Die Nibelungen 2. Teil - Kriemhilds Rache (1967) User Reviews (6)

Epic based about the classic Germanic myths , Siegfried and Nibelungs

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 16 July 2005]

The film narrates upon a great hero , Siegfried , who meets the location where is stashed the treasure of the Nibelungos that's protected by a dwarf . He will have to guard it and confronting a lot of dangers and risks , but a bath in dragon's blood (exception a body part where falls one leaf) will become him invulnerable , vanquishing every enemies after various battles . But Hagen kills Siegfried and drops the gold in river Rhin . Brunilda dies and Krimilda (Siegfried'lover) will give birth a son who is also murdered and then she is married to Atila , King of Huns . Her brothers are invited by Atila to his luxurious palace where'll be developed an epic final battle .

This epic movie contains drama , action , thrills , legends and spectacular battles . Atila is a principal movie character , he invaded Germany and Galic (France) but was defeated by Aecio in Catalaunicos Fields (452 a.d.). He suddenly died in the wedding night . It's recently discovered a treasure near from Haelsinburg (Sweden) that's called the Atila gold and it can be the legendary Nibelungos treasure . The Nibelungs is based on known Germanic legends ; even Richard Wagner composed operas about the famous deeds : ¨Gold of Rhin¨ , ¨Walkirias cavalcade¨ , ¨the ring of Nibelungos¨ . Besides , inspiring to J. R.R. Tolkien and his ¨Lord of Rings¨ . In the film appears Terence Hill (Mario Girotti ); before his duo with Bud Spencer and previously becoming a spaghetti western hero . Karin Dor (director's wife , Harald Reilm) is attractive and enjoyable . There is a modern adaptation for television with Alicia Witt , Kristana Loken , Julian Sands and directed by Uli Lommel with moderated success , the classic mute version is directed by Fritz Lang and is the best considered . Rating : Good , Well worth seeing.

Mediocre retelling of the famous saga, inferior sequel

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 4 March 2015]

"Die Nibelungen, Teil 2 - Kriemhilds Rache" is the sequel to the Siegfried story. It also comes from director Harald Reinl, who is mostly known for his work on the Winnetou films these days. Also, the writer team is back from the first. Some of them also wrote on Winnetou and Reinl was also part of the writer team here. I liked how it summarized the first part in the first seven (of its slightly under 90) minutes, so you were right back into the story. Siegfried is obviously dead, so the actor from part 1 will not reappear. But just like him, Maria Marlow, the central actress in this film, has not done much film work before and after this, apparently only starred in an erotic drama. Kriemhild gets a child and plots her revenge against the murderer of her beloved Siegfried.

If you watched and liked the first part, you could give this one a chance. However, I have to say I was a bit disappointed and I can see how this sequel failed to get the Golden Screen here in Germany just like the first. This revenge tale just never really got me 100% involved with the story. The best thing about it is maybe that, if you don't know about the outcome, you may be really curious to see how things will unfold. Will Kriemhild have her revenge? What is going to happen to Etzel, Hagen and Brunhilde. She is played by Karen Dor by the way, maybe the most famous cast member, probably also the first listed for that reason. You may have seen her as a Bond girl or of course in her other collaborations with Reinl. The "Nibelungen" story is really popular and it is even common to read (parts of) it in German lessons at school as we did years ago, so I was a bit disappointed with the overall outcome, at least of the second part.

I cannot really recommend this movie. A nice little surprise was to see Terence Hill (still Mario Girotti at this point) in a small role before his movies with Bud Spencer. Of course, I also saw him in the first film, so it was not that much of a surprise. I personally felt that this film dragged at times and the whole second half basically only being about Kriemhild's bloody revenge and some not too convincing fight sequences had me longing for more in this 2nd part. It rarely reaches the quality of the first.

simply great

[liderc · 10/10 · 22 May 2002]

This is a great movie. Great directing, photography, score, script (I really liked the way they worked some of the older Nibelungenstories like the Thidreksaga and the Völsungsaga into it), and acting (Karin Dor is great as Brünhild, the actress playing Kriemhild is *awesome*, and Etzel is great, too). Most reviews of the Fritz Lang movies say that these two movies are crap, but they are not, whoever says this hasn't watched them!

But avoid the movie "Das Schwert der Nibelungen" aka "Those whom the Gods wish to destroy" (or something like this), they just cut together the two parts ("Siegfried" and "Kriemhilds Rache") to one single movie. And if you are fond of the score, get the 2-CD release by Cobra Records of the nearly complete score for the first and the second part.

Stodgy sequel to a fantasy epic

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 16 May 2016]

WHOM THE GODS WISH TO DESTROY 2 is the immediate follow-on from the first movie. With Siegfried dead thanks to treachery, Brunhilde now seeks revenge, but it won't be so easy as she is propelled into a complex political world in which everybody is out for him or herself.

I found this to be the lesser of the two films, although most of the cast and crew return for this follow-up; Herbert Lom is also along for the ride. The movie lacks a decent heroic lead like Siegfried in the first film and instead gets bogged down in overly convoluted plotting and intrigue. Karin Dor gives a fine performance, though, and the addition of Attila the Hun to the storyline can only be a good thing.

Whereas the first movie was an all-out fantasy epic, WHOM THE GODS WISH TO DESTROY 2 goes for more of an action-adventure template, culminating in some large battle scenes which are fairly well achieved on what must have been a limited budget. However, the film as a whole is a bit bogged down with its own importance, and just not as much fun as the first instalment.

Just great

[searchanddestroy-1 · 14 July 2014]

I love this kind of soap opera, a terrific feud, a true tragedy, with no real lead, no hero here. Just tragedy. No real good vs evil scheme. At least from my own point of view. A legend with nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland nor White Snow for sissies.

I love this one, as I love the Fritz Lang version too. I guess this legend is very close to GAME OF THRONES...

Maybe there were many of this kind of tales with no one survivor in the end. So delightful. If this kind of stuff exist, it is from Europe, certainly not from US. American and their ever f...happy ending for sissies.

Titles

[valtonsilka · 8/10 · 9 June 2005]

The picture wasn't shown for a long time in Brazil, by the end of the 60's, but only for a curiosity, the title was translated to "Are the gods dead??", with quotation mark.

Herbert Lom was a very known actor and European pictures were (and still are) extremely rare on Brazilian screens, whose exhibitions contemplated mostly American movies.

As for the translation of the title, it represented a cultural expression of that time, by insinuating that the "pagan saga" remained within "german" culture, and their influences would persist latent and dangerous, those "gods" were still alive.