Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Steineded How sad is this?

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

SpitfireIXB 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.

NonEgo1 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 !!!!!!

allmybiz123 Jessica Beitchman as Marta Weiss was the most captivating character of this piece. Considering the company she's keeping in the movie (Christine Lahti, Beau Bridges, Richard Crenna) that is an incredible accomplishment. The movie was a touching yet horrifying account of a female Doctor in a WW II concentration camp. In it, Doctor Gisella Perl (Christine Lahti) helps Marta Weiss (Jessica Beitchman) while imprisoned together in Auschwitz and the two are reunited once again in America. When the American authorities suspect the good Doctor of voluntarily participating in experiments conducted by the "Angel of Death" Dr Josef Minghela, Perl must now rely on the testimony provided by young Marta Weiss to help free her in the land she came to be free in, America. It is the extraordinary tale of the holocaust survivors that came to the USA after enduring the unimaginable while trapped in Nazi occupied Europe in the 1940's.

OldRose "Out of the Ashes" is very nearly the best story brought to the screen, among the many I've seen. At issue here (which many may not realise) is the life-story of one Doctor Gisella Perl--a Hungarian Jew who, along with her entire family, was captured from the family's home-town of Sighet and sent by boxcar to Auschwitz--while the holocaust itself provides the backdrop for the story. Like "Sophie's Choice", this film involved the difficult 'choiceless choices' that were made by some of the survivors of the Second World War's most infamous extermination camp. In order to truly appreciate the story and the portrayal, one must know something of Hungarians and of Hungary, as well as their role in World War II. Actress Christine Lahti turned in such a marvelous and unforgettable performance, I actually thought I was seeing a Hungarian actress playing the role (to begin with), and then a really fine performance it was, to boot! I found myself on the edge of my seat with a film that, being a product of cable television, didn't garner such advance expectations. And but for one very glaring and avoidable error, which happens early in the film (only one scene), the final product was really quite well done. Bravo to Showtime!Lahti's performance was award-winning, to say the very least, whether or not she was ever properly recognised. Add: a wonderful supporting cast, recruited in the US, Canada, and Eastern Europe. The scenery is lovely (filmed mainly in Lithuania; the film-makers were able to find a beautiful town not destroyed during the war). For those who have not seen this film, please do! It's a remarkable autobiography (i.e. the book on which its based) and life story. I think the actual Dr. Perl would have been proud of, and pleased with Lahti's performance and portrayal of her. Rent the DVD rather than wait for Showtime to rerun it (even though I'm sure it will be run again and again). Rating: 4,5 stars on 5.