Amazing

Rating: 9/10 (1 February 2020)

Too many movies made post 1980s show the Germans as nothing BUT blood thirsty animals. This film did a great job at showing a bit closer to what history tells us it was like. They weren't turning people into soap, and lamp shades and all those other ridiculous myths that have been proven to be lies, but it does show that they were still cruel to select populations of people.
Aside from the historical aspect which is very important ...this film is so great! It's heart warming, and depressing, it's funny, and deadly serious...and it pulled off all of these aspects brilliantly!!!
The father was just such a good actor, and I loved how he made it into a game to shelter his little boy ...which you could really believe would happen, that's something a lot of us would likely think of as almost all options for anything else would be off the table, and the average German guards wouldn't likely speak Italian, I loved this film because it didn't try to show anyone people as evil monsters...but rather showed us the evil of WAR.
Maybe I'm over thinking it, I just thought it was brilliant how the story focused on a son and father during a war. That's it, simple but so amazingly done. The final scenes are heart breaking, but you're also left with a sense of hope...a father gave everything and endured the ultimate sacrifice so that his sons childhood would remain (to an extent anyhow) innocent.
My only issue which isn't much of one, is I felt the mother wasn't a strong character and so the beginning 20 minutes did drag a bit.
Btw, the scene where they go into the garden, and then come out with their boy???? BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!! I respect that creativity on a whole new level, where 9.9/10 movies would just throw in some sex scene, the way this film conveyed the message was brilliant, and sweet, and just awesome.
Even if you don't like movies where you'll need to read subtitles (for English speakers), because I usually don't ...it's so worth it.