Meryl Streep in 'Sophie's Choice'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYQjsbn4KCM

I decided to post this harrowing clip as my media artifact for three reasons: 1. we mentioned it briefly in class one week when discussing 'choiceless choices'; 2. the scene, for me, epitomizes the dehumanization and degradation suffered by victims of the Holocaust, Jewish or no; and 3. Streep's performance in this film is often considered one of the greatest screen performances in the history of motion pictures, and this scene is the 'selling point' on both that and Streep's acting talent in general. She won a well deserved Oscar for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for the part of Sophie Zawistoski.

Of course the entirety of the film should be viewed by anyone with any interest in the points I have made above, but this clip is really the essence of the film, the axis upon which the rest of it turns and the few moments of celluloid forever ingrained in anyone's mind after having viewed the film, even if that was in 1982, the year 'Sophie's Choice' was released. As I've mentioned in previous posts and assignments, many people think of the Holocaust in generalizations, not details. They think of numbers, not people. Streep puts not only a face on a single victim, but a pulse and soul, allowing her facial features, body language, and the timbre of her voice to pull the audience into the mind and heart of Sophie, and as a result, this scene is all the more harrowing for her realistic and emotive technique, jettisoning hysterics in favor of empathy. The Choice Scene is as emotionally and aesthetically potent as anything in 'Schindler's List', 'The Pianist', 'Life Is Beautiful', or any other critically-lauded and awards-showered Holocaust film, a topic which seems to be becoming a genre of its own. My own mother refuses to watch the film because of what she has heard about its emotional intensity, particularly the scene linked here.

Watch this, then rent the film. And bring your tissues.

Embeded