Seriously flawed

Rating: 5/10 (24 March 2014)

This movie suffers from a serious flaw. It is bad enough to hear Nazis speak English with a horrible German accent, but hearing a Nazi speak German with the accent of a native English speaker is intolerable. The way Dr. Schneider pronounces "Eins" is a dead giveaway. The "Ei" in "Eins" is not the same as "I" in the English language. "I" is pronounced with a rounded mouth. The corners of the mouth have to be stretched to the left and right to pronounce the "Ei" in "Eins". I (Friederike) grew up bilingually; my parents are German but I lived in England for the first few years of my life and speak both languages without a foreign accent, so I know what I am talking about.
Because of this serious flaw I can not give the movie more than five stars, however good it may be else.
Why did Spielberg not get a good language adviser and trainer for the movie? The trick of pronouncing "ei" correctly in German is quite easy to learn.
The only supposed German who gets the pronunciation right is a soldier who says "Die Amerikaner kämpfen wie Weiber" ("The Americans fight like women"); the actor was probably German. All other "Germans" in the movie speak with the accent of a native English speaker. The way one actor pronounced "nach" (which at the point it was used meant "towards")was simply ridiculous and bore no resemblance whatever to the correct pronunciation. This is extremely sloppy for a movie having such a big budget.
Another thing that was sloppy: Hitler' autograph in the diary bears no resemblance whatever to Hitler's real autograph, though this could easily have been done.