User Reviews

"The Silent Mountain" or "Der stille Berg" is an Austrian movie from two years ago, 2014. The director is Ernst Gossner and the writer is Clemens Aufderklamm and these two are probably the main reason why this is credited here on IMDb as a German-language film, even if there are also several other languages spoken during these 100 minutes. This multi-cultural touch comes mostly from lead actor William Moseley, but also from several of the supporting players, including the pretty legendary Italian actress Claudia Cardinale. The only other cast member I am somewhat familiar with in here is Austrian actor Fritz Karl, who plays a bit of an antagonist. Unfortunately, this film is just another example of how it seems to be so much more difficult to make a great film about World War I than about World War II. I found none of the action too interesting and same can be said about the characters. This is especially a negative deal-breaker as the entire film basically relies on you caring for the main character's love relationship with the biggest supporting character. But this part did not convince me at all and this is a bit surprising as it is usually the war action that I care the least about in these kind of films. But here it was possibly the best aspect of the entire film, or maybe the second best closely behind the occasionally stunning cinematography. As the title already tells us, a lot of the action takes place in the mountains and it's a great location for every gifted cinematographer of course. There was one scene in particular when we the the snowy mountainside from far far up high and see occasional explosions and this also showed us how small we and our struggles are in the grand scheme of things I guess. But this description from me should also tell people that this film is, for the most part, a case of style over substance and I think really only those should see it who have a huge huge interest in World War I and have basically seen everything else, so they restrict themselves to it. Thumbs down from me and I suggest you watch something else instead.

Austrian soldiers died on top of the mountain at ending. Andreas run away with his loved one. His sisters husband died. What is his sister going to do with her new born baby? What happen to his mom and the hotel?

The starting was awesome with perfect character development. But ending clearly showed that the director was out of new ideas. Ended like commercial film. Nothing is great in this movie on ending. Wasted!!

A story about one of the less important frontlines of World War 1, the one in the Dolomites between Austria and Italy - one of the crazier battlefields in human history, allegedly more men died there by natural causes (weather, rockfall, avalanches ...) than by enemy hands. Many of the trenches, military roads and fortifications are still there - monuments to the insanity of war, as this production tries to be.

If you're shooting a war movie, there's no shortage of examples. The best comparison here, I think, would be "Das Boot" - a group of men, none of them really interested in politics, most of them simply drafted - fighting against a mostly unseen enemy and the forces of nature and modern warfare. While "The Silent Mountain" manages to stand its ground, it loses every single point to "Das Boot". Instead of focusing on the young men (William Moseley's performance leaves nothing to be desired, most other actors do a fine job, too), the writer decided to include some family drama (nice cameo by Claudia Cardinale) including a hopeless love story, as well as a subplot with a villain down in the valley and an over-the-top Italian commander - not badly written, but those distract very much from the main theme, and take away some impact.

Apart from those script problems, everything works, and the production values are OK despite some serious problems the crew ran into because of the harsh outdoor conditions - some members were hit by lightning, and their main battlefield set was washed away in a landslide before they could use it. As a result, there's less battlefield scenes than planned, but those that remain still give a good impression.

Not the best war movie, but far from a bad one.