rolivire-1

Impressive and realistic movie about war on the Eastern Front in Estonia 1944. The Soviets are coming back as the German Army retreated with Estionians forced to fight eachother. For me it is quite understandable that the Soviet victors were suspicious about the loyalty of Estonian soldiers forced in the Red Army. "Red" because they were quite cruel to anybody not loyal to the Soviet Stalinistic system. Therefore the Soviet Army had real officers and "Political" officers (commissars) which ruled everything behind fighting. Because after 1945 Estonia would be occupied by the Soviet system for another 46 years, I am inclined to feel few sympathy for the Red Steamroller. That Estionians were fighting in the Waffen-SS was normal practise in the German Army, where all soldiers of foreign countries were drafted in the Waffen-SS. Waffen-SS divisions mostly got the more difficult tasks and were famous for their will to figjht under extreme difficult circumstances and hold the line were other units would have fled.

Most professional and very convincing were the grey glimpses of the famous German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in the background firing 8 inch HE shells on the assaulting Soviet troops when they attacked Saaremaa (Ösel) island from the Sörve (Sorbe) peninsula. These scenes are important high quality features to make the movie more authentic and valuable in my eyes, like the correct material, insigna's, emblems and uniforms. The T34/85's were also correctly depicted smashing German defensive lines and trenches and German soldiers could only reply with Panzerschreck, Panzerfausts and hand grenades. The Soviet sniper did his (ugly) duty when he silenced the German key defenders, like the one with the Panzerschreck.

That war is inhuman, cruel and horrible and that Estonians tragically were forced to fight eachother is extensively showed in this realistic war movie.

Rate this excellent movie as a true gem, next to Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood), Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman), Die Fälschung (Volker Schlöndorff), Stalingrad (Joseph Vilsmaier), Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen), Die Brücke (Bernhard Wicki) and Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick). Furthermore I am a dedicated fan of the movie "The Battle of Britain", which I saw at least a dozen of times like "The Longest Day" and my greatest war movie Inglorious Basterds (Valentino Tarantino) with Til Schweiger of The Red Baron/ Der Rote Baron.

This very impressive war movie shows the First World War from the view of the flyers from the German side: Manfred von Richthofen and his companions. It shows beautiful impressions of the front, the area behind the front, the aerial scenes (Baloons) and even a precious view in the once splendid capital Berlin with the crossing of Friedrich Strasse and Leipziger Strasse: the heart of imperial Berlin. No other movie about WW1 shows such ultra realistic and colorful impressions. The movie obviously was made around this "Impressionism" style and offer furthermore the love affair of Manfred with a Belgian nurse. She is now totally forgotten. The movie doesn't show how Manfred was shot down. This remains a mystery until today. Many complain about the script, but I personally have no problems with that. The actors performed very convincingly!!! Even the nurse, which was not from France but from the German provinces in Belgium. Heady is beautiful. Fiennes as Brown is British and alright! The Germans are all at least real Germans!!! This is an enormous quality, where Hollywood is terrible in all these aspects. Germans are also no superman losing their pilots in air combat and soldiers on the ground in even numbers compared to their enemies. War is pure attrition and the movie remains very loyal to this rule, unlike most other movies, were only the anonymous enemy takes the losses.

The left out scenes would have added great value to the already very well selected scenes. The only major flaw in the movie is that the Germans speak English. A minor point is that in front line scenes or night bombardment scene too many soldiers are hit within the view. That WW1 was bloody was clear to me, but these scenes were a little over the top. Music is also very moving and adds greatly to the atmosphere. The song at the end was also well chosen, a little "daring" and refers to Shirley Bassey. Altogether an unique war movie and true pictorial gem.

Beautiful movie with topics and acting FAR ABOVE what we are used to get from the States (Hollywood). Most people in this movie of Canet are in their best years of their lives (and above the average if looking at their attractiveness)and meet on a holiday in Les Landes, south of France. Beautiful back ground music and (no French) songs coupled to nice realistic scenes of people which enjoy their holidays, but also have many disputes with their "friends". Acting is phenomenal!!All scenes within 2 and half hours watching are realistic and recognizable to the observer. The movie shows that people need each other to be able to have sex and make joy. If someone fells ill or is badly wounded as in this movie Ludo, he (or she) can shake it, because people tend to pay attention only to those which can offer them good company, joy or sex. Still there are some very friendly en good characters in this movie which offer people their attention without asking something in return. And off course the women in this movie are very forgiving to their more egoistic male partners, as is the case in real life.......

Like "A midnight clear" another (rare) convincing Second World war war movie from the USA. Thanks to the members of a reenactment group in the USA the German soldiers of December 1944 (USA citizens!) are as authentic as they could be in their different camouflage outfits. This is exceptional for a war movie! They even speak more or less real German and even behave like Germans did.

The so called Malmedy Massacre is now revealed as a German reaction at panic driven US POW's which grab a rifle and shot a German soldier. The reaction was the (understandable) opening of fire from the Germans. They also were on the move and could not wait for following troops to deliver the POW's to the rear. So the incident provoked a fierce reaction. Like the treatment US paratroops in Normandy exercised on German POW's, the treatment of prisoners was not always in the line of the Geneva Convention and they were frequently shot by partisans, Germans, US and Soviet soldiers. The US soldiers (42th & 45th divisions) behaved outright criminal in the Biscari, Webling and Dachau incidents. They shot intentionally a comparable number of POW's, but did that on purpose (= murder). In Malmedy most US soldiers were not shot but already killed by long range tank canon fire before the incident. Many (43) survived however in the meadow. So the incident served the US Army well there after, masking their own bloodshed. When it became known it also stiffened the US opposition in the Ardennes.......

The firefight in the château near Lanin village the US soldiers shot a dozen Germans and lost two of their own. This firefight is very realistic although the losses are a little bit one sided but not so one sided compared to the bulk of the other "realistic"(?) war movies like Saving Private Ryan.

A fine realistic moving low budget movie with beautiful scenery and dramatic and beautiful music.

The destruction of the giant battleship by overwhelming Allied air power following the destruction from the air of 3 previous giant Axis battleships (Bismarck, Musashi and Tirpitz) was a gigantic tragedy of common enlisted soldiers defending their "fatherland".

The mission accomplished nothing but another one-sided slaughter of "obedient soldiers". This is the real tragedy of men educated for obedience. Germans and Japanese alike.

And they were killed with millions against overwhelming (and technically also superior) powers by an opportunistic and docile dictatorship, leaving behind millions of sorrowing wives and children which never saw much of their fathers.

Otoko-tachi no Yamato shows us the common Japanese soldiers as human beings. No propaganda at all, unlike so many US war movies.

Its counterpart was the German movie "Das Boot". The difference is that in Germany the process of showing World War II as it was started earlier than in Japan. Even the horrendous loss of the Wilhelm Gustloff (10.000 dead)has been shown in a movie on the German television recently. In Japan the horrors of WWII finally are being shown to the public. While Germany feels "very guilty" for many decades, this process in Japan not really has been started yet.