Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas)

[Peter_Suciu]

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[Peter_Suciu]

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[kristensen]

I can only say that I totally agree. Super filmm

[Willi Z.]

I saw the movie as well. I enjoyed it and thought it was moving, despite how silly it was at times.

[K.Chan]

it's a nice movie, I like the singing in it.

[Chap15]

I saw the movie on Christmas Eve.
It is now part of our Christmas tradition.
I agree the set does seem isolated. Also, the men were too clean and were not bothered by the cold.
The music was awesome.
The religious aspect was interesting but true (bad exegesis (rules to interpret scripture) when the priest at the end gave his sermon). Sad thing when people twist religion. All sides did it during the Great War. That is why Christianity was impotent during the Reich (read Twisted Cross by Doris Bergen).

[erichcraciun]

I will repeat here what I wrote in a previous thread. What a disappointing film! In any film the Germans are eitehr the agressors or, in this case, surrender...to the French...in 1914???...to escape the war?

Who exactly was 'winning' the war in 1914? I just throught the pretense was ridiculous. The the 'hero' of the Film Beno Fürmann, hands over a pile of Feldpostbriefe to the French Leutnant as he surrenders? His Kameraden entrust him with the letters, but then he delivers them to the French. Strange small incident that does not seem to fit anywhere into the film.

The theatre I saw this film in, in Budapest, was full of Germans and Hungarians and I was listening to their comments. Just like so many of the recent war films the audience will think that this is actually how the war happened.

Erich

[Chap15]

I just got the soundtrack. It is very good.
The director added some of his thoughts to the movie, but it is best left unsaid due to political reasons and the last thread.
I very good soundtrack!!!

[behblc]

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=194958
As per above -as you can see I watched it over the Christmas period and came away with much the same feeling as other s who have psoted - I did not focus or even consider that the purpose of the movie was to show the Germans as being the bad aggressors , all sides came away as being men at the sharp end because they wore the uniform.
The end of the movie saw them all getting the same treatment from the senior officer class , being reminded that you are there to kill each other.
There have been and will be movies which say a lot less and do subscribe to sterotypes .
( I give you " The Battle of the Bulge" , which must rank as being one of the worst war movies ever made. It gets a five turkey award from me !).

[Mike39]

The movie had it's faults but, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. It's well known that cease fires such as this took place & it's more likely to have taken place in isolated pockets of battle than in locations with miles of trench's ( as depicted in the movie ). There's know doubt in my mind that this happened on many occasions after months of constant battle gaining or loosing several feet of no man's land & realizing the futility of what they were achieving. A lot of these soldiers visited & holidayed in each other's countries during peace time or married partners that came from France or Germany & they new they could live in harmony if it wasn't for the leaders of their countries.
Personally I thought the movie bought home a very strong message that is still very relevant today.
Wonderful soundtrack as well which I must go & buy !

Mike

[Jean-Loup]

I though the movie was OK, with some very good ideas, and good scenes; but also a lot of very pathetic, unrealistic and ridiculous scenes.
I saw this movie in Zagreb. It was only out for one week, then disapeared. When I went to see it, I found myself to be the only spectator, something that has never happened to me before although I go to the cinema.... very very regularly. I think tha talks a lot about the quality of the movie.

JL

[Chap15]

I though the movie was OK, with some very good ideas, and good scenes; but also a lot of very pathetic, unrealistic and ridiculous scenes.
I

That is the point of the movie. It was very strange (unrealistic, pathetic)to have a truce over Christmas. I believe that WWI was the last war where something on this scale took place (and ever will). I am reading Silent Night and many of the incidents did take place within a two week time frame.

[erichcraciun]

I just got the soundtrack. It is very good.
The director added some of his thoughts to the movie, but it is best left unsaid due to political reasons and the last thread.
I very good soundtrack!!!

I don't understand? My thread..the last one...was somehow inflammatory?

Erich

[Chap15]

I don't understand? My thread..the last one...was somehow inflammatory?

Erich

I don't think the German singer was any better or worse for what he did. Seeing what other people wrote in the thread, no one side was better than the other. To not show anything wrong by the Germans would not be true. The movie showed that all sides did some things wrong. It does portray higher ranks as being bad and lower ranks as being good. In the book Silent Night, it mentions how a sniper shot another Soldier as they were working out a truce. So, I am sure that all sides, all ranks had their good and bad.
I also question how someone would see the movie and think that the entire war was fought that way. It was Christmas and a basic knowledge of WWI would show that the war was a blood bath.

BTW, there was a German singer who was with the crown prince and who went to the front lines and the prince stayed behind handing out iron crosses.

[MauserKar98k]

I just saw it and I enjoyed it. It was a story that deserved to be told. I like how there are actually 3 spoken languages in the film, as opposed to other war movies where the Germans speak with British accents.