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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 23385
Released: December 18, 2001 |
| Our Price: $9.99 |
| Used Price: $8.49 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
After Germany invades Poland in 1939, the Nazis decree that 350,000 Warsaw Jews be forcibly moved into a cordoned area known as the Warsaw Ghetto. Idealistic teacher Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria) decides the Jews must rise up against the Nazis and creates the Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO). He tries to secure the support of Adam Czerniakow (Donald Sutherland), the morally conflicted head of the Warsaw Ghetto's Jewish Council, but Adam declines because he knows that any act of resistance will provoke the Germans to retaliate by killing innocent Jews. Determined to mobilize a resistance alone if he has to, Mordechai recruits his friends and covert couriers whose ability to pass as Aryan helps them smuggle in arms and explosives from the Aryan side of the city, building up an arsenal to fight the Nazis.
When the Germans begin deporting 300,000 Jews to the Treblinka death camp, the JFO begins acts of resistance that culminate with ghetto fighters firing their first gunshots against the Nazis. When it becomes clear that the JFO is a force to be reckoned with, the German High Command sends in General Stroop (Jon Voight), who is determined to end the uprising in two or three days.
Capturing the horror that unfolds is Fritz Hippler (Cary Elwes), a filmmaker assigned by Hitler's chief propagandist to promote anti-Semitism with a film about Jewish life in the ghetto.
When the Nazis continue to suffer more casualties in their battle with the ghetto fighters, General Stroop decides to raze the ghetto. But even that can't stop the JFO. Forced to go underground into bunkers but energized by their success, the resisters fight on, ultimately holding off the Nazi army longer than the entire country of Poland. They're determined to live with honor--and if need be, die with honor--while lighting the torch for resistance in the occupied territories.
Description of Uprising:
Originally broadcast in November 2001, this exceptional made-for-television film recalls Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan while forging its own distinct identity. It was the first American film to dramatize the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, during which an underground collective of Polish Jews dared to defy the Nazis. Hank Azaria leads an all-star cast as resistance leader Mordecai Anielewicz, and the film follows his close-knit collaborators (including David Schwimmer and Leelee Sobieski) and their battle against the Nazi general (Jon Voight) assigned to clear all Jews from Warsaw. The uprising was eventually crushed (some heartbreaking outcomes are listed in the closing credits), but director Jon Avnet expertly maintains a sense of courage and hope amidst the palpable horror of the Warsaw Ghetto. Combining physical and historical accuracy with intimate character details, Uprising is suspenseful without being sensational, thus honoring one of the greatest symbolic victories in all of Jewish history. --Jeff Shannon
Uprising Reviews:
The Warsaw Ghetto 
2009-10-07 - "Uprising"
The Warsaw Ghetto
Amos Lassen
"Uprising" is an interesting albeit flawed film about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. It is a good story but it is a bit simplistic and not totally accurate. In the film the Jews are all young and good looking and the Poles are indifferent to what happens to the Jews. We now know that if it had not been for the Polish underground, there would have been an uprising. The film gives the poles no credit but it is nonetheless an interesting film.
This mini-series stars Hank Azaria, David Schwimmer, Leelee Sobieski, Donald Sutherland and John Voight. Ably directed by John Avnet, this is a look at an event in history that has been swept under the rug for many. It may not be history but it is entertainment.
Good for a history lesson
2009-05-11 - I visited Poland a few years ago and one of the first things I came across was a monument to those who died fighting the Nazis. This is a great movie for someone who would like to know more about the atrocities of the Holocaust and also those who do not understand the Jews as a people. I thought it was well done, informative and held my attention.
Uprising 
2009-04-17 - I love this film. It is inspiring to me to see people who were so beaten down and yet they still fought for the right to live.
Can't belive more Jew's did not fight back.
2009-02-09 - This is a true story or as true as can be told today. If you know nothing of how bad it was this will give you a glimpse into the world of those fun-loving Nazi's who spread death every where they went. That sounds like our last 8 years---- only we will take all your oil too!!!!!
3.5 stars out of 4
2009-01-24 - The Bottom Line:
A long movie that doesn't feel long and a TV movie that doesn't feel like a TV movie, Uprising is really a fantastic piece of filmmaking with great performances all around and a number of scenes that have been etched indelibly on my brain--whether you usually like this type of movie or not, please watch Uprising.
