Das Wunder von Bern

I just watched "Das Wunder von Bern" and I must admit it is really a good film, not only for football fans (for you Americans: we Europeans say football for soccer). The film is not just a sports drama but deals more with the atmosphere in post war Germany and with the problems and aspirations the people had during that period and what the winning of the world championship by the German national football team meant for the regular people.

Actually this atmosphere is covered excellently. The film shows that the people were still recovering from WW2. There are heaps of debris in the streets from houses destroyed during air raids and many men are still kept as POWs so that the women have to take care for the family. The children play football with a makeshift ball, and most people don't seem to have much money. Everything is shown in subdued colors which really contribute to this mood. Although the story is set in Essen, a city in the main industrial and mining region of Germany, it could have happened everywhere in Germany.

The colors only change during the scenes in Switzerland, where the world championship took place. In fact those scenes are shot in bright and friendly colors. And also the settings are quite different from those in Essen: whereas the location in Essen consists of small apartment buildings, narrow streets and those aforementioned subdued colors, everything in Switzerland seems to be posh and spacious.

Even though the actors are not exactly great names in German cinema, they are quite good. As far as I know the actors who play the members of the German national football team were cast not only for their acting skills but also for their ability to play football. Thanks to that aspect the football scenes are quite convincing (although the spectators in the football stadium in Bern look really fake).

What I really liked though was the fact that the filmmakers used the original radio commentary from reporter Herbert Zimmermann, which is legendary. Every German football fan knows the important parts of his commentary by heart.

All in all a good and entertaining film, although I didn't really like the ending.

A wonderful little film, "Das Wunder von Bern" succeeds to capture the atmosphere of Germany in the mid-Fifties. The film is not so much about the football world championship of 1954 itself, but about how important this victory became for the Germans themselves. A nation torn apart and devastated by war, disoriented and sad, found new strength and something in which to believe in.

I first feared that I wouldn't like the movie so much as I am a Hungarian myself (the nation West Germany beat in the finals of the 1954 world championship in Bern), but in fact I was rather enchanted by the story. The excellent script brings the characters (above all little Mathias) to life. You start to care about them, to like them, to follow their ups and downs with interest. I especially liked the sensitive approach to the problems a family had to face when the father came back after years as a POW. As many other men in a similar situation, Richard Lubanski first wants to show strength and authority by being cold, arrogant and even violent towards his children - but later discovers that he also has to show his weaknesses and talk about his terrible experiences in war in order to get closer to his family again.

The parallel storyline of newlywed journalist Ackermann and his pretty and snobbish wife Anette was not very closely related to the main story, but I still liked it as the film showed through their lifestyle the beginning prosperity of the "Wirtschaftswunder" (economy miracle) years in contrast to the still bleak world of the industrial and mining town the Lubanski family lives in. And they also added some lighthearted comic relief to the film.

I would very much like people from other countries/cultures to see this film and understand better what Germany went through in these years.I am quite sure that they would not have big problems understanding "Das Wunder von Bern", as its main themes (family, war, traumatic experiences, failure and success) are quite universal.

I had initially expected to find mainly German comments and felt positively surprised that a lot people commented positively also on the things around culminating in positive reviews about Worldcup in Germany 2006. Why do i like the movie ? Whenever you ask older people about what defined "West Germany" after the lost war, there are basically three things mentioned: The Currency Reform to "Deutschmark", the Return of the 10.000 POW from Russia and the Miracle of Bern as the leading one. And the movie, as good as i can imagine it, captured it very well if you hear comments from the same people watching. Yes, there are no mountains between Essen and Bern and quite sure no Car Transport Trains between Suisse and Germany in 54, but who cares ? But they did poke some fun about women's equal (baby naming) rights and the real copyrights for the German National Coaches high quality punch lines and they had the final about right. I can always enjoy it !

German director Sönke Wortmann manages to recreate an atmosphere that kept the young German nation after WW2: Depression, fear, no perspectives for many people that are still suffering from the mayhem of the war. But he also shows that society is developing under the influence of the allied forces. It is perfectly chosen to follow the main plot on the side of young Matthias Lubanski (Louis Klamroth delivers an overwhelming performance! As the rest of the cast as well!). He only knows about the aftermath of the war, not all the evil that it brought before, and he has to deal with all what is surrounding him. He needs to have something to believe in, and when his father returns after 12 years of russian captivity his world turns upside down, but not for the better. During the movie both, he and his father, have to learn hard lessons of life, but for each its a necessary development to find its place in life. So when father and son travel to Switzerland, the colours of the movie change from the dark and grey Ruhrpott to the green and blue of the Alps. The second plot is woven into this one: The progress of the German National-Soccer-Team at the World Cup in Switzerland. Different players from different teams have to become one team, each fighting for each other. One for all and all for one. This is transferable to the German nation itself, on the verge to a new democratic future where at the beginning everything is linked to each other.

The movie is heart-warming and shows, by the way, how fantastic soccer (or any other team-sport) can be. How it can carry away the audience.

When the German team beat the former unbeatable (for almost 4 years!) Hungarian team 3-2 - something nobody every dared dreaming of - the whole German nation felt as one and knew that there is a new future!

Just one thing that felt rather negatively. Why was it not possible to create a more exciting and realistic atmoshpere in the stadium of Bern? The spectators, all too apparently created via blue-screen, looked too artificial. There was no depth. You never felt really appealed by that audience, because it looked not real. I think Wortmann should have been more perfect with that. Regarding the fact that so many special effects professionals from Germany work in Hollywood (e.g. for Roland Emmerich) the result could have been much, much better!

But nevertheless, this is one of the best German movies in a decade!

This movie is clearly en par with "Die Feuerzangenbowle" or "Der blaue Engel"

In the background it describes the post war Germany, the desperation, the aggression, the losses, the private and public devastation. Fantastic the scene when the train arrives in Essen and all the women anxiously hope that their husband or son will be on that train (many many of them were actually disappointed). Amazing how Soenke shows the game against Austria where he lets children play the actual game scenes on some muddy grass pitch, with the original radio comment running.

In the foreground it tells the story about those 90 minutes which many consider as the turning point for Germany in the 20th century. I was not existent yet but my mother and many others that I know of her generation can still tell what they did during these 90 minutes in 1954. The movie is brilliantly made, with real soccer players as actors (that shows at times, see "The school of rock"). The goals in the final actually happened the way they are shown in the movie. The American movie goers may not understand many of the little details (all the Herberger Phrases are there, Helmut Rahn actually had a severe alcohol problem later in life). They also may not realize the importance of soccer in all the rest of the world ;) which cannot be overestimated.