Flashback

This is an okay anti-war movie, well watchable once. (If you can overlook the fact that the only surviving copy seems to be a bad-quality grainy digitalization from Italian TV.) It directs attention to a lesser-known face of war, the possibility that you can be left alone with your memories for a relatively long time (which is maddening) and also to a well-known aspect, the cruelty towards civilians -- but this is one that cannot be repeated enough. There are some remarkable views, as the timeless, sunny riverside rocks and Fred Robsahm plays the hero well (but nothing to write home about). The air of 1969 is strongly perceptible all the time, which is not necessarily a good thing as we are supposed to see and feel 1945 here.

This could have been better as a short. At this duration a lot of scenes feel too long. The whole film is slow: sometimes the high-tension kind of slow but often plain boring.

Some Norwegian and Swedish viewers seem to have distorted the rating here, which is now at 9 stars -- that is ridiculous. I'd say this movie is approximately as good as Werner Herzog's Signs of Life, the American Hell in the Pacific (1968) or the Japanese Fires on the Plain (1959), maybe the recent British "1971", all between 7 and 7.5 now. For some strange reason even the very best of war films do not score 9-10 at IMDb. Even Das Boot, Apocalypse Now, Ivan's Childhood and Come and See do not reach 9 at this moment -- and this film is clearly not in the same league!

With a score of 8.6 and being from 1969, I tracked down this movie to see for myself if the hype was justified. The copy I obtained was a fairly damaged print in 4:3 format, quite grainy with washed out colors. It was watermarked 'C.S.C. Roma' in the bottom right corner, suggesting a VHS copy drawn from an archived 35mm (16mm?) print. No commercial releases seem to exist. The sound was in artificial stereo that produced a strange echo. It was effective in the opening war sequence, to be honest. The monologue by the protagonist switched between German (he was a Nazi soldier after all) and Italian for no apparent reason.

The film itself is very slow, pensive, unusual for a war movie of the time, but clearly the director wanted this to be an art film (and it was indeed in competition at the Cannes film festival in 1969). This was Andreassi's only feature film and it shows. He directed several documentary shorts before this and made only one more film (a documentary) 31 years after this. So basically his career was over after FLASHBACK.

Another user here has remarked on the rave reviews this film has received and how they seem to be coming from Scandinavian IMDb users, maybe fans of the Norwegian star of the film, Fred Robsahm, who only made a handful of appearances in B-movies in his career, and whose performance here is rather indifferent. Some of these reviews are so over-the-top, it's clear they are fake.

How this obscure and rare movie has garnered so many user ratings (1,075 at the time of writing) is a mystery in itself. Usually movies this difficult to find have only a few dozens of votes. I conclude that somebody managed to hack the IMDb in this respect (puts SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION in another light, doesn't it?).

Bruno Nicolai is falsely credited as the film's composer, he is not listed in the credits. In fact, there is no score whatsoever in this film! I wrote to the IMDb staff so that this misinformation gets corrected.

If you must see FLASHBACK, do so, but you will find it slow and repetitive. The acting is below average. It's not worthless, but no classic, definitely not.

This movie will change your life.

A bold statement, but nevertheless worthy for this masterpiece of a film, probably the most underrated movie of all time. Too bad it's so difficult to get hold of. My Italian friend showed it to me years ago from an old videotape, and I've been hunting for it ever since. If you ever manage to find it, you certainly are a lucky man, for this is one big piece of utter flaming excellence, people. I'd sure pay up to at least 200 US dollars if I could find a good copy.

Well, over to the movie. At first glance it might seem like your usual old world war II-flick, but make no mistake. This is something entirely different. The emotional story about an eccentric German soldier, it shows us the wicked reality of war from a whole new perspective. It bears some similarities to Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Slaughterhouse-Five", but is still absolutely original. The actors are quite unknown, but still do a fantastic job. I don't want to spoil too much of the plot, but you will be amazed at the sudden unexpected (yet brilliant) changes. Boy, if I could just take a tiny little peek into the exceptional mastermind that is Raffaele Andreassi, I would die a happy man...

The movie takes place during the gruesome Italian campaign (which cost more lives than any other campaign in Western Europe) and is refreshingly unconventional. Be prepared though, it will horrify you, boggle your mind, twist your brain into an unrecognizable lump of spaghetthata, but it will also captivate you, entrance you, and bring you into complete friggin ecstasy. Most important of all, it will make you THINK. If you enjoy your films a little deeper than the average Hollywood blockbuster, this is the perfect one for you. As I mentioned earlier, only problem is getting hold of it.

Once famous Norwegian spaghetti western star Fred Robsahm plays in "Flashback" a young German sniper named Heinz who hides on a tree overlooking his own regiment.He falls asleep and next day when he wakes up his regiment is gone.Heinz has some flashbacks about his German girlfriend.Finally he decides to visit an abandoned Italian village close to the forest where he stays.Very unusual war drama with a bit of nudity and some unsettling imagery.Fred Robsahm is excellent as Heinz and the score by Bruno Nicolai is fantastic.I enjoyed beautifully sad ending of "Flashback" too.Currently forgotten Fred Robsahm offered the lead role in "Flashback" which came to Cannes in 1969.He sat through the pressure in the audience and waited for everyone to leave but the audience stayed and clapped.9 flashbacks out of 10.

First of all i would like to point out that this is no ordinary film, Even though it merely is a composition of a standard 60s movie it has that special you are looking for!

I'm quite stunned myself that this movie isn't as noted as it should be, maybe because it hasn't gotten any professional reviews or that it simply didn't make it as far in movie-making history as other films that rivaled with this one.

I find it marvelous that i still can find movies like this one and still enjoy epic movie-making in my own home. Watch it! It is simple, simple but special.