"Die vergessene Armee" or "The Forgotten Army" is a German documentary movie from 2017 and the most recent filmmaking credit for writer and director Signe Astrup. The name sounds Danish and I guess this is correct because you hear her occasionally during the film when she interviews some of the protagonist. Now I must say I am always a bit skeptical when filmmakers also fill the interviewer role in their movie because not everybody is Werner Herzog and can make it work really well, but with these slightly under 1.5 hours my criticism is justified. I did not think Astrup added too much here gently-speaking, so I was kinda glad she was not included that often. There is even one occasion when an interviewee is aksed something and she does not understand the response. The response may not have been child educational level, but it was simple enough for everybody with an interest in the subject to know what he means. So I am not sure if Astrup lacked that interest/knowledge or if the language barrier got in the way. In any case, she should have picked somebody else for the interviews or at least exclused her voice. So as a consequence I can only say that I am not too curious about other films she made in the past or will make in the future judging from her effort here. Also the camera work was extremely weak at times because it was moving in situations during which it totally shouldn't have, especially at the very beginning, but not just there. Overall, from the neutral technical perspective, if we leave the specific contents completely aside, this was not a good film and I can see why not really many watched it judging from the ratings here on imdb and that it is shown on national television before noon even.
Luckily, German history is something that has always caught my interest, so from a biased perspective things got a little better for me here. Not really in the first half. The interviewees there and the material as well were not as memorable as they could have been. Not bad either, but given the subject, there was not really much that you have not heard about or seen in other films and documentaries, so this was a bit disappointing because I felt that the people had more to deliver than they were given the chance to. The GDR is probably in second place for me after the years 1933-1945 when it comes to crucial eras in Germany history, so I could still draw somethhing from all that. Luckily, things got a little better int he second half with this interesting group of "soldiers" who participate in parades that are generally criticized by the public nowadays, even if they see themselves in a pretty positive way, appreciated even. The contrast with the papers there was maybe not too good. I mean it is alright Astrup wants to give us different perspectives, but I felt it was a little disrespectful towards these men. And it is arguable if the basic court coverage should be included. It also felt a bit like sensationalism to me and went too far away from the core story. The final meeting where the Internationale was sung though felt interesting. There was also that elderly lady with the cute loving husband and when she talked about the night when the Wall fell, it was really good and accurate. I am glad she was included because her statement there how she needed pills to sleep and next day her country was gone and it was a tragedy to her is really something where many people still see it exactly this way. Not positive as you could think. Even in my family. But I do not want to get much further into detail there. I believe this is a documentary this could have turned out a lot better than it actually did and it is a really close call between thumbs-up and thumbs-down for me, but the second half, especially the last 20 minutes saved it a bit, so I am going for a positive recommendation here, even if there are obvious flaws like also that the film did not even come close to delivering half the emotional impact it would have liked to deliver. And as for Astrup, please stay completely behind the camera next time, also audibly. Cautious thumbs-up for the overall project, but not really an outcome that will sparkle your interest if you haven't had it before already.
Luckily, German history is something that has always caught my interest, so from a biased perspective things got a little better for me here. Not really in the first half. The interviewees there and the material as well were not as memorable as they could have been. Not bad either, but given the subject, there was not really much that you have not heard about or seen in other films and documentaries, so this was a bit disappointing because I felt that the people had more to deliver than they were given the chance to. The GDR is probably in second place for me after the years 1933-1945 when it comes to crucial eras in Germany history, so I could still draw somethhing from all that. Luckily, things got a little better int he second half with this interesting group of "soldiers" who participate in parades that are generally criticized by the public nowadays, even if they see themselves in a pretty positive way, appreciated even. The contrast with the papers there was maybe not too good. I mean it is alright Astrup wants to give us different perspectives, but I felt it was a little disrespectful towards these men. And it is arguable if the basic court coverage should be included. It also felt a bit like sensationalism to me and went too far away from the core story. The final meeting where the Internationale was sung though felt interesting. There was also that elderly lady with the cute loving husband and when she talked about the night when the Wall fell, it was really good and accurate. I am glad she was included because her statement there how she needed pills to sleep and next day her country was gone and it was a tragedy to her is really something where many people still see it exactly this way. Not positive as you could think. Even in my family. But I do not want to get much further into detail there. I believe this is a documentary this could have turned out a lot better than it actually did and it is a really close call between thumbs-up and thumbs-down for me, but the second half, especially the last 20 minutes saved it a bit, so I am going for a positive recommendation here, even if there are obvious flaws like also that the film did not even come close to delivering half the emotional impact it would have liked to deliver. And as for Astrup, please stay completely behind the camera next time, also audibly. Cautious thumbs-up for the overall project, but not really an outcome that will sparkle your interest if you haven't had it before already.
