IMDb RATING
7.0/10
451
YOUR RATING
A filmmaker explores the lives and deaths of her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed as spies in 1953.A filmmaker explores the lives and deaths of her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed as spies in 1953.A filmmaker explores the lives and deaths of her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed as spies in 1953.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Photos
Bob Considine
- Self - International News Service
- (archive footage)
J. Edgar Hoover
- Self
- (archive footage)
Joseph McCarthy
- Self - Senator
- (archive footage)
Richard Nixon
- Self - Vice President
- (archive footage)
David Greenglass
- Self - Ethel Rosenberg's brother
- (archive footage)
Emanuel Bloch
- Self - the Rosenbergs' attorney
- (archive footage)
Jenny Meeropol
- Self - granddaughter of the Rosenbergs
- (archive footage)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaShortlisted for Best Documentary Feature for the 2003 Academy Awards.
- Quotes
Ivy Meeropol: I have to be honest with you, a lot of people don't really wants to talk to me... people are afraid.
- SoundtracksUn Bel Di
Madame Butterfly
performed by Oksana Krovytska
Featured review
Much more than a political documentary
The names Julius and Ethel Rosenberg bring on a sweeping sensation of treason. They have become the poster-children for anti-American hatred and fear of foreign ideology. But to some, the names mean mother and father; grandmother and grandfather.
I must admit, before I saw this film I didn't even know the Rosenbergs had children. This is left out of history lessons since, after all, what did that have to do with anything? Heir to an Execution, a sensitive and thoughtful documentary from Rosenberg granddaughter Ivy Meeropol, sheds light into a shadowy area of communist spies and family tightness.
Meeropol's film begins questioning the famed Rosenberg's death sentences by interviewing old friends and socialist peers. A door is opened into their world in a way I had never seen. Hated so fiercely by the rest of America, these revolutionaries have found their way from prisons to retirement homes.
What is far more interesting, however, is what comes next. As Meeropol tracks her grandparents' lives to the electric chair the question of her father and uncle arise. What exactly did happen to them during the chaos? And more importantly, what was to be done with them after the inevitable? Political documentaries are sometimes dry and are often as subtle as a man with a stick pointing at an easel. Heir to an Execution is different. Meeropol raises doubts to at least part of the Rosenberg trial, if not all of it, while at the same time documenting the life of a wonderful man, her father. In the end we don't know which is more important, the Rosenberg injustice or the chronicle of a distinguished life whose path you would not expect winding up here. **** out of ****
I must admit, before I saw this film I didn't even know the Rosenbergs had children. This is left out of history lessons since, after all, what did that have to do with anything? Heir to an Execution, a sensitive and thoughtful documentary from Rosenberg granddaughter Ivy Meeropol, sheds light into a shadowy area of communist spies and family tightness.
Meeropol's film begins questioning the famed Rosenberg's death sentences by interviewing old friends and socialist peers. A door is opened into their world in a way I had never seen. Hated so fiercely by the rest of America, these revolutionaries have found their way from prisons to retirement homes.
What is far more interesting, however, is what comes next. As Meeropol tracks her grandparents' lives to the electric chair the question of her father and uncle arise. What exactly did happen to them during the chaos? And more importantly, what was to be done with them after the inevitable? Political documentaries are sometimes dry and are often as subtle as a man with a stick pointing at an easel. Heir to an Execution is different. Meeropol raises doubts to at least part of the Rosenberg trial, if not all of it, while at the same time documenting the life of a wonderful man, her father. In the end we don't know which is more important, the Rosenberg injustice or the chronicle of a distinguished life whose path you would not expect winding up here. **** out of ****
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Heir to an Execution
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
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Top Gap
By what name was Heir to an Execution: A Granddaughter's Story (2004) officially released in Canada in English?
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