Shoah Blu-ray: Criterion Collection Review

Shoah, spine #663, is now available on Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection.

There are movies that are difficult to watch because of their violence, subject matter, or emotional intensity, and then there is Shoah. Claude Lanzmann’s monumental 1985 documentary runs more than nine hours and examines the Holocaust without relying on the archival footage audiences have become accustomed to seeing in documentaries about the subject. Instead, Lanzmann allows people to speak.

Survivors recount experiences that remain almost impossible to comprehend. Witnesses describe what they saw. Lanzmann also interviews perpetrators and others connected to the machinery of extermination. Their words are juxtaposed against locations where the atrocities occurred, photographed decades later. Trains still move along tracks. Grass grows. Communities continue around places where unimaginable crimes happened.

That approach makes Shoah extraordinarily demanding, but also gives the film its enduring power. Lanzmann isn’t simply documenting history. He demonstrates how memories of the Holocaust continued to exist within the people and places that survived it. Criterion’s four-disc Blu-ray edition treats Shoah with the seriousness its historical and cinematic importance demands, pairing the 566-minute film with an extensive collection of additional material.

Why Shoah matters

Calling Shoah an important documentary almost feels inadequate. Lanzmann spent more than a decade making the film, ultimately constructing it around firsthand testimony rather than archival imagery. There are no dramatic recreations attempting to visualize what happened. Instead, much of the horror exists within people’s recollections and the viewer’s understanding of what occurred in the locations Lanzmann photographs.

That restraint can somehow make the experience even more devastating. At more than nine hours, Shoah requires an enormous commitment from the viewer. It isn’t something most people will casually revisit, nor should its length be mistaken for excess. The accumulation of testimony is fundamental to what Lanzmann is doing. Individual memories gradually become part of something almost incomprehensibly large. Few films demonstrate the importance of preserving firsthand historical testimony as powerfully as Shoah.

Video quality

Criterion presents Shoah from a 2K digital restoration in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio. The image retains the natural characteristics of its source rather than attempting to make the documentary look artificially modern. Detail is strong, particularly in faces and landscapes, while the restoration maintains the texture of the original photography. Considering the age, length, and circumstances under which much of the material was filmed, the presentation is impressive.

Audio quality

Shoah is presented with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack. This obviously isn’t a release designed to showcase a home theater, but clarity is essential when a film depends so completely upon testimony. Voices are clean and intelligible, while environmental sounds retain their natural presence. It’s an appropriately faithful presentation of the original soundtrack.

Special features

• A Visitor from the Living (1999)
• Sobibór, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m. (2001)
• The Karski Report (2010)
• Conversation between Claude Lanzmann and critic Serge Toubiana
• 2003 interview with Lanzmann
• Interview with Caroline Champetier and Arnaud Desplechin
• All I Had Was Nothingness (2025)
• Trailer
• Essay by Kent Jones
• Writings by Claude Lanzmann

Calling these merely “special features” almost undersells what Criterion has assembled. Three additional Lanzmann films substantially expand upon subjects connected to Shoah, while the interviews provide valuable context surrounding Lanzmann’s methodology and production. Guillaume Ribot’s All I Had Was Nothingness, assembled from previously unreleased footage from the production of Shoah, is an especially significant addition. Combined with the written material, the supplements turn this into something closer to an archival collection than a conventional Blu-ray release.

Packaging and presentation

Criterion spreads the film and supplements across four Blu-ray discs, which is understandable considering the extraordinary amount of material included. The release features new cover artwork by Sam Smith and Criterion’s typically thoughtful presentation. More importantly, the substantial accompanying material makes this feel like an edition designed for preservation and study rather than simply another catalog release.

Does it have a slipcover? No

Does it feature original artwork? Yes

Does it include a digital copy? No

Is it worth buying on Blu-ray?

For anyone seriously interested in documentary filmmaking, Holocaust history, or film preservation, absolutely.

The film alone would justify a carefully produced physical edition, but Criterion has surrounded it with hours of material that expands its historical and cinematic context. The inclusion of three additional Lanzmann films makes the package particularly substantial, while All I Had Was Nothingness adds another perspective on how this extraordinary project came together.

This is exactly the type of film for which physical media remains important. Streaming availability can change. A carefully restored, extensively supplemented physical edition creates something permanent.

Is it worth a blind purchase?

This is considerably more complicated.

Shoah is 566 minutes long and deals almost exclusively with one of the darkest events in human history. It is emotionally exhausting, deliberately methodical, and unlike virtually any conventional documentary.

Someone simply looking to expand a Criterion collection should understand what that commitment entails before spending nearly ten hours with the film.

For viewers interested in the subject or documentary cinema, however, Shoah isn’t merely something to watch. It is an extraordinary historical document and a singular achievement in nonfiction filmmaking.

Criterion has given it the kind of physical-media edition such a work deserves.