Die fünfte Offensive - Kesselschlacht an der Sutjeska

The movie itself is based on true events and all of that, but the acting skills were pretty good in my opinion. Its just that designs of Junkers 87 stuka was inaccurate, but those were old Yugoslavian airplanes during ww2.

I would recommend the movie if you like war movies.

There are also other movies related to this one like Battle of Neretva or Bridge (Most) which also talk about the Yugoslavian partisans and also how it was during those times, i currently only watched this movie and it last for about 2 hours, you can also watch it on Youtube since somebody filmed it, anyways the film is a 10.

This film was supposed to tell the story of the 5th German offensive in the Balkans. When someone who does not know historical events watches this film, he can only be confused. Although there is an impressive cast, the film is very poorly produced like all WW2-themed films from that era, big budget, cooperation with the JNA, big scenes with a lot of extras. Although it had all the predispositions to be a masterpiece, it was reduced to a series of propaganda images, partisan clichés, shallow characters, bad acting, repetition of the same scenes. From a military point of view, very funny. I'm sorry to say, but this is a very poorly told story of our rough and tumble history. It is not the pride of Yugoslav cinematography.

If you have an interest in WW2 and especially movies related to that conflict, this might make an interesting change from the usual Hollywood epics from the 60's. I had to see this having been impressed with 'The Battle on the River Neretva', another entertaining and well produced 70's film from the former Yugoslavia. I've also seen some poor Italian efforts that generally lack decent direction and are half-baked cash-ins on the Hollywood epics they attempt to imitate (there are a few decent ones). Like 'Neretva' you can tell this was made in a former communist country with an emphasis on the common struggle, with sentiment sometimes contrived and also overbearing a little too much (a few scenes are genuinely moving). However, this is a story told with much truth, and the braveness and courage of the Yugoslavian resistance to the Nazi's is nothing to mock. As a story it's a little too episodic but is nevertheless a gripping watch. What's impressive also is the budget involved, you'd seriously struggle to find any WW2 movie with as many extras as this (and 'Neretva') and the props (vehicles, weaponry etc) are all excellent for this era. The direction is fine (not exceptional), the scenery is fantastic. Burton as Tito is pretty stiff, he plays the man as if he were being portrayed in a propaganda description (probably exactly what was required) and the other actors are generally all good. Overall this is a highly entertaining film and deserves a better fate as it portrays one of the lesser known struggles of WW2. Not that easy to find, here in the UK it was released on tape in the early 80's (The fairly rare Videomedia label, same as 'Neretva') with a bright, decent quality, slightly letterboxed print. Maybe a DVD will surface that's not just a rip from tape!! One fault with this UK release was the fact the subtitles are missing from the German speaking scenes, a shame, but it doesn't spoil the film too much.

Here is the real antifascist army fighting the real antifascist war. Richard Burton plays the beloved Yugoslav president Tito, who cast Burton himself. Milena Dravic, Bata Zivojinovic, Boris Dvornik, Ljubisa Samardzic were the A-listers of former Yugoslavia, all of them with drama school background. All actors in Yugoslavia were required to have a degree in acting. So, Burton was surrounded with quite a cast. Beautifully photographed on real locations, with great fight scenes and explosions that Yugoslav partisan films were famous for, this is a film about very sad events in history. Just like The Flags of Our Fathers, it's realistic and heart-wrenching. You don't wanna see it twice.

The film takes place in 1943, when the Germans make a last effort to destroy Tito and his partisans in the Balkan mountains. The battle scenes are pretty well made - although it's clearly the same 5 or 6 fighter planes that keep attacking the partisans throughout the whole movie. The movie's weakness is the characters (!) - the partisans are all heroes who die in the arms of their friends and lovers, and the Germans are all Germans as we know them from so many Hollywood films - speaking german with an evil nazi accent and only thinking about vengeance and destruction (they might as well be zombies or vampires!). We never really get to know anybody, apart from general Tito who is portrayed as a saint (he was still alive when the film was being made) by Richard Burton, the only star in the film. It is refreshing to see a WWII film where it's not american G.I's slaugtering nazi's. The heroes in this movie are communists with red stars on their caps fighting for their country. Too bad it's such a poor script, there is a lot of goodwill here, and it could have been a very exciting and different film about the dark years of Europe.