The opening scene where Susan Strasberg walks home from a piano lesson only to see her parents getting hauled off by the Nahtzies is just the beginning of her harrowing ordeal. She catches a break when she meets a longtime inmate, who takes her to the camp doctor for protection. And she gets psychological support from another inmate (Emmanuelle Riva).
The problem with this movie, however, is that Strasbert's motivations are not credible. The filmmakers want me to believe she was a wide-eyed innocent skipping home from piano lessons and watched her parents marched off to the gas chambers within a day of getting to the camp. Then she gets s3xually used by an SS guard. And before you know it, she's a bunk cop (KAPO). Boom. There goes my sympathy. Meanwhile, several more sympathetic - and interesting - characters get picked off.
And then the movie veers right into the ditch of unbelievability. First she's pals with a camp guard (not the guy who abused her). Then he sorta disappears or fades while Strasberg nearly gets a Soviet POW killed while simultaneously falling in love with him. It's all so preposterous.
By the time the final act of redemption comes around my mind was wandering back to the other, more noble characters who bit it along the way.
I also didn't care about the Soviet guy's fate. Sorry.
The problem with this movie, however, is that Strasbert's motivations are not credible. The filmmakers want me to believe she was a wide-eyed innocent skipping home from piano lessons and watched her parents marched off to the gas chambers within a day of getting to the camp. Then she gets s3xually used by an SS guard. And before you know it, she's a bunk cop (KAPO). Boom. There goes my sympathy. Meanwhile, several more sympathetic - and interesting - characters get picked off.
And then the movie veers right into the ditch of unbelievability. First she's pals with a camp guard (not the guy who abused her). Then he sorta disappears or fades while Strasberg nearly gets a Soviet POW killed while simultaneously falling in love with him. It's all so preposterous.
By the time the final act of redemption comes around my mind was wandering back to the other, more noble characters who bit it along the way.
I also didn't care about the Soviet guy's fate. Sorry.