Details

Release year: 2001

Storyline

After the end of World War II, a famous German conductor is accused of loyalty to the Nazi regime. He argues that art and politics are separate. An investigator thinks otherwise.

Top credits

Directors

István Szabó

Writers

Ronald Harwood

Cast

Harvey Keitel — Major Steve Arnold
Stellan Skarsgård — Dr. Wilhelm Furtwängler
Moritz Bleibtreu — Lt. David Wills
Birgit Minichmayr — Emmi Straube

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Did you know

• To the criticism of both movie critics and American audiences of depicting the American Denazification officer Maj. Steve Arnolds (Harvey Keitel) as a "caricature, a bully, a Philistine," screenplay writer Ronald Harwood told The Jewish Journal that he went on to comb archives for denazification transcripts and to interview officials who had supervised such proceedings."They were morally brutal," Hardwood stated. "They bullied people, and they did behave in an extreme way. But they had just seen the camps, and no one in the world had seen that before."

• Stephen Holden of the New York Times gave the film a positive review, saying that "Sparked by the actors' powerful performances, Arnold's moral absolutism and Furtwängler's lofty aestheticism make for a dramatically compelling clash."

• Taking Sides (2001) was shot on location in Germany with the dialogue in German and English, although in the version released in the US and the UK the dialogue is only in English.