The Portrait of Varian Fry

Until the release of the film Varian's War, by the Showtime network in April 2001, Varian Fry was a little known American Journalist who, through a heroic effort, helped many prominent European Jewish citizens escape from the Nazi Holocaust. This film is a wonderful tribute to his memory.

As the movie opens, Fry (William Hurt) is visiting Berlin in 1938 when he witnesses Nazi soldiers violently attacking German Jews and pillaging their businesses. He is so outraged by these activities, that when he returns home to America, he begins to approach political activists with the idea of forming a rescue committee to provide asylum to Jewish artists and intellectuals to save them from Hitler's Gestapo. He is initially met with resistance in New York, where he is not taken seriously by those whom he approaches as they hide behind the philosophy of American neutrality in the war. However, in a series of eloquent and rousing speeches, he is able to convey the horror of the Nazi threat, and insists that their goal is to rid Europe of the elite, upper crust, of Jewish society so that their rich cultural heritage will be destroyed.

Fry, with the support of Eleanor Roosevelt, is able to formulate the Emergency Rescue Committee and raise funding to travel to an area of unoccupied France, (Marseille) to set up an underground operation to work through both legal and illegal means to arrange the escape of his predetermined lists of Jewish artists and intellectuals. Once he arrives in France, he finds that there is a strong Nazi presence and he must find local Jewish sympathizers to aid him in his project. He is able to find an ally at the American Consulate who is secretly harboring several of the targets on his list. He also is able to find an able assistant in Miriam Davenport, (Julia Ormond) a sexually provocative, single American woman who offers to link him with a local counterfeit passport artist (Alan Arkin) and a banker (Maury Chaykin) who can manipulate the unfavorable financial system.

Fry is deftly able to work his way into the inner circle of Nazi officials in France, track down his list of exiles, and engineer a daring escape through the Pyrennes mountains that would be a challenge for a world class athlete, much less a band of middle aged Jewish intellectuals. The end result is the preservation of some the most celebrated names in the arts and sciences of the 20th century including artist Marc Chagall, writer Franz Werfel, novelist Heinrich Mann, and intellectual Hannah Arendt.

This film is co-produced by Barbra Streisand, Cis Corman and Edward Essex for Hallmark Entertainment. Director, Lionel Chetwynd employs great attention to detail to capture the horror of the Nazi occupation of Germany and presence in France, with well staged skirmishes between Nazi officers and Jewish citizens. By the same token, the apathy and naivete of many Americans and French officials to the idea of the Holocaust is captured without resorting to sensationalism.

The film moves at an even pace throughout. Although the bulk of the film is centered around Fry's development and execution of his escape operation in France, it does not come across as slow or plodding primarily due to the intriguing character development of Fry and his associates. William Hurt is well cast as the stylish, cunning, brash crusader, Fry. Julia Ormond is equally effective as Miriam Davenport, as she portrays the liberated, liaison who fights for the cause despite her own personal battle with a hacking cough that she suspects is tuberculosis.

As with most films based on real life characters, there is likely a good bit of embellishment of the story for creative purposes. At times in the film, Fry's sexual orientation is brought into question. It is unclear whether this is used as a tactic to confuse the Nazi officials, or a statement of his personal characteristics. Nonetheless, it should not be taken as historical fact. It is also unclear whether Fry, in fact, organized the Emergency Rescue Committee, or was merely instrumental in campaigning for an action based response to Nazi terrorism in Europe.

However, regardless of a few historical inaccuracies, Varian's War is a moving story of a courageous humanitarian who uses his extraordinary skills to save some of the most influential holders of the Jewish heritage from a certain death sentence. This beautifully understated film is a fitting tribute to a little known, but deserving hero of World War II, Varian Fry.