Anne Frank: The Whole Story

This TV mini-series shows us the horrors resulting from the cold, clinical meeting dramatized in HBO's film CONSPIRACY.

But beyond the horrors, this film is a touching presentation of the events behind the book THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK and goes far beyond the stage play and film of that title. Anne, her friends, her family, and her world are depicted before, during, and after the long, hopeful, but futile hiding in an attic. Various forms of the monstrosities of humans who forget their humanity are pitted against the perseverance of people who maintain their humanity.

This film should be seen in conjunction with CONSPIRACY, SCHINDLER'S LIST, VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED and other films that vividly show us what happened at a time when the human race was supposedly at a very highly civilized point. Such films show what horrors the human race can create when we forget who and what we are -- human.

We should see such horrors so that we do not forget. As the old saying goes, he who forgets the past...

What can I say about Anne Frank:The Whole Story that hasn't already been said?Not much I guess.I saw it a week ago when it premiered in Finland and was totally devastated by it.It's quite possibly the saddest movie I've ever seen.There were tears in my eyes throughout the movie and the last half an hour was almost unbearable to watch.

Hannah Taylor Gordon is a revelation.She looks just like Anne Frank but,more importantly,manages to capture her wide-eyed optimism and indomitable spirit perfectly.It's truly heart breaking to see her at the end,her spirit finally broken and all her hope gone.Gordon is so believable in her role,it's almost scary.Ben Kingsley is also wonderful as Anne's father.You really believe they are a father and a daughter.The other actors are good too,but Gordon and Kingsley really stand out.

As I said,there's nothing I can say about this movie that hasn't already been said.It's an experience that will stay with me for a long time and possibly the best holocaust movie I've ever seen. 10/10

This movie is cast with so many captivating and amazing actors it is hard to see how it could go wrong! Anne Franks' heartfelt story is told in this movie and it is told as if you are experiencing all of her horrors right alongside her and her family. Hannah Taylor-Gordon plays a cute and heroic Anne and Ben Kingsly plays her noble and wise father Auto Frank. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie because of its' touching significance and its' sad historic references. I would not say that this movie was completely without fault. The actors mostly all speak with English accents and as well know Anne's family was Dutch so they could not possibly have English accents. Some parts of the story are laughable with the tale of Anne going through puberty before the annex and during. Her coping with getting breasts, going through her puberty and most importantly finding love. I reccommend watching this movie again because I think it would be a great classic to anyone's collection.

This well-made TV movie is a very moving experience. Seeing in graphic detail how a well-adjusted and endearing teenage girl deals with the horrors of persecution as her family is forced into hiding to avoid the Nazi terror cannot fail to engage the heart and mind. It shows Anne before the Nazi invasion of Holland as a bubbling girl eager for education and socialisation. Her indomitable spirit is well portrayed during her family's long months of hiding in the back of a factory in Amsterdam. Her physical deterioration after her capture is shown graphically, as is her will to survive to make her mark upon the world. Ironically, she did make her mark upon the world posthumously through her diary, the most-widely read work of non-fiction in the world after the Bible.

For me, the virtual incarceration of her family in the factory was very sad and thought-provoking. Taken from their normal lives and stripped of all those things they held dear, Anne's family strives to remain positive of better times ahead. How would we fare if required to give up all that we possessed and go into hiding for fear of our lives? A totally depressing thought, and yet that is what happened to Anne and her family.

The later scenes, after the family was captured, humiliated, separated and sent to concentration camps, is simply tragic.

The fine performances of Hannah Taylor-Gordon in the title role and Ben Kingsley as her father, Otto Frank, deserve special mention, although the entire cast was believable. Hannah Taylor-Gordon's performance was a revelation - she conveyed a range of emotions that superbly captured Anne's spirit and also her human weaknesses.

The movie is not without its weaknesses. It is slow at times and could perhaps been improved by tighter editing, although this may have detracted from the accurate portrayal of the tediousness of living concealed behind closed doors for so long a period.

The concentration camp scenes are disturbing and Anne's gradual physical deterioration is depressing. It is not a movie to entertain but one to stir the emotions and the resolve to ensure that this sort of persecution and genocide is never again allowed to happen.

It is also a depressing reminder that it still is happening in various parts of the world.

I know someone said that this wasn't an accurate account of Anne Frank's life but as an Asian and having only heard of Anne Frank through summaries in WWII stories, this movie really helped me to get to know this girl and her account of her life as a Jewish girl during WWII. Some facts and accounts may have been manipulated to make the story more interesting but the essence of the story was there. Hannah Taylor Gordon played Anne Frank almost too good; she even looked like the real girl and it was really scary. She really captured the spirit of the sweet wide eyed hopeful girl who never truly comprehended with the horrors of the war. It was heart wrenching to watch an innocent girl being thrown into a concentration camp but I doubt it was to get our sympathies; it was just an inkling of how the children were treated during the Holocaust. The young ones were sent directly to the gas chamber (they were useless; couldn't work) and others like Anne Frank, were made to work and suffer eventhough she was still struggling through her puberty. It wasn't a horror movie but it was scary, if you know what I mean; you can't help but cry for another innocent life lost and then be reminded in the end that Anne Frank was only one of the one and a half million children who died in the Holocaust.