Die Auserwählten - Helden des Widerstands

As an Aussie who likes historical WWII dramas it's excellent The best I've seen this year.

Can't remember the last time a movie left me feeling so angry. Here we had a tale of heroism during WW2, a story which deserved to be told. What we got was a rushed, ill thought out, poorly acted, badly directed mess. Let's start with the obvious; the action is set in Hungary and Poland and yet the whole thing is done in English. This lost all authenticity at the first sign of US/UK accents. Then, when impersonating a German Officer the main character loses his British accent and launches into a "Ve have vays ov making you talk" German accent. Ludicrous. Another thing, one moment we are told he is a quiet guy who keeps to himself, next minute the resistance are in his home asking for his help, then suddenly he's there in full German regalia. Where did that come from then? No explanation. The Hungarian soldiers are then treated like some kind of keystone cop characters when they had the female prisoners. Unbelievable. The actors conveyed no sense of danger or desperation or anger or determination throughout. The whole thing seemed rushed and condensed to the point where it made no sense. This could have been good and indeed should have been good. It isn't, it's woeful. Heroism disrespected.

If youve read more than one of my review, you'll realise that they're not meant to be film critic standard. This ones not different. This isn't a bad film, but it is stretched, taking a story which is interesting, and over playing it. That said its worth a watch, as the story, whilst not entirely original, is apparently true, and reasonably well told. It could just have done with some more editing to lose about half an hour or so.

In modern times, an old man (Harvey Keitel) tells a young boy about his life during the war. It's 1943 Hungary. Sonson (Luke Mably) suffers as forced labor for the Nazis. They are hounded by the Hungarian police as the Nazis and their collaborators deport the Jews. Sonson joins a rebellion against the occupiers.

There is a scattered narrative flow with nothing new going on in this movie. It's a mistake to show Sonson as an old man which guarantees his survival through the entire ordeal. Mably doesn't have the greatest charisma and the movie doesn't give his character much substance. No other character has any substance at all. This has no tension despite the movie trying to ramp up the melodrama with the music cues at the wrong times. At most other times, this is quietly dull without the needed tension. It's also not the highest of production value. The directing is weak. It's functional at best but not much more.

I saw this movie with my girlfriend in LA and we both thought it was a cool WW2 movie, beautifully shot and skilfully directed with a large ensemble of actors who all delivered convincing performances. We felt deeply moved by its human story of true love in times of war and it just strikes the perfect balance between our main character's inner turmoil of emotions, against the mercilessly brutal outer world. I haven't heard of this director, but he did some great work with the performances, the action scenes and with the sound. The music in particular is just heart breaking. Do not miss the chance to see this movie on the big screen! It's more relevant today then ever before!