In the final days of the Second World War Heinrich, a highly decorated soldier, is hanged for desertion by a Waffen SS Lieutenant Colonel. They depart leaving him slowly dying as he hangs from a tree... a mistake on their part as he is rescued by Elsa, a woman who lives on a farm with her brother. The SS head to a nearby village where they start searching for gold belonging to a Jewish family that had been captured. They find no sign of it and locals claim to have no knowledge of it. When a group, led by a brutal sergeant, head to Elsa's farm for provisions things don't go to plan and most of them are killed. The next morning they capture her brother so Elsa and Heinrich head into town hoping to rescue him. What follows is a violent confrontations between our handful of good people, the SS and the villages who took the gold all those years ago.
I thought this film was a lot of fun. One might expect a film set in the Second World War and made in German to takes things rather seriously for obvious reasons but this shows it is possible for them to make a 'fun' war film without it seeming in poor taste. From the start it is clear that the Waffen SS are very much the bad guys; Heinrich and Elsa, and a handful of others are good and others are, at least initially more ambiguous. The story is simple but effective and provides plenty of exciting action. Despite being set in the war it has the feel of a spaghetti western; this is amplified by the use of music that could have come from Ennio Morricone. The cast is solid throughout, especially the leads. It can be quite violent at times but not excessively so. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of war films and westerns who like the idea of the two genres combined.
These comments are based on watching the film in German with English subtitles.
I thought this film was a lot of fun. One might expect a film set in the Second World War and made in German to takes things rather seriously for obvious reasons but this shows it is possible for them to make a 'fun' war film without it seeming in poor taste. From the start it is clear that the Waffen SS are very much the bad guys; Heinrich and Elsa, and a handful of others are good and others are, at least initially more ambiguous. The story is simple but effective and provides plenty of exciting action. Despite being set in the war it has the feel of a spaghetti western; this is amplified by the use of music that could have come from Ennio Morricone. The cast is solid throughout, especially the leads. It can be quite violent at times but not excessively so. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of war films and westerns who like the idea of the two genres combined.
These comments are based on watching the film in German with English subtitles.