Product Description

HAVEN is a stirring true story featuring an incredible cast of Hollywood stars! Ruth Gruber (Natasha Richardson -- MAID IN MANHATTAN, WAKING UP IN RENO) is an American journalist who, against the wishes of her parents (Anne Bancroft -- G.I. JANE -- and Martin Landau -- ED WOOD), volunteers for a treacherous wartime mission: escort nearly 1,000 Jewish prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp to a relocation site in upstate New York. But back in America, Gruber realizes her work with the refugees is far from done and she bravely battles against both bureaucracy and prejudice to win dignity and fair treatment for the new settlers. Also featuring William Peterson (TV's CSI), Hal Holbrook (THE MAJESTIC, THE FIRM), and Colm Feore (THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, CHICAGO), this emotionally charged motion picture was based on Ruth Gruber's unforgettable book!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52150 in DVD
• Brand: Miramax
• Released on: 2005-09-06
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 180 minutes

Customer Reviews

Haven -- (originally a TV Miniseries)
This film is a somewhat idealized and liberally adapted dramatization of a WWII event that was sadly unique: The transportation in 1944 of 892 Jewish refugees from the Holocaust to the United States -- the only ones allowed on U.S. soil throughout the War. They were sheltered at Fort Ontario, Oswego, NY for the rest of the war. Eventually, they were allowed to immigrate under the various immigration quotas. I happen to be one of the lucky individuals in that shipment. And although I can say that the story is less than 100 percent accurate, the film is very successful in its presentation and impact.

Starring as Ruth Gruber, the overseer of the project, is Natasha Richardson, delivering her lines in an amazingly authentic Brooklyn accent characteristic of Gruber, no small achievement for an English actress. Anne Bancroft and Martin Landau play her parents and William Petersen and Hal Holbrook play US congressmen.

The 3-hour-plus film is loaded with drama and tension and holds together very admirably. Most notably, the film gives the viewer an intriguing snapshot of America in the midst of the war and the attitudes of her people toward refugees. I might add that it also gives an equally graphic picture of the refugees' impressions of America and Americans.

Haven
Excellently done! We have no idea what so many people went through as they sought to live to the end of WWII.

Not worth it!
The movie is not historically accurate and feels like some kind of one-sided propaganda.It seems like the story is really told from a Jewish perspective.The story of the people is sad but the theme is the same and the plot of the story is actually a bit tedious to handle for too long.