Kolberg isn't remotely a good movie, but at the same time it's no worse than 99.9 percent of the tripe that is and has always been made by Hollywood. It's hard to objectively discuss this film because of having to precede any actual comments with obligatory expressions of PC horror. But even more so, the quality of the copy in general circulation is so terrible it is difficult to form a fair opinion of how the film does or does not work as a piece of entertainment and or art. The structure of what I saw is so far beyond episodic as to be virtually incomprehensible at times - and I doubt that a film this professional on other levels could ever originally have been so choppy and unclear. It looks to be very heavily edited, with a meat cleaver, by a blind person. Perhaps it was cut to remove as much material as possible that would make the German cause sympathetic, or perhaps just for length (it is still quite a long movie). The color (in the copy I have) is close to indescribable. In fact, when a friend asked me if I saw it in color, it took me a few minutes to think of a way to answer him. It isn't color and it isn't black and white - but it is hideous and must be far, far removed from what Kolberg originally looked like. It's got a cast of thousands, impressive and beautiful (or so it seems through the dim veil of putrid picture quality that I experienced) locations and sets and some good acting, particularly by the patriarchal male lead. The person who plays the Queen of Prussia is outstandingly beautiful. As to 'horrible' 'terrifying' etc., propaganda, Kolberg is much subtler and less specific than the typical exercise for the moron millions churned out by Hollywood such as Casablanca, or any number of movies in which Errol Flynn or Harrison Ford single-handedly-defeats-the (fill in the blank), etc. I find it rather refreshing to get another perspective, as the old one is wearing quite thin these 60 years after 'freedom' supposedly won, and all that. Kolberg's effectiveness as propaganda (the dark days descending over Germany) is interestingly substantiated in the history of genocidal mass rape and murder of Germany civilians in the wake of the Soviet conquest of just the provinces in which Kolberg is set. That the leading actor - an actor, not a politician - was starved to death in a Soviet (you remember the Soviets - our allies in right vs. wrong, freedom vs. slavery World War II?) concentration camp in 1946 certainly gives a certain air of credence to the pronouncements of the film.
Review of Burning Hearts
