed to the Nazi propaganda machine and their destructive ideology. Conversely, Furtwängler insists he chose to stay to bring comfort to the German people with his music.
Like a master conductor, director István Szabó orchestrates the debate from cat-and-mouse intensity. Taking Sides is that rare film that demands the audience to take a position on an issue: in this case, the complicity or innocence of Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Amazon.com:
An impassioned clash of art and politics lies at the heart of Taking Sides, a historical drama that resonates with timeless relevance. Director Istvan Szabo remained in his native Hungary during Soviet occupation, and that experience clearly informed his approach to this fact-based film about Wilhelm Furtwangler, the celebrated conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, who chose to remain in Germany as the Nazis rose to power. World War II has ended, and now Furtwangler (superbly played by Stellan Skarsgârd) must endure intense interrogation by Steve Arnold (Harvey Keitel), a pugnacious U.S. Army major assigned to root out Nazi collaborators. While the overzealous Arnold deals in moral absolutes, Furtwangler's embrace of art for art's sake opens him up to charges that he supported Hitler, intentionally or not, by naively believing that art and politics could remain separate in the cauldron of the Third Reich. Based on the play by Ronald Harwood (The Pianist), Taking Sides presents a compelling collision of ideologies, probing complex personal and political motivations while presenting an authentic, emotionally charged portrait of German culture immediately following Hitler's demise. Despite its title, the film itself remains neutral regarding its central argument, leaving the viewer to ponder the weighty issues involved. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - No Easy Answers
I found this film about the pre-trial interrogation of Wilhelm Furtwaengler, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Third Reich, both disturbing and compelling. My discomfort arose from the one-sided nature of the interrogation, since Major Arnold (Harvey Keitel) has been given the mandate of securing a conviction against Furtwaengler by any means including humiliation. The Major is both a zealot and a bully who makes no effort to see the dilemma of the great maestro--whom he dismisses as ... Read More
Rating:  - Disappointing film fails to inform or entertain
I generally concur with Mr. Ritter's review of the film. He provides a balanced and accurate over-view of the movie and its numerous deficiencies. He is especially accurate in stating that the film is about the the American "investigator", who determines at the outset that only a conviction will meet the Yankee stadards of justice. One has to wonder how closely this film tracks actual events. If your interest is learning anything about Mr. Fultwanger, don't bother to watch the film. You won't acquire ... Read More
Rating: - Taking sides
This movie was another excellent account of the happenings concerning famous conductors during the Reich and whether or not they were guilty of using an evil regime for their personal fame and glory.
Also the question arises yet again whether or not Art and Politics can/ should be separated. Like sports and politics...The obvious answer is that they cannot and we are left to judge mr. Furtwangler with our own convictions, background, musical knowledge and historical facts.
Well acted. Sober, ... Read More
Rating: - Whose side are you on?
I just rented this after a recommendation from a fellow Amazonian. The film was quite good, although it could hardly be described as exciting, and I thought the overall production quality left much to be desired. Nevertheless, the film was intellectually and emotionally provacative, as it highlights the moral outrage by the occupying Americans in Berlin at any and everything Nazi related. Specifically, it follows one Major Arnold (Keitel) in his determined effort to indict the famous German conductor Wilhelm ... Read More
Rating: - Degenerating Righteousness
The most negative review of this film derides it as "revisionist" and appallingly anti-American. If you are, like that reviewer, more a patriot than an independent thinker, you'll surely hate this movie. The Americans in it are portrayed as cultural yahoos for the most part. The character played by Harvey Keitel is a country-music-only kind of guy who has only anger and insensitivity toward European civilization, represented by the music of Beethoven and the adulation expressed by "highbrows" for the conducting ... Read More
|
|
