I caught the beginning of this movie, but I wasn't able to watch the ending. What happens to the mom, the little boy, and the soldier?
shareJust watch it. If you're that interested, it would be a crime to ruin the end for you. Just keep the tissues handy. ;)
sharethe mom finds her son, it's complicated to describe, to be honest.
God bless.
Mom and son are re-united, but for a movie as intense as this one was, I thought the ending scene was rather anti-climactic. I would have thought a litle more "gush" would have been in order. My parents, and most of my relatives were Holocaust Survivors, and I grew up hearing similar stories both with happy and sad endings. It was kind of fun hearing the few smatterings of Hungarian being spoken and translating for my wife. A sad and dramatic aside to this film is the fate of the actor who played the little boy (Ivan Jandl)
after the film was released.
I saw this movie for the first time last night. I was moved beyond words and sobbed the entire time. What exactly happened to Ivan Jandl? I heard that when he returned to Czechoslavkia, he was forced to drop out of school and work in the quarries. Then, he died at age 50.
shareIvan Jandl's performance in the movie The Search (1948) gave so much hope to the people of Czechoslovakia that the communists took him out of school and put him to work in a rock quarry. He had to leave university and work in the quarry and the years of persecution depraved him of the possibility to develop his talent. He was forced to work there for a long time and never fully recovered from the strains put on him at the time. He lived the rest of his life in a sickly state and died relatively young. He was punished by the communists. His relatively unoffensive movie was banned for 40 years and this young boy was basically murdered.
Virtually no one talks about his Oscar, his life or his tragic death. Ivan died in 1987 in complete obscurity.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Jandl";
"...that the communists took him out of school and put him to work in a rock quarry. He had to leave university and work in the quarry and the years of persecution depraved him of the possibility to develop his talent."
This statement is completely wrong and is also no longer at mentioned wikipedia link. Of course, the communist regime had not promote his success in a US film. However, he had not suffered any persecution because of that, he just has not been so fortunate in a further successful adult carier. When a child star in USA does not succeed to be a star in later years, do you say the US regime "depraved him of the possibility to develop his talent"?
There is a Website http://www.ivanjandl.com/ where you can see his pictures of later years. His biography in Czech language mentions that he suffered from polio when he was 3 years old. Although he had been miraculously cured it had left strains for his further life. The movie The Search was presented on a Czech festival prior to the Oscar nomination and little Ivan was introduced to state president's wife and other goverment ministers. Later he was shown in few Czech films. After he finished a Prague college he had spent few years on theater stage that he had helped to found. After few years of various civil jobs he had been in Czech radio broadcasting, and later again with small theaters. When he died by acute diabetes he was 50 years old bachelor.
I saw this movie as a child when it first came out; my parents translated the Hungarian for me. (Most of my relatives: grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., who remained in Hungary did not survive.) This movie was poignant the first time I saw it, and extremely sad for me when I saw it again as an adult because, even though this particular mother and child found each other, we knew there were countless others who were never reconciled.
I just learned a few minutes ago on this website that the beautiful actor, Karel Malik, suffered all his life for playing this role.
I also saw the movie last night for the first time. I missed the first part of it but from what I saw, this movie does a good job of showing us that war doesn't end when the last shot is fired. I especially liked the use of different languages with the children. This gave the viewer a sense of the grand scale of the war and how many countries and people it affected. Most public schools will show "The Diary of Anne Frank" to their students, but I think this film will be easier for children to relate to. I'm am all for this film being released on DVD. Let's push for that; it would be a great way to pay tribue to Ivan Jandl.
shareI agree! I never heard of this movie until last night when I couldn't sleep, it was on Turner Classic Movies. I was drawn in and could not turn it off until it ended after midnight.
I would love for this movie to be put out on DVD, and have it in my movie collection.
I also saw this movie for the first time on TCM last night (in Bangkok).
It was sooooooo good and very well made. However, as already mentioned, I also found the reunion to be anti-climactic. As the end approaches you know what is going to happen but what a shame they speed through it and the ending doesn't even deserve one Kleenex! (They could have lenghted it by 5 minutes to make it a real tear-jerker ending).
It was because of they couldn't afford the film anymore, practically. It was costly at the time, especially during post WWII. The film was already running too long and the producer had a limited budget. They din't want to have to shoot a new reel just for the ending... I understand it is a bit frustrating that you can actually feel that they were dying to end it. In a way, I had no problem with the way the film ended. We pretty much knew what was to come, right? We already knew that Steve has to go back to the US and Jim has to remain with his mother... I guess that way they avoided the serious departing scenes that would have made the movie more sad. The funny thing is Monty wasn't even there until the end of shooting. It would have been too expensive to keep him on site. So that's the best they could do, I suppose...
shareChristopherbkk said:
"As the end approaches you know what is going to happen but what a shame they speed through it and the ending doesn't even deserve one Kleenex! (They could have lenghted it by 5 minutes to make it a real tear-jerker ending)."
A tear-jerker ending? That would have been a big dumbass mistake, artistically speaking. *rollseyes*
What is wrong with some people? Your sensibilities must've been corrupted by wallowing in Hollywood sugary sentimental movies confected for the undiscerning booboisie. ;)
A better ending would have Monty take both Ivan and mama to the States with him.
shareI agree that a full-on sobfest ending would have been criticized for being too Hollywood-tearjerker which is obviously not the kind of movie this was.
The one thing I will say, that I find ruins the ending, is that the mother is not in more commotion than I would have expected. It would have been great if he had broken down in tears, instead it kinda looks like the kid had been away to summer camp. This and just 10-15 seconds more of them hugging in tears would have been the cherry on top IMO.
But the parts that moved me more than anything else in my last viewing were all the movie before Monty comes in the picture, because it's so much more realistic and touching.
This is a real tear jerker! You need to watch it and it will put such a smile on your face. Great WW ll Movie.
shareJust the way you thought it would; it's inevitable.
"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan