Review – Shoah

This may be the all-time record holder for movies that take immense potential and run it right into the ground. The Holocaust as a subject is a virtual guarantee of an interesting production, but the execution of this documentary is so painfully inept that it wrecks the experience. I actually found myself losing interest in the middle of interviews not because the subject wasn’t fascinating (it almost always was) or the interviewees were off-putting (they weren’t; even the ex-Nazis were fascinating in an appalling sort of way) but because the audience is forced to sit and listen to lengthy passages of non-subtitled Polish or Hebrew, only finding out what’s being said when the French interpreter translates (and don’t even get me started on the problems with the translations and the subtitles). Technical problems aside, much of this production plays less like a documentary and more like a string of depositions. For example, at one point on the third disc we’re treated to a lengthy discussion of train schedules. As evidence of atrocity, it’s solid enough. It helps build a legal case against the Nazis. But it’s not particularly captivating viewing. All of which goes a long way toward explaining how this ends up being a nine-hour-long experience that spans four DVDs. As a historical document I’d give this three or even four stars, but as a movie it receives a substantially lower rating. See if desperate