To Be or Not to Be (1983) on Netflix
Frederick Bronski runs a Warsaw theater company and tries to undermine his wife Anna, its star. She is drawn to Lt. Andre Sobinski, a young bomber pilot. Then the Nazis invade Poland.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.9/1013,036 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes55%
Trailer
Plot summary
Frederick Bronski runs a Warsaw theater company whose large ensemble show is a success, but most of the cast resents the way he picks at who does what, his wife Anna most of all; she receives the greatest share of the audience's applause. Anna meets Lt. Andre Sobinski, a bomber pilot, in her dressing room while Frederick performs the Hamlet soliloquy. The German invasion of Poland ends their time together and Sobinski rejoins his squadron. The company works to keep the theater open despite Gestapo censorship. In England, Sobinski and the other Polish airmen of the Royal Air Force listen to the radio broadcaster Dr. Siletski, who says he is returning to Poland and offers to carry their messages to family members and to the Polish Underground.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about To Be or Not to Be (1983)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The 1983 remake replaced Anna's dresser from the 1942 original with a character named Sasha, a change the filmmakers made so the story could address the plight of gay people, who were also persecuted under the Nazis.
- Charles Durning's Oscar nomination for the film was picked by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert on their If We Picked the Winners special as the worst nomination of that year, because they felt he took a slot that could have gone to the cast of The Right Stuff or to Jeff Daniels.
- The 1983 remake reused dialogue from the 1942 original verbatim and merged that film's two lead characters, Bronski and Joseph Tura, into a single character played by Brooks.
