User Reviews

February 1944, a military academy in southern Germany "fabricates" new officers. The educators are a modly crew of Officers with front-experience, without frontexperience, nazi-fanatics and opportunists. The general in charge of the academy is one of the frontexperienced officers, who is using reason and is focused on the task. Not paying too much attention on backdoor politics until a young Lieutenantlooses his live in a blasting "accident". The General does not believe in an accident and entrust's another frontexperienced officer with the investigation of the incident. The truth will be a dangerous truth, and the abyss for honest officers. There is an amazingly wide range of characters pitted against each other, that you will find in simular institutions today. A lot of backstabbing, betrayal and the absence of compassion. Painful in it's conclusion and truthfulness, this movie will probably have a difficult time to reach a larger audience. The universal message of yesterday still holds truth today. Indeed a very underrated movie, and a rare gem.

This movie has a style and acting quality of the 50:s, more like the three "08/15" movies than anything produced in 1989. Also the music...makes me wonder in what decade the film was actually made.

The story is somehow vague, and it is difficult to connect to any thoughts on how it actually was in those late days of WWII. Most movies, good or bad, try to depict some feeling, some theme or some statement on what the director wants to come through with. This completely fails in this film, possibly due to the lame acting. Kirst's book is a masterpiece and gives, obviously without any pictures, a far better feeling of the times.

One of the few positives is that the film is actually German, meaning that the language is correct.