The Wall (TV 1982)

A dramatic re-enactment of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish uprising in April 1943 were 650 armed members of the Jewish Fighting Organization of Poland held off a 3,000 strong Nazi force in which ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Markowitz

Writers:

John Hersey (novel), Millard Lampell (play),

Stars:

Tom Conti, Lisa Eichhorn, Gerald Hiken

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Conti	...	Dolek Berson
Lisa Eichhorn	...	Rachel Apt
Gerald Hiken	...	Fischel Shpunt
Rachel Roberts	...	Regina Kowalska
Philip Sterling	...	Reb Mazur
Eli Wallach	...	Mauritzi Apt
Laurent Aidenbaum	...	David Apt
Rosanna Arquette	...	Halinka Apt
Roberts Blossom	...	Kuchaski
James Cromwell	...	Francisek
Griffin Dunne	...	Mordecai Apt
Christine Estabrook	...	Rutka
Richard Frank	...	Stefan Mazor
John Hefferdan	...	Concierge
Ron Hunter	...	Menkes

Storyline

A dramatic re-enactment of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish uprising in April 1943 were 650 armed members of the Jewish Fighting Organization of Poland held off a 3,000 strong Nazi force in which only a handful of Jews survived. Tom Conti plays Dolek Berson, a Jewish smuggler who joins the resistance movement and is aided on the Aryan side of the wall by a former teacher named Regina Kowalski played by Rachel Roberts in her final role.

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Plot Keywords:

jewish | uprising | warsaw ghetto | resistance | nazi | 

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Genres:

Action | War | Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Poland USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 February 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

El muro

Filming Locations:

Poland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Time-Life Television Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Last film of Rachel Roberts.

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Connections

Version of Il muro (1970)

User Reviews

Worth seeing

I bought my own copy of The Wall after seeing the TV miniseries Uprising. Some 30 years ago, I read the novel upon which the film is based--a diary (modelled on Emmanuel Ringelblum's Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto) recounting the experiences of diarist Noach Levinson and his family--Dolek and Symka Berson (Dolek is Jewish--the anonymous reviewer described him wrongly as non-Jewish), Rachel, Mordechai, Halinka, David Apt, Rutka and Stefan Mazur and several others. Curiously, Noach Levinson is absent from the play and movie.

Filmed on location in Warsaw, The Wall shows horrific scenes of Jews being moved into the ghetto, loaded on the trains to the death camp of Treblinka. One scene shows hundreds of Jews receiving bread and marmalade for reporting for "resettlement". The uprising scenes show Nazis being killed by bullets, Molotov cocktails.

The characters are somewhat one-dimensional--no real development of them is given here (unlike the book). Rachel is a militant from the start, Halinka is an airhead all the way, Dolek simply drifts along.

Amazing how the film is relentless in portraying the horrors of ghetto life and the deportation. However, the dating is garbled in parts--deportations to Treblinka begin in April, 1941 instead of July, 1942. This is not an insignificant issue since the death camps were not operative until late 1941 and 1942--Treblinka did not begin operations until July, 1942.

Somewhat curiously, no attention is given to the party allegiances of the ghetto underground which united Zionists, socialists, communists and other groupings.

Still, for somebody wanting an introduction to the Warsaw ghetto, this might be the appropriate film.