Touches You
... View MoreAn action-packed slog
... View MoreThe movie really just wants to entertain people.
... View MoreBlistering performances.
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View MoreCONTAINS SPOILERS!This is a story of a young girl called Anne Frank.She was born in Frankfurt, Germany but she moved with her family to Amsterdam, Netherlands in the 30's.They had to make this decision because in Germany there was a psychopath called Adolf Hitler in power and the Franks happened to be Jews.They were living a normal life in Holland at first.In 1939 Hitler started the second world war and in the early 40's the Nazis made also the lives of Dutch Jews very hard.Anne received a diary for her 13th birthday which became very important to her.In July of 1942 the lives of the Franks changed radically after they had to go hiding.That's because the Nazis wanted their daughter, Margot.The hiding place was at Princengracht 263, in the middle of the town.Later they were joined by other people, as well.All the people of the secret annexe were; Otto Frank (Ben Kingsley), Edith Hollander-Frank (Tatjana Blacher), Anne Frank (Hannah Taylor-Gordon), Margot Frank (Jessica Manley), Hermann van Pels (Joachim Krol), Auguste Rottgen-van Pels (Brenda Blethyn), Peter van Pels (Nicholas Audsley) and Fritz Pfeffer (Jan Niklas).Of course they needed some Christian friends from outside.These good people were; Miep Gies (Lili Taylor), Jan Gies (Rob Das), Victor Kugler (Peter Bolhuis) Johannes Kleiman (Johannes Silberschneider) and Elisabeth 'Bep' Voskuijl (Ela Lehotska).Those eight hiders were forced to be hiding for over two years.They didn't have any chance to go out.Anne just waited for the time when the war would be over and she could go out in the nature.She really loved the nature.They had all kind of dreams what they would do after the war.Anne wanted to be a writer.And we all know now that she was a very talented writer.But she never had a chance to be what she wanted to be. All those people had was hope.They couldn't do anything but wait and hope.June 6th in 1944 was the day of the D-Day.After that day they got more hope.Finally they had some faith for the future.Maybe the girls and Peter will go back to school on Fall.But that never happened.On August 4th the Gestapo came and took them to the concentration camp.Only Otto Frank came back.This year it will be 60 years since that horrible day.Who was the idiot that told them about the hiding place? Was it the cleaning lady that was said in this film? That we may not ever know for sure.Anne Frank:The Whole Story (2001) is a movie with a brilliant cast.Ben Kingsley's role work as Otto is really something to remember.This 60-year old actor has done some memorable roles earlier, like in Schindler's List.Tatjana Blacher is very good as Edith.Joachim Król and Brenda Blethyn are terrific as Hermann and Auguste van Pels.Jan Niklas is brilliant as Fritz Pfeffer.Lili Taylor is great as Miep Gies.And so is Rob Das as Jan Gies.Peter Bolhuis is excellent as Victor Kugler.Johannes Silberschneider is superb as Johannes Kleiman.I especially have to give credit to the young actors.Hannah Taylor-Gordon as Anne is just amazing.She's very beautiful and very talented, just like Anne Frank.I really hope success for this 16-year old actress. I can tell the same about Jessica Manley who plays Margot.Nick Audsley does magnificent job as Peter.Anne's friends are played by Victoria Anne Brown as Jacque van Maarsen, Michaela Horakova as Sanne Ledermann and Jade Williams as Hannah Goslar.They're all really great.This movie is a very realistic portrait of what happened.Sometimes it feels like you're watching the actual events.Like you're going through all those things with Anne.You laugh when Anne laughs, you cry when Anne cries.During that time in hiding Anne found someone she could share her feelings with.That boy was Peter van Pels.In the movie their relationship is portrayed very beautifully.It also has the most beautiful music, kind of music that brings tears to your eyes. This isn't a movie you can watch as entertainment.You can't just take a bowl of popcorn and enjoy the show.These people were real.They had to suffer because they were Jewish and so did millions of others.Nobody should die for the sake of the religion or race they represent.We should all just pray that nothing like that will ever happen again.If only it was just a bad dream. The latter part of the movie is pretty painful to watch.Watching Anne and her sister suffer in the cold camp, it just makes you wonder how cruel people can be.There are parts where you can't do nothing but cry. Tears fill your eyes when Anne is separated from Pim, her father, as she used to call him.All you can ask is why.Thank God all the people aren't such monsters.Miep Gies is one of those people.She did everything she could to help her Jewish friends.She has a heart of gold and I would like to thank her and give her a big hug for what she did.Next month this amazing woman will turn 95 years.Congratulations Miep! If there were more people like you, this world would be a much better place to live.This movie is based on Melissa Muller's book Anne Frank:The Biography.It's good if you have read it before seeing the movie.Even more important is that you have read The Diary of a Young Girl.That book makes you understand who Anne Frank really was.I also recommend Miep's book Anne Frank Remembered.This program wasn't sanctioned by Anne's first cousin Buddy Elias, apparently because they showed Anne and the others in the concentration camp.It wasn't easy to watch that, and maybe they should have left that out.They weren't allowed to use Anne's text from the diary in this program.Steven Spielberg was to be the executive producer, but declined after Anne's relatives asked him not to be involved in this project since it's not based on the authorized account of Frank's life.This year, on June 12th, Anne would turn 75.She was forced to leave this Earth way too soon.But she will live on in her diary.
