Unlikely Heroes (2003)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Richard Trank

Writers:

Marvin Hier (writer)
Richard Trank (screenwriter)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

For most, the idea of Jewish resistance or defiance during the Holocaust is limited to the Warsaw Ghetto...

Cast

Robert Clary	...	Himself
Ben Kingsley	...	Narrator

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hebrew

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Company:

Moriah Films

I expected okay, I got Amazing

The satellite system guide said this movie was recollections of Holocaust survivors about the Jewish Resistance fighters. I expected the usual series of difficult-to-understand interviews with old people about their experiences but my wife likes those so we watched.

The thing is, this wasn't about the camps. It was about the Resistance, which most of us know nothing of. Truly heroic stuff about guys who formed guerrilla camps in the forests to blow up Nazi troop and supply trains and bridges and heated and wrapped the rails around tree trunks. One guy stayed in the city with some friends and proceeded to don uniforms of dead Nazi officers and SS in order to infiltrate their meetings and then run off and rescue those Jews the Nazis were about to raid. I can't do the excitement of it all justice.

The form is clear interviews with both historians and survivors along with actual film footage of the Resistance activities of contemporary semblance thereof. It's like American Experience with Ben Kingsley taking over for David McCullough. Well worthwhile from many points of view.