Uprising (2001)

 

 

                    “Uprising” was a miniseries that appeared on NBC in 2001.  Back when there were such things as miniseries.  It is a tale set in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and joined others like “The Pianist” and “Jacob the Liar” in the Holocaust subgenre. 

                    The movie opens in Warsaw right before the German invasion.  Soon the ghetto is created by the conquerors and we meet the cast of characters that will inhabit the film.  Most of them are young men and women who are in the resistance movement.  The plot makes it clear why they risk their lives.  The alternative of cooperating with the Nazis is unacceptable and frankly, a dead end.  Excuse the pun.  This is exemplified by the futile efforts of the head of the Jewish council, Adam Czerniakow (Donald Sutherland).   At one point, he raises a huge ransom to save some hostages, only to told by the loathsome Nazi official that they have been executed anyway.  If you are looking for sympathetic German characters, this movie is not for you.  Or Polish characters, for that matter.  The Polish citizens are portrayed as unsympathetic at best, anti-semitic at worst.  While Czerniakow is doing the older generation “we have no choice” thing, the younger generation is gearing up for the “I’d rather die fighting” thing.  The “screw this!” group is led by Mordechai (Hank Azaria) and Antek (David Schwimmer).  It includes the hot-headed Kazik (Stephen Moyer) and Leelee Sobieski as the gender-busting Tosia.  All of them are historical figures.  

                    The underground starts with the usual debate about how far to go. The deportation of many, including children, to Treblinka (and the subsequent knowledge of what happens there) galvanizes them.  They start by killing German soldiers and acts of sabotage.  A crackdown causes them to rise up.  In April, 1943 Gen. Stroop (Jon Voight) leads an invasion of the ghetto to take it back.  The second half of the movie is a siege movie with house-to-house fighting and sewer transiting.  Clearly, most of the main characters are not destined to survive. 

                    “Uprising” stands out because of its cast.  You have the veterans Sutherland and Voight and a strong group of television stars that were also established movie stars.  Sobieski was coming off an Emmy-nominated performance as “Joan of Arc” in the 1999 mini-series.  She garnered a Golden Globe nomination for this one.  Schwimmer was seven years into “Friends” and beginning to take on dramatic roles.  He played Capt. Sobel this same year in “Band of Brothers”.  Not a bad year for his acting reputation..  Stephen Moyer was several years from “True Blood” stardom, but he takes acting honors here.  And we get Cary Elwes as the famous Nazi propaganda director Fritz Hippler.  In a twisted subplot, the charismatically vile director is there to cover the uprising.  He has already made the worst of the anti-Jew propaganda films -  “The Eternal Jew”.  Elwes sinks his teeth into a role that allows him to play the charming Nazi who needles the incompetent Stroop.

                    The length of the miniseries (151 minutes) allows for two separate movies.  The first is effective in setting up the uprising and developing the characters.  The second half is the battle and it is surprisingly well done.  The combat is realistic in weapons and tactics.  There is a lot of action and it is suspenseful.  It gets claustrophobic and depressing as the resistance takes to the basements and sewers.  Unfortunately, for a movie about the failed Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, it does not have the R-rated cachet to show the horrors of the ghetto before and during the insurrection.  For instance, children are used to up the apprehension, but seldom are actually harmed.  And the ending is a bit out of sync with the overall tone of the movie (although accurate historically).

                    I don’t remember watching “Uprising” when it aired on TV, which is a surprise because I usually would watch historical miniseries like this one.  I am a bit upset about that because I was quite impressed with it.  The cast is an appealing one and the plot is effective in its flow from building the fire to the bonfire of the uprising.  The main reason to watch it is its fidelity to history (see below) within the constraints of a major network broadcast.  A reboot today would be more hard-hitting, but probably less entertaining.  We already have enough bleak Holocaust movies.  “Uprising” is more in the vein of another made-for-TV Holocaust uprising film -  “Escape from Sobibor”.  If you are in the mood to see Jews fight back, in spite of the odds, those two movies are among the most satisfying in the subgenre.

GRADE  =  A 

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  “Uprising” is surprisingly accurate in covering the activities of one of the main resistance groups in the uprising.  It concentrates on the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB) which formed in 1940.  It took the opposite approach of the Jewish Council led by Czerniakow.  The Council did attempt to deal with the Germans, including the paying of ransoms.  The deceitful treatment of the Jewish leadership is accurately depicted in the movie.  Czerniakow did commit suicide when he was not able to prevent the mass deportation to Treblinka.  The movie treats him fairly as a man who thought his policy of placating the Germans would save lives.  The movie does a good job contrasting the naivete of the elders with the aggressive attitude of the resistance.  Men like Mordechai Anielewicz were determined to fight to the last for Jewish honor.  Tosia Altman did use her Aryan looks to act as a courier and arms smuggler.  She made contact with the Polish Home Army.  Antek Zuckerman was also in contact with the Home Army as a liaison.  He procured arms for the ZOB.  He was unable to get into the ghetto to participate in the fighting, but was able to aid the escape of some of the fighters.  Kazik Rotem was his main go-between with Anielwicz and was also caught on the “gentile” side of Warsaw when the April uprising broke out.  He finally made it back in after several failed attempts and helped lead Jews out before the fall. 

 

                 The repulse of the January crackdown is accurate.  The ZOB and the right-wing Jewish Militay Union (ZZW) used Molotov cocktails and an assortment of guns to attack the invaders.  The movie understandably chose not to reenact the justified executions of Jewish collaborators by the resistance.   In April, Gen. Stroop took command under orders from Himmler and led a much more determined effort.  He was accompanied by the famous director Hippler.  The Germans were led by armored cars, not tanks.  The movie exaggerates the success of the defense as the Germans ruthlessly pushed their way into the ghetto.  Stroop’s tactic was to burn down buildings using flamethrowers and explosives used on basements and sewers.  His men were under orders not to spare anyone.  This is not really shown in the movie, but the film does show the use of gas to force the fighters out of the sewers.  The Jews did put up a good fight, but they were doomed from the start.  By May 8, the Germans had reached the last strongpoint - a basement where the main body of surviving ZOB members held out.  Most committed suicide using cyanide, including Anielwicz.  Six members, including Altman, made it through the sewers to freedom.  Unfortunately, she was captured two weeks later and died in Gestapo custody.  Zuckerman and Rotem went on to fight with the Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.  They both helped smuggle Jewish refugees into Palestine before the creation of Israel and became residents there.  Rotem lived until 2018!  Stroop, who the movie portrays as more bumbling than malevolent, was not the former and definitely the latter.  A kool-aid drinking Nazi, he was executed for war crimes after the war.  Besides the liquidation of the ghetto, his crimes included the execution of captured airmen.  Hippler was the head of Goebbels’ film department.  In 1940, he made one of the most repulsive propaganda films in all of history -  “The Eternal Jew”.  He filmed the “subhuman” Jews in the ghetto as part of his goal to dehumanize them in preparing the German people for the Holocaust.  I think the movie has changed the time frame by having him in Warsaw with Stroop.  No movie resulted from the Uprising.  In June, 1943 he was removed from his job partly because of his alcoholism and general cheekiness.  He spent two years in prison after the war.