Should this really be in the top 250?

Rating: 5/10 (15 February 2005)

I knew there were problems with newer films, but this I didn't expect. One would say the following: it's from fifties, it's Wilder's so it must be a classic. I wouldn't. I'm afraid I'd have to say it's not even worth seeing. Especially if you saw Sunset Blvd. (which is an excellent film by the way, better than All About Eve in my opinion). It just acts as a stain in Wilder's opus. I'm not derogating his director skills but I really don't understand what was he trying to achieve here: a light comedy wrapped in a a war picture cellophane? It just doesn't do it for me. Off course it looks realistic (the scenery does) and it should 'cause it wasn't shot in the studio but the story, and those comic reliefs (especially the one in which German soldier gives his rifle to a prisoner so he could play volleyball) to shallow and simpleminded. Although the German speaking sequences give it an even more naturalistic tone (once again I would like to point out the main problem of the film is presentation of the story through humor) it's thumbs down for this one.