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Reviews
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Only true victim is humanity
What more can be said then the underlying principle being demonstrated in this film that great injustices to the masses start with an injustice to one person.
Further illustrated is that it is not the maniacal or crazed that creates and expands a culture of injustice but the willing, self-preserving actions of cultured, intelligent people who knew better and looked the other way.
The character of Madame Bertolt showed how charming and beautiful one can be, and yet compromised by such weakness... even more so than Lancaster's portrayal of Janning.
What worth is it to save a country by a means that makes the country not worth saving?
Max Schelling's role as the defender was astoundingly good, even as his character sought out accessories to the crimes against humanity including Stalin, Churchill and American Industrialists to excuse his client's actions. As the judge played by Tracy stated, the only one complaining at the bar is humanity itself.
Schultze Gets the Blues (2003)
Come ready with the putty to fill the gaps...
"Schutlze gets the blues" has a promising premise but at least Americans not well versed in German culture and language, you will have to fill in a lot of gaps. You will have to make a lot of assumptions as to what is happening in the story, for the director much less the dialog will not give you many clues. In some ways I really liked the film, but the pacing was trying (and I am not an action movie person). Several scenes would have an off-screen person or activity that was central to the moment, and there would be this slow pan from the current subject to the off-screen one... often making you feel like there is going to some big build up... and nothing comes from it. I know some will say that is exactly what the director wanted to happen, and it matches Thoureau's "quiet lives of desperation" theme, but I found it distracting in the end. In fact, supposedly a big transformation occurs when he hears Zydeco music but it is up to the audience to determine this and with the small exception of a dialog with a doctor and his inability to stay focused on his "previous life" polka music without shifting to "new life" Zydeco music, I had a hard time deciding whether he was bored with life and looking for something different, or somehow consumed with a new passion in his later years of life. Any visible positive character transformation for a new "loud life of hope and excitement", came very little and very late in the movie.
I wish there was little less abstracted stills and slow pacing of camera movements, for a little more directness and some more gap filling cues from the director. I would like to give this more stars but I think that only those who seek highly introspective movies to serve more as Rorscach cards would rate this really high.
I decided to click on the spoiler's warning because I'm not sure what is a dramatic plot development in this movie because of the gaps and "how everyday" the entire movie seems to be.
Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
Creative story during a historic event evokes multiple responses
I saw this movie on a Lufthansa flight on their Alternative Movie channel and I wish to see it become available in Region 1 DVD (for USA).
The characters developed well through the movie, and I had an interest in all of them, even the occasional appearances of neighbors. The film wasn't too Artsy, but yet was able to deliver interleaving responses from me as a sophisticated script would. The humor and drama flowed together as I saw the son's love for his mom being acted on against the unstoppable forward motion of society, the playing of a new freedom with a new set of unfairness against the old communistic confinement with its lies and unfairness (i.e. East German doctors moving to more lucrative West German jobs). Also interesting twists in the lives of those around the son, Alex.