I really like that this was shot on location in Vienna, it added a very real feel to it. Also, they used a number of European actors so physically they look authentic.
I found it more like a play in that the timing of some of the happenings in reality would be next to impossible. Also like a play, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned this in their reviews, is that Yul Brynner is eventually killed by a Hungarian resistance fighter who looks almost identical to Deborah Kerr who he is obsessed with so I suspect there was some dark message in that, and come to think of it, it's even darker in that the same resistance fighter had just killed Brynners' horse the night before so that was a kind of premonition. The ending, if it were reality, would be just too much of a coincidence -- Brynner takes Deborah Kerr and her companions to a bridge and sets them free into Vienna but just after they cross the bridge, the Bizarro World Deborah Kerr freedom fighter emerges from the bushes and kills Brynner while he's getting into his jeep. How did she know he was going to be there at that exact moment? Anyways, aside from a few ludicrous coincidences, it's a decent movie worth watching in my opinion.
I found it more like a play in that the timing of some of the happenings in reality would be next to impossible. Also like a play, and I'm surprised no one has mentioned this in their reviews, is that Yul Brynner is eventually killed by a Hungarian resistance fighter who looks almost identical to Deborah Kerr who he is obsessed with so I suspect there was some dark message in that, and come to think of it, it's even darker in that the same resistance fighter had just killed Brynners' horse the night before so that was a kind of premonition. The ending, if it were reality, would be just too much of a coincidence -- Brynner takes Deborah Kerr and her companions to a bridge and sets them free into Vienna but just after they cross the bridge, the Bizarro World Deborah Kerr freedom fighter emerges from the bushes and kills Brynner while he's getting into his jeep. How did she know he was going to be there at that exact moment? Anyways, aside from a few ludicrous coincidences, it's a decent movie worth watching in my opinion.