Customer Rating: Summary: Excellent Movie about Man's Inhumanity to Man Comment: I read about this film in Vanessa Redgrave's fascinating biography (which I highly recommend). Her performance in this role is stunning, and as always with truly great art, the script, the directing, and the acting never get sentimental. This is a realistic look at the confusion, disorientation, and tough choices that take place when human beings find themselves in horrific situations outside of their control, yet despite these conditions, the film leaves us a glimmer of hope by showing that even in the worst times human beings can still retain their humanity.
It is a shame that this film is not on DVD. It should be watched, re-watched, and studied. The acting is brilliant, the script realistic and masterful, and the acting sublime.
Customer Rating: Summary: AGAIN, WHY NO DVD? Comment: Why, oh why hasn't this incredible movie been transferred to DVD? I don't want to spend $40 on VHS at a minimum and then it pops up on DVD! One of the most gripping Holocaust Movies ever made! Emotional and powerful from beginning to end. Few movies have the effect this one did on me. Customer Rating: Summary: A Brilliant Film--WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO TO HAVE IT RELEASED ON DVD?! Comment: This is a brilliant, award-winning film that has never been released on DVD and is rarely seen on TV anymore. I think it's a terrible shame that such a powerful work with amazing performances from the likes of Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Alexander (and virtually the entire cast) with a script written by the great Arthur Miller, is being allowed to languish in obscurity while lesser works are everywhere you look.
Like some of the other reviewers, I too saw this movie when it first aired in 1980. It has never left my consciousness these 28 years and some of the scenes are forever etched in my mind. Vanessa Redgrave is astonishing and quite simply does some of the best acting I've ever seen in this movie. But the entire cast, knowing the absolute gravity and importance of the story they are telling, all rise to the occasion. There is not a weak link among them. A riveting, haunting movie that needs to be shared with all generations (even the questionable person who got "bored" and started playing video games--doubtless the movie made this individual uncomfortable with its stark and unwavering reality).
Let's all find out who owns the rights to this movie now and PLEAD with them to release it on DVD!! Customer Rating: Summary: Life-changing movie Comment: When this movie was shown originally on TV, it was also shown in my high school English class. For many students, it was their first significant exposure to the horrors of the Nazi and the realities of a concentration camp. I remember we were all mesmerized and horrified. To this day, that first showing of "Playing for Time" haunts me, and seeing it since a few times, it has not lost any impact. I can still recite some of the lines. It's probably the first great made-for-TV film every made. That this film is not on DVD is shameful; once it is, I'll definitely be one of the buyers. Customer Rating: Summary: Still etched in my mind... Comment: This is my first review posted to Amazon....
I guess this movie aired on one of the three major networks around 1982 when I watched it. I would have been about 10 years old. Now 36, I hadn't forgotten this movie. I found a "copy/vhs dubbed to DVD" on ebay about two years ago. For the price, I suspected it might not be an original. This movie should be published on DVD.
Paragraph 175 is another movie that is on the same subject and is worth while watching.
An earlier reviewer said this movie got boring. I'm sure the victims would have enjoyed such a privilege.
Another movie I rented by chance from NetFlix is "The Boys From Brazil". What a chilling movie that is and the fact the knowledge about DNA was so great even around the late 70s.
Bottom line, all of these movies will make any moral/ethical person stop and think how horrific it was and how lucky we are today.
