Not a glamorous movie

Rating: 9/10 (6 August 2015)

The reason I like German or in general European war movies is that they don't always have happy endings and don't glamor the war. War is full of cruelty, loss of any reason, inhuman and utterly horrible. In this story we follow Lt. Hans von Witzland. From the name you can figure out the young lieutenant is coming from a long traditional military family. At some point in the movie a higher ranked officer is mentioning his father. The young lieutenant is going through a change of perspective when he comes face to face with death and war, he's loosing his close friends, realizes the pointless battles, the corruption within higher ranked officers, the powerless generals who blindly follow orders from above and seeing everyone as numbers. This is how he looses faith for his country, his people, his army and the identity he once carried proudly in his stripes is now lost as he tries to survive the cruel winter in the front. An awesome movie that shows you the reality of every war. Nothing glamorous, just inhuman, raw and cruel. I would love to see this movie remade and modernized.