William Hurt does a masterful job as Varian Fry, who in Europe in 1939 witnessed terrible treatment of Jews, just because they were Jews. Back home in the USA, he obtained financial donations and support from Mrs. Roosevelt, the president's wife, and alone headed in 1940 to Marseilles, France with a list of about 8 or 10 Jewish "artists" that he wanted to save. The area was heavily occupied by German Nazis, and the French pretty much conceded that Germany was going to win the war. This movie is the story of Varian Fry's efforts to extract Jews from France, even though it had been made illegal to do so, and anyone caught attempting to circumvent the law would likely be executed. Excellent movie, never seems long at two hours.
SPOILERS FOLLOW. Varian goes to France with no real plan other than to find the people and work things out as he needed. He was sent help in the person of Miriam Davenport (Julia Ormond), and recruited others sympathetic to his mission, a Jew that he named "Beamish" (Matt Craven) and a counterfeit expert played by Alan Arkin. They play a sort of cat and mouse game with the French and German police, they can't let them know their real purpose, and with really good counterfeit documents manage to get a group of Jews into Spain. It was set up by a train trip, then they hiked through the mountain forest to arrive at the checkpoint undetected. After that the movie ended, but the efforts were repeated successfully many times during 1940 and 1941, saving about 2000 all together. Many musicians, authors, painters, sculptors.
The DVD has a number of interesting extras, including some photos of the real Varian Fry.
SPOILERS FOLLOW. Varian goes to France with no real plan other than to find the people and work things out as he needed. He was sent help in the person of Miriam Davenport (Julia Ormond), and recruited others sympathetic to his mission, a Jew that he named "Beamish" (Matt Craven) and a counterfeit expert played by Alan Arkin. They play a sort of cat and mouse game with the French and German police, they can't let them know their real purpose, and with really good counterfeit documents manage to get a group of Jews into Spain. It was set up by a train trip, then they hiked through the mountain forest to arrive at the checkpoint undetected. After that the movie ended, but the efforts were repeated successfully many times during 1940 and 1941, saving about 2000 all together. Many musicians, authors, painters, sculptors.
The DVD has a number of interesting extras, including some photos of the real Varian Fry.