The Long Way Home

Rating:
Summary: a powerful telling of a story that needed to be told
Review: A film by Mark Jonathan Harris

Winner of the 1997 Academy Award for Best Documentary, "The Long Way Home" is the story of the Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust and what happened after the concentration camps were liberated. This is a very important, though little told story. Much of what I have been taught glosses over this period, telling only that Americans helped to liberate the camps and then three years later the nation of Israel was formed by the United Nations. "The Long Way Home" is the story of how the Jewish survivors made it from the camps to having their own nation, and the title of the film is a very apt one. It was a long, long way home and for many of the survivors, the war did not truly end until they made it to Israel.

We are taken through the horror of the Jewish experience from the end of the concentration camps up through the creation of the state of Israel. After the camps, when we might expect that the situation of the survivors would improve dramatically, it didn't. There were so many survivors, so many "displaced persons" that the Allied Forces had to set up camps of their own to provide shelter as the survivors can get medical treatment and food. Many of these camps had the misfortune to be surrounded by barbed wire, so that some survivors remarked that it was as if they traded one camp for another and nothing had changed. From these temporary camps for "displaced persons" (as the survivors were called), the survivors were searching for a home even though they no longer had a home in their native countries. Finding passage to Palestine was just as difficult.

Somehow I naively assumed that after the war the survivors had an easier time in founding Israel and finally finding peace in their lives (whatever peace that was left to be found), but this film shows the Jewish people in a constant struggle even as nations that had fought to help free them from the concentration camps turned their backs on the Jewish people. This is a powerful, powerful story and the documentary does it justice. I don't know what other documentaries came out in 1997, but I can scarcely imagine one that is nearly as good as this one. Highly recommended, and for anyone who has an interest in this topic, or the stories that came out of World War II and the Holocaust.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie - but where are the subtitles?
Review: Great movie. A part of history that I didn't know about, even though I'm Jewish and nearly 50 years old. But ... There Are NO Subtitles OR Closed-Captioning. This is inexcusable, to me, especially since many older people who will have a personal interest in this film (like my parents) have hearing problems and rely on subtitles and CC when viewing TV or movies. So be forewarned, if you are one who needs subtitles.

Rating:
Summary: The story of the Second Exodus after World War II
Review: This 1997 Academy Award-winning documentary presents the lives of Holocaust survivors from the end of World War II in 1945 to the founding of the state of Israel three years later. In the interim period the survivors were moved into "Displaced Persons" camps and lived in a strange sort of limbo until they were finally permitted to immigrate to Israel or the United States. Basically, this is the story of Jewish survivors again wandering in the wilderness, albeit one made by man, before finally finding the Promised Land. This is an often ignored period in the history of the Jewish people and while and at least this documentary provides a historical record. A fascinating documentary. "The Long Way Home" features narration by Morgan Freeman, Ed Asner Martin Landau, Helen Slater and others. Directed by Mark Jonathan Harris would won another Oscar in 2000 for "Into The Arms Of Strangers - Stories Of The Kindertransport,"

Rating:
Summary: The story of the Second Exodus after World War II
Review: This 1997 Academy Award-winning documentary presents the lives of Holocaust survivors from the end of World War II in 1945 to the founding of the state of Israel three years later. In the interim period the survivors were moved into "Displaced Persons" camps and lived in a strange sort of limbo until they were finally permitted to immigrate to Israel or the United States. Basically, this is the story of Jewish survivors again wandering in the wilderness, albeit one made by man, before finally finding the Promised Land. This is an often ignored period in the history of the Jewish people and while and at least this documentary provides a historical record. A fascinating documentary. "The Long Way Home" features narration by Morgan Freeman, Ed Asner Martin Landau, Helen Slater and others. Directed by Mark Jonathan Harris would won another Oscar in 2000 for "Into The Arms Of Strangers - Stories Of The Kindertransport,"

Rating:
Summary: Excellent post-war primer (from 45-48)
Review: This is a terrific primer that takes you on a course of what happened from the end of WWII until the UN voted for recognizing the existance of a state Israel (bascially 1945 thru 1948). There are interviews from various people who were close to the events of this period, as well as decent B&W stills, news archives and films showing otherwise lost archives. It is well produced, and worth every penny. I watched this around the same time I watched The Sorrow and the Pity and the PBS production of 50 Years War - Israel & The Arabs. The Long Way Home DVD fills in more historical information about how the Jews were viewed and treated just after WWII, especially by the US, the English government and the radicals of Poland. This is a must (as are the two other titles I mentioned in this review) for anyone who wants to better understand this topic and the obstacles the Jewish people ran into in trying to build their own homeland.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent post-war primer (from 45-48)
Review: This is a terrific primer that takes you on a course of what happened from the end of WWII until the UN voted for recognizing the existance of a state Israel (bascially 1945 thru 1948). There are interviews from various people who were close to the events of this period, as well as decent B&W stills, news archives and films showing otherwise lost archives. It is well produced, and worth every penny. I watched this around the same time I watched The Sorrow and the Pity and the PBS production of 50 Years War - Israel & The Arabs. The Long Way Home DVD fills in more historical information about how the Jews were viewed and treated just after WWII, especially by the US, the English government and the radicals of Poland. This is a must (as are the two other titles I mentioned in this review) for anyone who wants to better understand this topic and the obstacles the Jewish people ran into in trying to build their own homeland.

Rating:
Summary: What a great story...
Review: This is one excellent and very moving film. Though it is a documentary, it is gripping in its telling of the history of the Jewish refugees in the post 2nd World War years, until the creation of the state of Israel. It makes it understood, I think, even to those that are not very familiar with the subject matter. It's very good for a history class and the people interviewed are unique in that they really make you feel how they felt back then, over 50 years ago. The closure is also extremely potent, as it gives another dimension to this story of the Holocaust and the fight for a homeland. From an almost complete annihilation of a nation of a 3 thousands years of history, to be revived in our day and age - it gives the story depth I rarely seen in previous documentaries. Morgan Freeman's excellent narration, with voices of fine actors and especially with the participation of excellent witness who can tell their story in such an engaging way make this a gripping history lesson. Though made by "our team" (two Jews, one of them being a Rabbi...) it maintains a fair standing in the delicate issues of the Jewish-Arab conflict in Palestine. One cannot stop and wonder how the same story may look so trivial in a day-to-day life. A movie like this simply makes it clearer. I actually got several insightful observations that were really new to me. Note Clark Clifford, a White House counsel at the time in the Truman administration. He hardly has a voice by now, but he is as vivid in his details as he would be telling the details of one of the most important story of his life. And perhaps it was for him. This one doesn't get a 5 star simply because I reserve that to films that are truly innovative in their story telling, craftsmanship or in their bold statement. This one makes neither, but nevertheless, it's a great classic-style documentary film.