First, this is an excellent film. It is a World War II occupation drama about a reprisal against a reprisal.
The German occupation force, of course, are the ogres here.
In the seventies, those in charge of productions, those who were the true censors on the drawing board, were the "preachiest" batch of movie makers ever. They insisted that even ogres were three dimensional characters.
If Charles Manson lived a hundred years earlier, these movie makers would have made him look "introspective".
Which is just one of the reasons why the seventies was the worst decade in American movie making.
However, this film didn't go down that path. It didn't "whitewash" the vicious nature of the beast. True, Burton gave his usual thespian performance, but he didn't placate the "seventies" movement by downplaying the rotten nature of the man he portrayed.
This is a very touching movie, down to the wire. It has many assets. It is, as I said, an excellent movie.
It is flawed in story telling, though. It's difficult to watch without yawning. True, Burton is a great actor, but he excels in boredom. He could make "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings" a snoozefest. He would have been the greatest hypnotist of all time, if he wanted to.
But that's Burton. And I don't mean to put him down. It's his style. He portrays his characters perfectly, perhaps too perfectly, with all their boring attributes.
The pace of the film is off. When it should be fast, it lulls into Shakespearean style dialog. When it should slow down to let us know what is happening, it blurts out with confusing cutaways that we cannot follow without a program.
Still, in the overall analysis, the magnitude of the story, including its factual nature, far outweighs the nitpicks against it.
This isn't an "exciting" movie, and the director makes no attempt to make it exciting, so you do have to trudge through it, but it is very intelligent. View it when you want a good think piece.
The German occupation force, of course, are the ogres here.
In the seventies, those in charge of productions, those who were the true censors on the drawing board, were the "preachiest" batch of movie makers ever. They insisted that even ogres were three dimensional characters.
If Charles Manson lived a hundred years earlier, these movie makers would have made him look "introspective".
Which is just one of the reasons why the seventies was the worst decade in American movie making.
However, this film didn't go down that path. It didn't "whitewash" the vicious nature of the beast. True, Burton gave his usual thespian performance, but he didn't placate the "seventies" movement by downplaying the rotten nature of the man he portrayed.
This is a very touching movie, down to the wire. It has many assets. It is, as I said, an excellent movie.
It is flawed in story telling, though. It's difficult to watch without yawning. True, Burton is a great actor, but he excels in boredom. He could make "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings" a snoozefest. He would have been the greatest hypnotist of all time, if he wanted to.
But that's Burton. And I don't mean to put him down. It's his style. He portrays his characters perfectly, perhaps too perfectly, with all their boring attributes.
The pace of the film is off. When it should be fast, it lulls into Shakespearean style dialog. When it should slow down to let us know what is happening, it blurts out with confusing cutaways that we cannot follow without a program.
Still, in the overall analysis, the magnitude of the story, including its factual nature, far outweighs the nitpicks against it.
This isn't an "exciting" movie, and the director makes no attempt to make it exciting, so you do have to trudge through it, but it is very intelligent. View it when you want a good think piece.