WAR IS BAD - RAPE IS BAD. If you don't know or appreciate these moral values, then perhaps you should see this movie.
WAR IS BAD - AND IS OFTEN WORSE THAN JUST KILLING BECAUSE OF THE HUMAN TOLL OF RAPE, HUMILIATION, AND PERSONAL MORAL COMPROMISES IN THE WAKE OF THE HORRORS OF WAR. If you don't know this fact, then perhaps you should see this movie.
Other than being the living epitome of the lessons set out above, this movie offers next to NOTHING in terms of the sorts of dramatic tension, human emotion, character development, or other aspects of film that can make the movie-going experience so rich.
OK - so you can read the other reviews to learn that this true story provides an interesting, hushed-up perspective of World War II relating to the horrors of war, mass rape, and living within a world in which mass rape and horror are daily occurrences.
Like the opening minutes of Saving Private Ryan, this movie provides a first-person point of view of the horrors of war. However, whereas Private Ryan spends 20 minutes or so jarring the audience into the requisite horrific frame of mind - before reverting to a more-traditional storytelling mode, A Woman in Berlin is mired from the beginning to the end in a nearly unending parade of horrors including rape, rape, rape, death, fear, intimidation,coercion, personal moral compromises, loneliness, darkness, explosions, death, rape, and fear.
While I appreciate that the move may be interesting from a historical perspective as a window to a little-known perspective on the closing days of World War II, the movie offers little else.
In this movie we learn that the Germans treated the Soviets badly, that the Soviets treated the Germans badly, that the Germans had more money than the socialist Soviets, that soviet soldiers raped German women, that the soviets had women soldiers, that the Soviet army was culturally divers including Mongols, Ukrainians, Russians and others, that people living in a occupied country make moral compromises in order to survive, that some people can't live with the compromises that they make, that human emotions are still alive during wartime, and that rape is bad, war is bad, and that the whole mess is unfortunate.
If you want to experience how horrible war is - go see this movie. It is perhaps the most uncomfortable, least enjoyable movie-going experience I have ever had. Perhaps that is the point of the makers. If so, they succeeded.
If you are looking for a challenging, thinking film - this movie is not for you. If you are looking for an unblinking look at the horrors of war - and little else - go see this movie.
WAR IS BAD - AND IS OFTEN WORSE THAN JUST KILLING BECAUSE OF THE HUMAN TOLL OF RAPE, HUMILIATION, AND PERSONAL MORAL COMPROMISES IN THE WAKE OF THE HORRORS OF WAR. If you don't know this fact, then perhaps you should see this movie.
Other than being the living epitome of the lessons set out above, this movie offers next to NOTHING in terms of the sorts of dramatic tension, human emotion, character development, or other aspects of film that can make the movie-going experience so rich.
OK - so you can read the other reviews to learn that this true story provides an interesting, hushed-up perspective of World War II relating to the horrors of war, mass rape, and living within a world in which mass rape and horror are daily occurrences.
Like the opening minutes of Saving Private Ryan, this movie provides a first-person point of view of the horrors of war. However, whereas Private Ryan spends 20 minutes or so jarring the audience into the requisite horrific frame of mind - before reverting to a more-traditional storytelling mode, A Woman in Berlin is mired from the beginning to the end in a nearly unending parade of horrors including rape, rape, rape, death, fear, intimidation,coercion, personal moral compromises, loneliness, darkness, explosions, death, rape, and fear.
While I appreciate that the move may be interesting from a historical perspective as a window to a little-known perspective on the closing days of World War II, the movie offers little else.
In this movie we learn that the Germans treated the Soviets badly, that the Soviets treated the Germans badly, that the Germans had more money than the socialist Soviets, that soviet soldiers raped German women, that the soviets had women soldiers, that the Soviet army was culturally divers including Mongols, Ukrainians, Russians and others, that people living in a occupied country make moral compromises in order to survive, that some people can't live with the compromises that they make, that human emotions are still alive during wartime, and that rape is bad, war is bad, and that the whole mess is unfortunate.
If you want to experience how horrible war is - go see this movie. It is perhaps the most uncomfortable, least enjoyable movie-going experience I have ever had. Perhaps that is the point of the makers. If so, they succeeded.
If you are looking for a challenging, thinking film - this movie is not for you. If you are looking for an unblinking look at the horrors of war - and little else - go see this movie.