History Film / SophiesChoice

* SmallRoleBigImpact: [[spoiler: Sophies horrifying SadisticChoice is thrust upon her by an unnamed junior [[ThoseWackyNazis S.S]] officer. Purely for no reason, other than she happened to be standing there at that point when he walked by.]]

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sophies_choice_1982_film.jpg]]

Set in 1947, the story follows Stingo, a young writer who has recently moved to Brooklyn to work on a novel. While there, he befriends Sophie Zawistowski, a Polish immigrant, and her somewhat unstable lover, Nathan Landau. As Stingo gets to know Sophie better, she starts to offer him insight into her DarkAndTroubledPast, which involves having witnessed UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust very up close and personally. Meanwhile, the already unhinged Nathan starts growing increasingly paranoid and becomes violently jealous of Stingo and Sophie's relationship...

* IllGirl: Sophie, before Nathan discovers that she's anemic.

* AdultFear: Having to choose [[spoiler:which of your children to send to inevitable death]] is one of the scariest things almost any adult would have to face.

* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler: It's never revealed whether Sophie's son survived, adding this uncertainty to Sophie's guilt over betraying her daughter.]]

* AuthorAvatar: Stingo is almost exactly like William Styron. Just like Styron, he's from the South, born in 1925, served in the Navy during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, graduated from Duke University, worked for [=McGraw=]-Hill, and ended up writing a controversial novel about Nat Turner. Stingo's name is never revealed, but it's implied that his last name starts with "St" (since his roommates in the training camp were Strohmyer and Stutz).

A 1982 drama film [[TheFilmOfTheBook adapted from]] William Styron's 1979 novel of the same name, directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Creator/MerylStreep in the title role.

* AuthorAvatar: Stingo is almost exactly like William Styron. Just like Styron, he's from South, born in 1925, served in the Navy during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, graduated from Duke University, worked for [=McGraw=]-Hill, and ended up writing a controversial novel about Nat Turner. Stingo's name is never revealed, but it's implied that his last name starts with "St" (since his roommates in the training camp were Strohmyer and Stutz).

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Sophie has attempted suicide several times. Eventually she and Nathan kill themselves together.]]
* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: Stingo. The real protagonist, is of course Sophie [[spoiler:but she dies at the end.]]

* LovableSexManiac: Subverted with Leslie, who is foul mouthed and likes to pretend she's one of these, but is rather afraid of sex.
* LoveTriangle: Sophie, Nathan and Stingo.

* PetTheDog: Nathan's verbally abusive behavior towards Sophie and Stingo at the beginning of the film are somewhat neutralized by how kind and gentle he is the rest of the movie. Most notably he saves Sophie's life when she falls ill at the library.
* SadisticChoice: Upon arrival at Auschwitz, [[spoiler: Sophie is told to choose which of her two children will go to the gas chamber immediately, and which will live for some time longer in the camp.]] Since the story is realistic, it averts TakeAThirdOption. The movie was popular enough that the term "Sophie's Choice" is occasionally used to describe similar sadistic choices, and is even an alternative name for the trope.

The film was nominated for five UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, with Streep winning Best Actress for the first time in her career. To this day, Streep's performance in this film is considered the finest in her extremely august career (and, therefore, one of the best given by a woman in ''any'' film). It was ranked the third-greatest in film history by ''Premiere'' magazine.[[note]]Only Creator/PeterOToole in ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'' and Creator/MarlonBrando in ''Film/OnTheWaterfront'' are ranked ahead of her.[[/note]]

The film was nominated for five UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, with Streep winning Best Actress for the first time in her career. Streep's performance was ranked the third-greatest in film history by ''Premiere'' magazine.