Die Freibadclique

Very underrated German movie on youth and war. It follows the story of young boys who do not want to take part in World War II and just want to grow up, have experiences, discover sex. Though, there is compulsory enlistment both to SS and to Nazi armed forces. It is very well filmed, acted, with excellent cinematography and art direction. Besides being a good film about boyhood, even with a "the graduate" moment, it is also interesting for thinking about Nazism in German society: it is very common either to imagine that just Nazi leaders were racist fascists and the whole population was manipulated and deceived, or that Nazism had a widespread support among each German that was neither Jew or Gypsy nor left-wing activist. Indeed, it was much more gray than black or white, with different levels os information or backing, besides the strong fake support derived from fear of being published for betrayal. As a matter of fact, the film is quite successful in exploring it. The end (personally, I think it is not as nice as previous parts of the movie, but it is still good anyway) of the film unveils the mysterious noir scenes that appeared in the beginning and several times throughout the film.

The movie is a third sex(ual innuendo), a third violence and a third two boys jumping hand in hand from a diving board into a swimming pool.

There is some plot, but it fizzles out with no real development of characters or surroundings, people sometimes seem to change their personalities within a few minutes. The environment changes, but is incredibly irrelevant.

I do not really despise this movie, I am just as unimpressed as I could be.