User Reviews

This two part TV-movie was part of a three movie box set of not so well known war movies that we bought for my son as a Christmas present. So far we have watched two of them and they have both been worthwhile to watch.

Unfortunately we found out that this one was one of those cheap DVD's that some arrogant French publisher had dumped on a DVD dubbed to French only. No original language and not even subtitles. That's just so crappy but unfortunately this used to be quite common with DVD's in France and there was no way of seeing it without opening the box set.

Anyway, the movie itself is actually not bad. It spans three hours split into two one and a half hour episodes. The actual story is pure fiction loosely based on the bomb conspiracy theories. It is a fairly okay thriller/drama story and, despite knowing that the zeppelin is going to blow up, I took enough interest to follow the characters throughout the movie.

It was fun to see Stacy Keach again as well. I always liked watching Mike Hammer when I was younger.

The visual effects are not bad. Some people are probably going to complain about historical accuracy. The available space for the passengers, especially their sleeping compartments, seems to have been "enlarged" somewhat for the benefit of the visual impression but that doesn't really bother me that much. It's a fiction movie based on the Hindenburg disaster, not a historical documentary after all.

The one thing that bothered me, apart from the French only DVD version, was the way too modern music in the movie. It's supposed to be a 1937 setting so that modern e-guitar stuff was simply disturbing. Very poor choice indeed.

The film I saw was only about two hours including adverts so must have been cut from the three hours mentioned in the listing.

I think this movie is a good mix of mainly fictional plot, history, politics, relationships, romance, drama, some suspense and surprise, photography and special effects but one character that didn't work for me was the lead man who was too wooden and passive, yet could perform heroic feats throughout the movie including emerging unscathed and apparently totally unaffected from the most trying of situations!

Throughout the movie there are the usual unlikely circumstances, contrivances and coincidences in which our hero succeeds where common sense says he couldn't possibly do so.

I am by no means a James Bond expert but perhaps this could be seen in some ways as a poor example of a film with a lot of similarities in the format to James Bond films, as the best way to describe the genre perhaps. (A man on a mission, heroic exploits, political intrigue and a relationship with a girl!).

This would-be epic suffers from all the flaws that the filmmakers should have feared going into the project: the (largely) German actors cannot quite overcome the transatlantic journey (so to speak), the production values can't justify the magnitude of the scenes, and the script feels like an unsuccessful rekindling of old-fashioned B-movie melodrama, arguably for no other purpose than to fill the three hours needed to make this into a TV mini-series. Subsequently released on home media in various formats, it's hard to believe it would be possible to edit this to greatness. So Robert Wise's 1975 version remains the best filmatization of the famous zeppelin disaster.

The Hindenburg disaster had interested me for years and there have been a number of good documentary features as well as a quite decent Hollywood movie. Now, RTL Germany wanted to impress its viewers with a 10 Million Euro spectacle of the tragic disaster - mixed with a lot of drama, suspense and love of course. What sounds quite intriguing at first quickly unfolds to a beginners guide on how to waste 10 Million Euros.

In the first minute of the film I was amazed, that the opening titles already contained the best images of the Zeppelin SFX Explosion - a thing which I would have saved for the very last. Then, the viewer has to endure annoying E-Guitar music for the first few scenes. This film is supposed to be set in 1937 so the musical choice is a definite let-down right from the start and continues to bother me as a viewer in repetitive manner.

The cast of the US-German production mainly consists of well-known German actors and internationally renowned names like Greta Scacchi, Stacy Keach and Lauren Lee Smith. Despite a good line-up of actors, the characters can only be described as boring and stereotypical which hints to a poor and uninspired script.

Although the plot is supposedly built around the Hindenburg disaster, the viewer is dragged for 3 long hours through an almost ridiculous storyline with a few twists and turns that eventually lead up to the films climax. The initial idea behind the script is good and would have made quite a nice 2 hour feature film - but not more.

My conclusion after having seen the entire film is simple: Too much dramatization, weak characters, a bad musical score but still nice Special and Visual effects. Nevertheless, effects don't necessarily make a good movie and giving a tragedy like the Hindenburg explosion the modern day "Disaster-Movie-Treatment" the way it was done here can only be considered as shameless and embarrassing.

