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Movies / On DVD / Taking Sides
Taking Sides

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Taking Sides (2003)

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Reviews Counted:53

Fresh:41

Rotten:12

Average Rating:6.8/10

Consensus: A complex, well-acted meditation on moral obligation and human loyalty, Taking Sides features noteworthy performances from Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgard.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Sep 5, 2003 Limited

Synopsis: After Hitler took over power in 1933, many Jewish artists were forced to leave Germany, persuading others to protest through voluntarily exile. Wilhelm Furtwängler, arguably the most distinguished... After Hitler took over power in 1933, many Jewish artists were forced to leave Germany, persuading others to protest through voluntarily exile. Wilhelm Furtwängler, arguably the most distinguished conductor of his generation, chose to stay, serving as one of the Nazi`s foremost cultural assets. Though never a member of the Party, Furtwängler was the recipient of government honors and appointments, associated with party members, and conducted at party functions, including Hitler's birthday. He was named Prussian Privy Council by Goering and Vice-President of the chamber of Music of the Third Reich by Goebbels. However, Furtwängler's concerts represented pockets of resistance from inside Nazi Germany, and the conductor often used his position and contacts with the abject regime in order to save hundreds of Jewish musicians from the concentration camps, at his own risk. Should he be punished for staying in his country and accepting to compromise or should his efforts to oppose the evil regime from within be recognized? The American Denazification Committee gave Major Steve Arnold the task of carrying out the pre-trial investigation, with orders to contribute to the extermination of Nazism in Germany. For Major Arnold and his hierarchy, Furtwängler represents the moral weakness and cowardly complicity of the German people who enabled the emergence and establishment of a fascist regime. His mission is to make an example of Furtwängler in order to try to eradicate the evil. The American major, an insurance claims investigator in civilian life, is aided in his enquiries by lieutenant David Wills, liaison officer with the Allied Cultural Affairs Committee, and Emmi Straube, a concentration camp survivor whose father was executed as one of the plotters in a failed assassination attempt against Hitler in 1944. While Major Arnold is obsessed with simplistic, absolute justice, his young assistants hold Furtwängler in high esteem as an artist instead of condemning him outright for his collaboration with the Nazis. Two worlds collide therefore: on the one hand the tattered remains of the damaged culture and morals of an ill continent which is desperately trying to survive the catastrophe of WWII and which has to build a new world out of the ruins of the old, and on the other, the winner from the other side of the Atlantic, convinced of the superiority of their society and eager to have the rest of the world march to their tune. The question of the artist's political responsibility within a totalitarian regime remains open to this day – whether to stay and serve one's own people or to leave the homeland. While Arnold's investigation is aimed at providing proof for the prosecution of the way in which Furtwängler's artistic genius contributed to the Nazi propaganda machine and their destructive ideology, Furtwängler answers the Major's accusations by limiting his responsibility to purely artistic motives - he chose to stay in the fatherland to bring comfort to the German people with his music, and not to serve the Nazis. Like a master conductor, director István Szabó orchestrates the debate from cat-and-mouse intensity to volcanic confrontation to an intriguing finale, making Taking Sides that rare film that demands the audience to engage in a dialogue with the characters and take a position on an issue: in this case, the complicity or innocence of Dr. Wilhelm Furtwängler, the world-famous conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic during the Third Reich. -- © New Yorker Films [More]

Starring: Harvey Keitel, Stellan Skarsgaard, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birgitt Minichmayr

Starring: Harvey Keitel, Stellan Skarsgaard, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birgitt Minichmayr, Hanns Zischler, August Zirner, Armin Rohde, Jed Curtis

Director: Istvan Szabo

Director: Istvan Szabo
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Studio: New Yorker Films

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Apr 20, 2004

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Taking Sides

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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...a moderately effective small-scale courtroom drama set in the immediate years after Germany's surrender and shortly after the trials at Nuremberg.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
06/13/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
03/27/09
Derek Elley
Derek Elley
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/30/06
Empire Magazine
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/11/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
05/13/05
Apollo Guide

A film of some considerable power, thanks primarily to the brilliant performance of Skarsgard.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
03/09/05
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
08/07/04
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
New York Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In Taking Sides, Harvey Keitel has interpretted "powerful performance" as loud, aggressive, and singularly one-sided, despoiling an otherwise thought-provoking film.

Full Review Source: Movie Boeuf | comment Comment
03/04/04
David N. Butterworth
David N. Butterworth
Movie Boeuf

Schematic, didactic, and most of all, in the case of Keitel, woefully miscast.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
02/26/04
Steven Rea
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The notions of the good man's complicity through inertia ... are ones that have been more powerfully explored before.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
01/23/04
Michael O'Sullivan
Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A captivating and worthy endeavor.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
01/22/04
Paul Doro
Paul Doro
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
01/15/04
Guardian [UK]

That rare drama that’s both emotionally moving and intellectually thought-provoking.

Full Review Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI) | comment Comment
01/09/04
Rob Thomas
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)

Exists in the over-written, claustrophobic confines of the Ronald Harwood stage play.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
12/24/03
Walter Chaw
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

We're asked to jump into the combatants' arguments with no background about either one, no reason to care if Skarsgard sweats or Keitel rages.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
12/19/03
Michael Booth
Michael Booth
Denver Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A provocative premise that never achieves its full dramatic and intellectual potential...noise is allowed to overwhelm argument and--more importantly--understanding.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
12/08/03
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

This is a thought-provoking movie that will have you taking sides after the credits roll. It's set back in the 40's, but the story has relevance today.

Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
12/07/03
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

Ronald Harwood's morality tale plays out on film with its fireworks intact.

Full Review Source: Denton Record Chronicle (TX) | comment Comment
12/05/03
Boo Allen
Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

The talk in this moral debate smokes with provocative drama and actors of weight.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
12/04/03
Jane Sumner
Jane Sumner
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
11/29/03
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
 
 
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