'One Life': Anthony Hopkins As Nicholas Winton, Saved 669 Jewish Children WW2, 'British Schindler'
Last edited Fri Dec 29, 2023, 12:42 PM - Edit history (2)
- One Life review – 'Anthony Hopkins in extraordinary true story of ‘British Schindler,’ The Guardian, Dec. 28, 2023. Ed. - Hopkins stars as Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 Jewish children from the Nazis – alongside Helena Bonham Carter on mighty form.
You'd need a heart of stone not to be touched by this extraordinary true story of Nicholas Winton, the “British Schindler.”
It’s a story of wartime Europe and postwar memory, and also a noble and inspired moment in the history of British popular TV. Anthony Hopkins plays Winton, a stockbroker in prosperous retirement in the 1980s who, after some nagging from his wife Grete (Lena Olin), is clearing out clutter and finally concentrates on something he’s been yearning and dreading to re-examine: a scrapbook with details of the 669 Czech Jewish children he and other humanitarians saved against incredible odds from the Nazis in the late 30s, without any historian knowing.
- Trailer for the new movie, 'One Life.'
This involved raising money, badgering government departments for visas, organising foster care; his own Kindertransport in fact.
Johnny Flynn plays Winton as the young pro-refugee activist and Helena Bonham Carter packs a mighty thespian punch as his formidable no-nonsense mother Babette, who runs his campaign from London.
The rescue mission involved 9 trainloads of children, all of which have to pass through Nazi territory on their way to Britain.
These are scenes of almost unbearable tension: at any moment, for any bureaucratic reason, or just for no reason at all, the Nazi soldiers suspiciously inspecting the children’s papers on board the train could turn them back. Eight trainloads get through reasonably well, due to their rescuers’ British national status in this prewar time – but the 9th is still on the platform at Prague when news of Germany’s invasion of Poland comes through. Swaggering Nazi soldiers swarm into the station and anguish and horror is imminent; this is the tragedy that colours Winton’s memories.
After the local press failed to get interested in this remarkable document, it caught the attention of Elisabeth Maxwell, wife of Robert; and from there it passed to Esther Rantzen (played here by Samantha Spiro), host of the legendary popular BBC TV show 'That’s Life!' Rantzen invites him to the show twice, in a This-Is-Your-Life-type surprise, and on the 2nd occasion, in 1988, secretly contrives for every single other member of the studio audience to be either one of these grownup child refugees or a descendant. It was a goofy, almost silly caper which could have gone wrong or turned out to be misjudged; instead it was a moment of secular grace, like something from a late Shakespeare play. The film does justice to this overwhelmingly moving event in British public life in a quietly affecting drama..
- One Life is released on 1 January in UK and Irish cinemas...
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/28/one-life-review-anthony-hopkins-in-extraordinary-true-story-of-british-schindler
- Sir Nicholas Winton meets people he helped to rescue and their families on the British BBC TV show 'That's Life' aired in 1988.
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- (Wiki) Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE (né Wertheim; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue Jewish children who were at risk of being murdered by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Born to German-Jewish parents who had emigrated to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, Winton assisted in the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. On a brief visit to Czechoslovakia, he helped compile a list of children needing rescue and, returning to Britain, he worked to fulfil the legal requirements of bringing the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them. This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport (German for 'children's transport').
(*Watch: In Wiki, 1939 film clip of airplane, departing children, and young Nicholas Winton at the end holding a small child).
His humanitarian accomplishments remained unknown and unnoticed by the world for nearly 50 years until 1988 when he was invited to the BBC television programme That's Life!, where he was reunited with dozens of the children he had helped come to Britain and was introduced to many of their children and grandchildren. The British press celebrated him and dubbed him the "British Schindler". In 2003, Winton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia". On 28 Oct. 2014, he was awarded the highest honour of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion (1st class), by Czech President Miloš Zeman. Winton died on 1 July 2015, at the age of 106...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Winton
* Actress Helena Bonham Carter's Grandparents Were WW2 Heroes,
https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2021/04/02/helena-bonham-carters-grandparents-war-heroes/
= new reply since forum marked as read
with Sir Nicholas Winton and the surprise guests, the (grown up) adults who he helped rescue when they were children, in the audience with their own children and families.
(Most of the 669 children rescued were Czech, and I recently read that there were also several from Austria, Germany, and Poland I think, who were evacuated). Every time I watch this and read about the true story it breaks me up!
I've read several articles recently about the new movie on Sir Winton's life, "One Life" and only one of the articles included the video of this 1988 BBC program. I don't know why, except maybe they thought it would spoil the upcoming movie. - What a remarkable man!
If you're interested, I added a LINK to the main article above about actress Helena Bonham Carter (she plays Sir Nicholas' mother in the new film). Helena's grandparents also helped the WW2 effort! - Thanks for posting. 