One of 2008's Best Films... BUT... but...but...

Rating: 8/10 (18 April 2009)

Leave it to David Hare to write an excellent World War II movie where the focus is hard and center on two individuals affected by the war. A young German boy in Berlin 1958 will meet and love an older woman who once served as a guard for the SS. The things we don't know about those we love. In 2008 a person might fall in love with an ACORN worker entering fraudulent votes for our Massiah. But this was 50 years ago and the issues were different. Hare makes his point in all good time and wanders over a broad scope of ideas before bringing home the idea that we're pretty much stuck with the baggage when we love someone because erasing the love doesn't work even if we want it to.
This is a very sexy movie, and like all excellent movies will interest you from the first moment and hang on for 2 hours.
Where the BUT comes in is this fine film is still another in an endless string of films intended to re-write history to make World War II all about the Jews. This disservice to the Austrians, Czechs, Poles, Hungarians, Dutch, Belgians, French, English, Americans, Catholics, et cetera will eventually come home to bite these propaganda filmmakers. The industry is strongly dominated by Jews (though it's supposed to be a crime to say so) and they ought not abuse this power for selfish interests. Yet the pace of World War II movies with a tilt toward making the Jews the be-all and end-all of the war will be sharply stepped up, and 2009 will have the highest such output ever.
Please give The Reader a try. It's great drama and the propaganda angle is minimal in this one. 8/10.