And what you need even more is a definite interest in football (and history). "Das Wunder von Bern" or "The Miracle of Bern" is a German film from over 10 years ago that runs for almost 120 minutes and was really a big thing back then if I remember correctly. Director and writer Sönke Wortmann is still a name today to everybody with an interest in German movies. However, with regard to the film's popularity, the cast is relatively unknown. Peter Lohmeyer is the only actor who is above-average in terms of how famous they are, maybe Wackernagel as well. Anyway, this was already the second or third time I watched this film and it is still a pretty solid watch. You can probably categorize this film into 3 sequences. The first would be everything about the family, the second would be the football teams and games and the third would be the reporter and his wife.
The latter is easily the weakest. Wackernagel and Gregorowicz were sometimes embarrassingly bad and this story also added nothing of value in terms of the entire movie. No idea why they included it. The runtime also was in a dimension where they could have done completely without it I believe. The story with the boy who admired one of the players was decent, the father who returned from war added a nice historic impact to the film, even if they certainly could have elaborated more on him. No idea why Johanna Gastdorf received a German Film award nomination, she really wasn't that convincing. The other son's comments about the GDR were actually comedy gold looking at how that country turned out. The best part, however, was the football reference. Bern 1954 is still a special event for every German who knows a bit about football. Of course, the significance of the triumph has also to do with what happened in the 20 years before that.
I don't think this was a particularly convincing film in terms of writing and acting. There were a couple very bad scenes unfortunately, for example when Wackernagel's character starts screaming in the audience. That was definitely embarrassing. Overall, I remembered liking this film more the last time I saw it. Still, it's a pretty decent watch thanks to the references to this great day in German history and it's also a decent summary overall of the World Cup 1954 from German perspective. Thumbs up.
The latter is easily the weakest. Wackernagel and Gregorowicz were sometimes embarrassingly bad and this story also added nothing of value in terms of the entire movie. No idea why they included it. The runtime also was in a dimension where they could have done completely without it I believe. The story with the boy who admired one of the players was decent, the father who returned from war added a nice historic impact to the film, even if they certainly could have elaborated more on him. No idea why Johanna Gastdorf received a German Film award nomination, she really wasn't that convincing. The other son's comments about the GDR were actually comedy gold looking at how that country turned out. The best part, however, was the football reference. Bern 1954 is still a special event for every German who knows a bit about football. Of course, the significance of the triumph has also to do with what happened in the 20 years before that.
I don't think this was a particularly convincing film in terms of writing and acting. There were a couple very bad scenes unfortunately, for example when Wackernagel's character starts screaming in the audience. That was definitely embarrassing. Overall, I remembered liking this film more the last time I saw it. Still, it's a pretty decent watch thanks to the references to this great day in German history and it's also a decent summary overall of the World Cup 1954 from German perspective. Thumbs up.