Haven

This story was just amazing. It touches you and helps you realize things about the War that would have never thought. How people suffered and how one woman wanted to help them. Natasha Richardson and Tamara Gorski are woman who I have seen in movies before and loved. They both did an awesome job in this movie as did everyone else. If you get the chance, take a look. I thought at first this would be a boring story I would have no intrest in. I was wrong. It's amazing.

This movie is based on the book of the same name of a woman who worked for the Secretary of the Interior (Ickies) who claimed in the book "to not have met a Jew until he was 16" which could have added to the alienation felt by the nearly 1000 Jews and Christians brought to Oswego, New York in 1944. This movie appears like a soap box from which a very non -Jewish looking Richardson hears the evils of the Nazis during WWII screams at the past, not to real people in the State Department (who definitely knew the Nazis were up to something in the late 1930s/early 1940s). However the point of the book was to not show hate against many of the Americans in the story. The people of Oswego, New York in this movie are shown as communist and disease fearing people who are acting like, "why did this happen to us?". However, in the book they met with their new neighbors as best they could: throwing food/clothes over the fence which separated the two peoples. Many dramatic opportunities were passed up in the story, including the variety show, in which the refugees gave a show for the soldiers on the boat they shared passage.

Could have been much better, if they had stuck to what had happened and read the book about the real Ruth Gruber a truly amazing woman who is not done justice here.

The similarity of roles played by Liam Neeson in "Schindler's List" and Natasha Richardson in "Haven" is apparent (one hero, the other heroine) saving Jewish lives. "Haven" draws the viewer in by focusing on America's neglect for rescuing Jewish families from Hitler during WW2. This movie tells an equally powerful story of the lives of Jewish families that needed restoration during/after the holocaust. This movie reminds us what the word holocaust actually means, both for those lives taken and for those lives left behind. Well told story, with great supporting acting from Hal Holbrook, Anne Bancroft, etc.

This is the story of a woman of great courage and compassion. The acting was excellent. I, however, felt clubbed to death by every anti-Jewish cliche known. I lived in the mid-west during the time of this movie's setting and had several Jewish friends. I rarely ever saw the unkind responses shown in this movie. In fact the only times that I ever heard negative comments about Jews were in a few adults who were prejudiced about equally between all the groups different than their own. In this regard, the movie is little different than many "black" movies that go to extremes to show victimizing of their class.

This isn't a movie; it's propaganda. It uses natural empathy with the plight of the Jewish refugees as a tool to stir anti-American feelings. Seriously -- was it necessary to make nearly ALL of the Americans into unfeeling racists who were only marginally better than the Nazis?

Every group appearing in this movie has a right to feel maltreated ... by the filmmakers.

The leading lady is a farce, as well. More thought could and should have been given to her wardrobe ... I mean, beyond how well a given outfit highlights her ample breasts. Having her parade around like a show pony in one cutesy outfit after another is just laughable in light of the subject matter.