From my favorite movies..

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I an unable to comment on the American post war boom-town scenes, and hadn't realised how opulent post war New York was compared to bombed out and ruined EuropeOnly one reviewer above has seen thro all the glitzy schmaltz of the reviews to say that Auschwitz was an extermination camp. I have similar difficulties with my father as a British POW and people say "Oh he was in a Death Camp, how did he survive ?" the short answer is that he wasn't. But from the preconceptions it makes having a meaningful conversation difficult. I have to say I found most of the scenes unbelievable. I think more should have been made that this was a collection of peoples memories, each with a different message. I was in similar difficulties with The Pianist, where I thought some scenes were obviously true and some obviously untrueFrom the allegations made by the survivors, I thought there was a case for Dr Perl to answer. This film is probably not a vehicle for an adequate answer.

The true story of the Late Doctor Gisella Perl is unforgettable and the stuff of which legends and heroines are made. She was truly a most remarkable human being. However, in my opinion this made-for-television movie did not do justice to Dr. Perl's true life story. The scenes and sets were cheap and recognizable from other contemporary movies made by the same production company. The script (by Anne Meredith) was over-dramatized, stilted and incomplete, e.g. the horror of Dr Perl having to smother to death many live birth children in order to save the lives of their mothers is not mentioned and was one horror, along with the hundreds of abortions she performed to save lives, that haunted Dr. Perl until her death. The acting and script were so stilted and so melodramatic that it deterred from the true story and made me question if the story could be true or should be taken seriously. Only because I read Dr. Perl's book and many articles about her life that I knew the story to be true. Some of the actors are guilty of terrible overacting, especially in many scenes revealing details of Dr. Perls's life that really call for, nay demand, understatement that would have been far more effective for the realization of the real Dr. Perl and her family. Beau Bridges was good as the lead immigration officer (his part scripted to make him appear as an interrogator for the Inquisition) and Christine Lahti gave a fair, albeit an over the top, melodramatic performance and was often guilty of just plain overacting. Richard Crenna and Bruce Davison are as wooden as manikins in a window display and their roles in this movie still escape me. All in all the script, sets and acting were inferior and deficient. This story deserves a better treatment than it received in this television movie because Dr. Gisella Perl was a real heroine, not just a death camp survivor. I give this movie 3/5 stars, mainly for Dr. Perl's true story, not the acting, script or cinematography.

I agree wholeheartedly with George Parker. No one would deny that dreadful things happened in Auschwtiz but AS A MOVIE this SUCKS. Gisella Perl left very vivid descriptions of the horrors endured which should have been the central theme.Instead we had cheap sets, lousy cinematography, inaccurate depictions (re uniforms, characters etc) and melodramatic overacting which all added up up to one disappointing MOVIE. PLAYING FOR TIME, THE GREY ZONE, ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR & TRIUMPH OF THE SPIRIT all do better justice to the topic. Shame on the the Director, Jospeh Sargeant who also did PLAYING FOR TIME but seemed unable to reach the same heights this time round. Bringing in some "big" names, Richard Crenna, Beau Bridges etc hoping to, what, lend some class to the movie or to the lame overacting ???!! As Homer Simpson would put it ...... BORING !!!!!!

This portrayal of Dr. Gisella Perl is the greatest movie about life inside the fences of Auschwitz. As a history major, specified on the Holocaust, I believe the cast and crew of this movie really knew what they were doing. Every time I watch it, tears form in my eyes as Lahti portrays Perl in the scene where she pulls her sleeve up to the U.S. men explaining how she was not a collaborator, how she was a prisoner, and that she had the identification number to prove it. I hope that this movie did Dr. Perl justice and her family see's what a tremendous woman she was. Now every time I do any research project or paper for a history class concerning the Holocaust, Nazi era, or Hitler, I bring up Dr. Perl, and explain how it takes more than courage to save all the lives she saved... it takes love, compassion, and devotion to her fellow inmates and all the persecuted victims. This movie deserves more than one award.. it deserves to be in some kind of Hall of Fame.