... View MoreIn January 2003 on a college trip to Amsterdam, i and other friends went into the Anne Frank Huis on the last day. This is the famous place where she and her family went into hiding. i found it strange to actually walk up those hidden stairs and see things such as the heights of the two girls still preserved on the walls in pencil. i found the whole experience to be the most moving place i've ever been to.seeing Anne Frank: the Whole Story on tv a few months after i just had to see it. It is a film which does everything right, its doesn't hide behind any barriers and shows the truth as it really was. We all know about Anne Frank's life during the time she wrote in her diary and in the 'hiding period' and it does show this, but what it also shows is afterwards - after they were found out and taken away. It shows just how Jews were treated and is unbelievable such terrible things occured in only the 20th century - a century most of us were born in, and yet similar regimes in the world today still treat humans like this. You see the Frank and Van Pels' family split up by their sex, stripped naked and the women having their hair cut short and sleeping in cramped conditions, starving and forced to dig...presumably mass graves in which they would be buried. We can only imagine what was going through her mind as Anne didn't take her diary with her to the Camp. To be told your father is already in the gas chambers is not what any 16 year old girl should ever be told. All in all i cant find any fault with the film, it gives her diary and the whole story justice and is nice to see the helper's of Otto's factory to be shown quite frequently and involving them. It is also supported by a strong cast, especially Ben Kingsley as the father who survives the concentration camp to learn after the war that his wife and two daughters are dead. Perhaps the most moving aspect i found were the actual words at the end telling you statistics and what happened to the individuals (including the factory workers/helpers) and it leaves you with something really strong which really makes you think "One and a half million children were murdered in the genocide the Nazi's called 'The Final Solution'. Anne Frank's story is only one of them"
... View MoreI liked the movie. It is good. It is educational. It tells a story. It is about a girl. Her name is Anne Frank. It takes place in a country. Anne dies. It is tragic. It is a great movie. It is a good book. It is also a good movie.
... View MoreAnne Frank: The Whole Story: 8.5/10 (TV)(SPOILERS BELOW!)An epic look at the life of Anne Frank, just one of millions of jewish victims during the Nazi holocaust. This explores the girl and her family over something like 2 1/2 hours (of movie time, several years of real time). It's a long movie, but never drags. Anne and her family survived the Nazi "removal" of jews from their city by living in an abandoned house, behind a secret bookcase. Another family and several individuals were there with them, often creating an awkward and tense environment, especially when they argued. Anne keeps a diary, which allowed the original non-fiction book to be written. After seeing her first love disappear, probably taken by the nazis, Anne finds another teenage love interest, a shy boy who she becomes attached to. Before they can really go anywhere though, someone gives away the location of the Franks and their friends. In a horrifying scene, the nazis find and take the families away to one of the horrible concentration camp. Then comes one of the most emotionally draining movie stretches ever, as we see Anne's family and friends separated in the unspeakably awful death camps. The situation becomes even worse during the latter days, when most of Anne's tent is dead, and she is barely alive. They clip forward to after the war, and the train back to their home town. Surprisingly, Anne's father is the only one to return. He looks for news on his family and friends, but can't find it. He is given Anne's diary, which one of their friends kept after they were taken away. We finally see this kind, but strong-willed man collapse into tears, believing his girls and wife to be dead. The movie ends by telling us what happened to each person. They all died, besides the father, even Anne (if her body had held up for two more weeks, she would have been liberated). This is one of the most brutally honest accounts into what life for jews during the holocaust was like, and makes us realize how irrelevant many of our own problems are. I was legitimately crying at the end of the movie. How pampered our lives are compared to the people who suffered during the war. Let's just hope the world never has to suffer something like that again.
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