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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Showtime Ent.
Salesrank: 7406
Released: September 21, 2004 |
| Our Price: $9.00 |
| Used Price: $9.35 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Based on the popular novel by Jane Yolen, a typical American teenager gets transported back in time and experiences firsthand the horrors of the Holocaust and discovers the meaning of her family’s heritage.
Description of The Devil's Arithmetic:
Executive producers Dustin Hoffman and Mimi Rogers present the truth of the Holocaust so a new generation can understand why it must never be forgotten. Kirsten Dunst plays Hannah, a modern teen more concerned with trends than history. During the traditional Passover dinner, she zones out as her relatives harp about concentration camps. But then Hannah passes through a portal to the past, where she becomes her own ancestor in Poland during the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Director Donna Deitch provides an infinite library of Holocaust detail, re-creating the period with minute dedication. Haunting images, every costume, every hair, every light and shadow conspire to maintain a sense of desolate desperation. Suspense pervades as escapes fail and mothers with newborns are taken away. Only the magical context of the story, taken from the original children's novel by Jane Yolen, allows for a life-affirming ending. The performances may not be multifaceted but, considering the single-mindedness of the tale, the deep commitment of the actors makes every moment real and meaningful. Dunst seems able to carry a movie herself, and Brittany Murphy is mesmerizing as Hannah's sweet cousin Rivkah.
The message is powerfully direct, but the film avoids extreme violence in deference to young audiences. The theme is enshrined in the Rivkah's words: "We must stay alive to tell everyone what we've been through." Indeed, when Hannah returns to the present, she is a new woman, with a profound love of her culture and a religious respect for the value of all human life. --Lloyd Chesley
The Devil's Arithmetic Reviews:
another perspective 
2009-11-25 - As an adult survivor of child abuse raising an extremely spoiled and very loved teenager, who at this point in her life is only interested in tatooes, I found this movie very helpful in dealing with the "why" of why the unabused generations, not only of the holocaust but abuse of any kind, do not understand the "victims". Now when my daughter so carelessly and innocently hurts my feelings by not understanding where I come from, I remember this movie and thank God that her life, like Hannah's young life, is so untainted and whole and good and free of abuse of any kind that she actually has the time to think of "normal" teenage things instead of horror. I will never wish my daughter understood me better again. The only way she ever could understand me is to be as horrifically abused as I was. Hannah had to go back and visit the past so she would understand her ancestors. I do not want my daughter to go back, I only want her to move forward.
I would recommend this movie to anyone who is having a generational problem with adults who have been through some kind of trauma and the children in their lives who do not understand their emotional scars. Then I would have a discussion period afterwards, comparing the aftereffects of the holocaust with the emotional scarring of adult survivors of child abuse. We have all been through our own holocausts.
Anonymous 
2009-11-15 - Sorry, unable to reiew this movie as it was bought as a gift and remailed to recipient when I received it.
The Devil's Arithmetic
2009-08-07 - This is a good movie. It sticks to the book pretty well. The delivery was prompt and the dvd was in great condition when it arrived.
the devil's arithmatic
2009-06-07 - I was very pleased with my purchase. Delivery was right on time. The dvd was brand new and packaged very well. A+
The Devil's Arithmetic
2009-05-28 - My grandaughter saw this DVD at school and loved it. She ask me to buy it for her and of course I did. I watched this DVD before giving it to her and found it to be a very good movie.
