Very well executed

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

People are voting emotionally.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

. . . even the sleaziest two-bit failed nation states can erect walls against any outside influences, rewrite their sordid pages of historic infamy, and pass laws to barbecue anyone within their borders who dares whisper the Actual Truth. At 20:15, KAPO enters the most notorious such "country" (whose English name rhymes with "No Sand") to document a tiny fraction of that region's Crimes against Humanity in the 1900s. (Bruce Willis is taking up Charles Bronson's DEATH WISH role, and I guess I sort of have on too, since I watched KAPO in an easily tracked and hacked format, subjecting me to the roving international Death Squads of these Anti-Truthers, whose nationality rhymes with "trolls.") If you, too, are brave enough to watch KAPO, you'll see exactly why these malicious miscreants are so Hell-bent upon distorting, covering up, denying, erasing, and white-washing What Really Happened. This, of course, is merely the prelude to these barbarians' end game. They're now plotting to bull-doze, raze, and obliterate "their" World Heritage Memorial Sites--including the one shown in KAPO--to "clean up" the Holocaust "as if it never even happened."

"Kapò" has an unusual pedigree. It's an Italian-French co- production that was filmed in Yugoslavia! It also was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film--which it lost to Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring".When the film begins, teenager Edith has been brought to a Nazi death camp along with her parents and many other Jews. Because she was so young, she's been separated and placed with the children-- children who are all going to be liquidated the next day. When Edith learns of this, she runs. But where can you run in a death camp?! She eventually runs into a prisoner who hides her. He also helps her establish a new identity...Nicole, a French kapo. A kapo, in case you didn't know it, was a guard chosen from among the prisoners. This guard was a career criminal or homosexual whose job it was to beat and mistreat their fellow prisoners. So, 'Nicole' was now expected to behave and act like one of these degenerates.At first, Nicole has great difficulty. After all, she's a young girl and has a decent heart. However, over time, after lots of privation and torment, she adapts to her new role and even seems to excel at being a kapo. What's next?Up through Edith/Nicole's transformation into a kapo, I was captivated by the film. However, although the final portion is pretty cinematic and 'nice', it also seems to be a bit of a let-down as well as being awfully unrealistic and overly sentimental. How could a person who would do ANYTHING to survive ultimately turn out to be someone who is so full of self-sacrifice? It just didn't make a lot of sense. Additionally, the film was a tad sloppy (such as the sloppy and obviously fake Nazi uniforms and the terrible use of stock footage). As a result, it's a good film but sure seems like it should have been more given its premise.

I've never really liked holocaust flicks because they get well, usually made so that the dumbest of the dumb to 'get it.' Kapo is just a movie that shows, not tells, which of course makes the best story. Thanks to TCM for playing this gem that I'll buy on DVD as soon as it comes out. I'd never even heard of it, and I have seen a LOT of flicks.Susan Strasburg does an incredible job as Nicollete / Edith. Her transformation from shell-shocked victim to cynical survivor is absolutely gripping. The tension in the movie builds to nearly unbearable level and the end simply leaves you scooping your jaw off the floor.This is the type of movie I sorely needed after going on a loooong dry spell of celluloid garbage. Why this movie isn't famous, I have no idea, but it should be.

This Italian film, following the travails of a young Jewish girl in a Nazi work camp, is successful due mainly to its realistic sets, and the performances of Strasberg and Terzieff. Supporting cast members also shine throughout the film. The whole concept of the "kapo" is new to me, and it added a further dimension to the horrific Nazi experience not covered in films such as "Sophie's Choice" and "The Pianist." Deservedly, it was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Foreign Language Film) in 1960. Strangely enough, most filmographies of Strasberg fail to highlight her incredible performance in this film. Certainly, it must have reflected her performance as Anne Frank on Broadway. The same year as "Kapo," George Stevens released his film version of "Anne Frank," starring Millie Perkins, who took the role once Audrey Hepburn turned it down. Certainly, Strasberg must have been considered.A "kapo" was a prisoner of a concentration camp that watched over the other prisoners in a specified group. A kapo received better clothing, food, and was not required to work. 2001's "The Grey Zone" would be an appropriate double-feature with this film.