I enjoyed this version better than the 1975 Hollywood production simply because it wasn't filled with anti-German propaganda. Was obvious that the 1975 movie wasn't made to educate people on the Hindenburg or to simply entertain, but to add more and more "instruction" on the horrors of National Socialist Germany. I also enjoyed the modern music and the hint of a love story without all the typical heavy panting love scenes. Yes, some of the acting was wooden but the effects were much more believable than the 1975 version. I also enjoyed the gliding scene at the beginning of the movie as this was a popular activity in 1930's Germany. All in all I found this was a worthwhile distraction from a boring evening without the usual Hollywood political BS that usually accompanies these types of movies.

Nothing is certain when it comes to why the Hindenburg really went down, when it did. St. Elmo's fire is highly probably. Was big business and political pressures could easily are and likely at the heart of it. When did BIG OIL ever care about who died, who was poisoned, or who burned? The War machine wants what it wants and would stop it nothing to get what it wants. George C. Scott's Hindenburg doesn't go that far, this version does. No reason to slam the film. acting, writing or today's historical interpretation of what may have happened in 1937. We know today, that all major American banks and families did business with Hitler, from big oil to Ford. Bank's lent money, and lots of it. Governments were manipulated and the war machines got their infusions.

Watch this move and learn that not everything is as it seems. Indeed today's manipulator's learned their craft long ago. Nothing new, just another generation. This movie is solid, never weak on acting, never fake or poorly done, completely professional.

Stupid direction, horrible music, weak lead actors. Some of the visual effects are good. I was weirdly entertained for the first 20 minutes. This movie is certainly unique in its shallowness and awkwardness. Almost funny.

The story: an abstruse, hair dragged conspiracy theory with more holes in it than Swiss cheese. The acting: poor and wooden as matchsticks. The directing: boring, awfully bad and totally uninspired (in every dialog scene throughout the film the director uses the same over shoulder shots). But the most annoying part of the film: the male protagonist's haircut! I could go on with that list, but it would be endless, because this film has nothing good to offer. NOTHING!

So why does RTL always manage to come up with nothing than total rubbish when they spent a fortune making a TV movie? The answer: They don't know what GOOD really is!

Just watch the special effects....they were good! Skip the rest. Dubbing of actors voices was dreadful, plot was padded out with cheesy love story that wasn't needed, commercial jet vapour trails in the sky??....errr...wake up director!! Dreadful modern rock music totally wrecked the atmosphere of the movie.

As others have commented...why show the best special effects of the whole movie in the opening scene?? How Daft!

In my opinion this movie was dumbed down for a modern young audience to watch for entertainment, not to educate with historical information. Overall, poor!

Effects are good, and actors do what they can, the director should consider selling shoes, no idea about how people behave naturally, boring facial scenes stretched to infinity... The script is not even worth the title. What a shame.

I found it rather good considering it is a German production. I would dare say it was at least as good as Hollywood films about the same subject. I also found the acting convincing. I watched it in German, a language which I speak fluently.

The miniseries was not good. The acting was bad and not convincing, the whole "bomb theory" plot was eh. And the CGI was alright from the outside. From the inside it was, terrible.

After viewing the 1975 Hindenbug disaster movie, I searched for another one and found this one. Blah. I wish I had never found it, although it did make one care about what happened to some of the characters on the vessel. It starts off strangely with bizarre music for a story set in the 1930s, however, and doesn't end when it should have ended.

The hero, whose name I have forgotten, is involved in some brutal fights, too, as well as being tortured by a Gestapo agent. The bloody violence is appalling, but the hero was able to wash away all blood, bruising, swelling and most cuts with water! Like most cast members, he appears to be German, but speaks English. I guess it was a dub job.

There is a actor/performer on the vessel who is a psychic or something. He is interesting, but a handkerchief act with a teenage girl passenger almost made him seem like a possible pervert. He did have a nice looking dog, however, and the dog does survive. (Yes, that's a spoiler, but all dog lovers would like to know that fact.)

The disaster itself was spectaculer, with fireballs instantly killing passengers, which is better than seeing them on fire or with bad burns. Unfortunately, some are seen on fire or with bad burns, but it's usually not too graphic. (The beatings the hero took were far more graphic!) Strangely, the story goes on with unfinished business after the disaster. Blah. This movie was too dull, too violent and too European. Why are fictional Hindenburg films such a waste of time?

I did not understand what the black guy was doing in this movie. just out of place.