Tops

Rating: 9/10 (10 August 2002)

Incredibly realistic depiction of WW1 taken form the German point of view, that faithfully adheres to book and puts most other War pictures to shame. In fact, it manages to evoke effortlessly the emotions you can see other War films desperately trying to arouse. Devoid of any political infusion, silly pro or anti war propaganda, its a strikingly realistic account of war as drudgery, commonplace and non glorious mechanized waste. Its message is simultanelously ambivalent and sanctimonious. Movie is black and white, grainy and old, but even these work to its advantage, since we already mentally envison this period of history as such. It and the book of course, cannot be overly recommended.