Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Die Flucht" is a World-War-II movie from 8 years ago. It was made for television and, from what I have read, it reached gigantic audience numbers. It consists of two episodes of 90 minutes each. Director Kai Wessel is a prolific television director and his most famous big screen work is probably a Hildegard Knef biopic starring Heike Makatsch. The movie won a Bambi and a lot of that is probably because of Maria Furtwängler, who is in almost every scene during these 3 hours. That does not mean, however, that I felt she gave a good performance. In my opinion, she is the female Jan Josef Liefers and even less talented, not only because both are "Tatort" detectives. She is mediocre at best, sometimes even bad, has entire films centered around her and basically always plays the same characters. Also she is extremely over-hyped and does not have a whole lot of range, but lots of recognition value instead.I cringed the first time early on when she insists on leading the horses on her own when the guy sitting next to her on the carriage wants to lead them. I am really sick of Furtwängler's whole "strong perfect woman" shtick as that is really all she every plays. Of course her character is also against the Nazis in this film needless to say. Then she is fighting for her daughter and of course pretty much every man she comes across has romantic interest in her. The only reason why I won't give this film less than four stars is because the supporting actors (Zischler, Schmiede, Winkler and others) are okay, sometimes even good, and some of the war references are nicely done too. However, it's nothing we have not seen as good or better in some other of these uncountable German WW2-movies. Another criticism would be that almost all the male characters in this film were so uninterestingly written that even the best actor could not save them, probably that we won't forget how Furtwängler's character is such a courageous female character that strong male characters could be a danger to her being the undeniable center of the film.So, as a whole, I would not recommend watching this movie, because it also dragged a couple times. Thumbs down.

snassillahie All of my family were part Die Flucht and the film captures much of their experience in a fair degree of accuracy. I managed to watch the film with my mother before she died and she felt it was true to the story though because she was in the Poznan, their escape was on train in January 1945.One of my aunts was on the roads in January 1945 with her parents and grandmother. The were caught by the Soviets. Her father, my grandfather, was shot of out of hand. She said the story was accurate in the portrayal of the events.The one thing my mother and aunt did not like in the film was the added love story between Maria Furtwangler's character and the French POW. They felt it added nothing to the film was only a pointless distraction

wind_highlander You see, it is different to be an American than to be a German. Americans won the war. Germans lost it. I've had to deal all my life with my father's flight from Silesia to South America running away from the Russians. You never had bombs falling on your head. You were not an East Prussian, A Silesian... You didn't live in Dresden when the bombers came. You didn't loose your home, your parents, your sons, your neighbors, your country. But my family does know because it was there.When I read your words, as well intentioned as they may be, I understand why the History Channel shows so many American and British WWII aces shooting down German pilots to bring peace and order to the world. Because they were right. Because they were good. Because there's no doubt that their goodness and rightness was the real goodness and the real rightness that, thank God, won over evil and reigns victorious in the world today...Because that's what you think, isn't it? It gives you peace and so does it to many millions more. How good you can sleep at night and teach those that were directly underneath your bombs how to behave today. Because, that's all too clear, they have still a lot to learn, a lot not to forget. Keep your righteous words coming. The world needs them. We Germans need them. We are eager to hear them. Thank you so very much! By the way... I loved the film. Though it saddened me deeply to watch it.

rob ogan This film deals with the plight of Germany's former eastern population at the end of World War II. Most Americans are unaware of the brutal and criminal expulsion of some 14 million Germans from their homes in what is now Poland. Millions of innocent men, women and children were murdered by the advancing Red Army. The Germans tried to flee, but their treks were rolled over by Soviet tanks and they were mowed down by a hail of machine gun fire. We will not discuss how the Russians treated German women. Those Germans who did not flee were forced to either become Polish or leave their homeland. Most of them decided to leave since they were already being treated like second-class citizens (examples: German language forbidden, economic sanctions, etc).Many people have been waiting for a film like this to break the silence. For years no one dared mention the expulsion of the Germans. German war crimes got plenty of air time, but the evil that was brought down on innocent German civilians never seemed to be of much importance.The film is about a woman who, at the start, is living in West Germany. She has a daughter, and after hearing that her father is sick, she moves back to East Prussia to help him. As the story moves forward, the Russians are getting closer and closer to Eastern Germany. The family decides to build a wagon and flee, which is against the law. The Nazis did not want the people to show any signs of defeatism, so they forbade the population any type of retreat.The film could have shown more Soviet atrocities to show what hell it really was for these poor people. The film shows some of the horror, but a couple of times it focuses back on German crimes, which we hear about every time we turn on the History Channel.That should suffice for a general idea of what the film is about. No spoilers are needed here. Spoilers really do ruin a film.Watch the movie and learn something about German history.