Overrated. Flat. Unevenly structured. Not great in any one way.

Rating: 5/10 (18 January 2018)

I'll start this review by stating one cannot regard a film from 1937 and gauge it the same way he would a contemporary movie. This here is the sort of film that seemed to have inspired a Stephen King for example to write the resounding classic 'the Shawshank Redemption' with certain ideas obviously picked from this pre-world world II document of a piece. So it is no doubt a pioneer, and its credit for that is due.
However. As a film from any one period in time, as just being a film: its dialog is only interesting in some bits but overall quite ordinary if not flat and the film doesn't say much or carry any kind of a moral anywhere or ultimate message, if not values of honor or emphasizing that nations don't divide individuals but nothing like a grand scheme subtly knitted. The film is a succession of events chained up together to form the narrative where there are just scenes and then more scenes and a story to follow, it being rather uneven structurally in fact. It's one of those films that seem to go one way, then choose another direction and when the end seems to come there's still more to go and yet another setting to process. The escape scene is a bit ridiculous and certainly unrealistic in its concept, and there isn't much to extract from any of the main parts of the film. Some have pointed to the historical context as being cinematic artifact, but depicting two high society aristocrats one French the other German being bound by class rather than by culture is hardly an awesome achievement, we get it and it's quite commonplace for this sort of film and context - and if anything the film seems a bit biased and appears to pick a side about that class conflict apparently awarding more glitter to those two rather than the mere soldier kind, so the film feels at least a bit like it's got a political position.