anti-war films and the National Guilt complex

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2002)

While I honestly enjoyed this movie because of it's historical background as well as getting to see Germans play war I have to admit that as a German-American who grew up mostly in Germany Im sick of the anti-war shtick spit out by German cinema. Why not make it a glamorous affair? The reality was that many German soldiers fought on not just in places like Stalingrad but Kursk, Normandy, and Caen despite the knowledge that they were doomed. Hell award a Waffen-SS officer the Knights Cross on-screen for saving his unit in action then sit back and wait for the media to gasp. Yes, Stalingrad was a meat grinder but so what? So was the bombing of Berlin.. by day the Americans by night the British. No one is choosing sides here, WW2 is over.
This movie is another back-biting, defeatist attitude, apathetic portrayal of Germans during WW2. The Leutnant in this film is a spectre of the Kapitan of U-96 in "Das Boot". He too was clean cut and spit shined in the begining and in the end is a dirty shamble. The main characters in this film could have all served on board "Das Boot" for that matter with the exception of the Polizie officer, not SS to another poster. Also this film was not shot by Wolfgang Peterson it was produced by the same producer of "Das Boot" and they tagged it that way to make money off the popularity of "Das Boot".
I also agree that the film was incorrectly lighted and a much more dramatic effect could have been achieved had they lowered the lighting. If I ever get the chance to make a war film I will not make the mistakes this film made and I will definitely not be cliche in my portrayal of the German soldier.