Iron Cross

A wonderfully written, emotive, powerful,thought provoking film. Tense and unpredictable. It takes you to some unexpected places and earns a fitting place in its genre. It left me contemplative and aware of some aspects of the consequences of war that I wouldn't always be quick to respond too.

So, now it is 2016, 7 years after the release of the last movie Roy Scheider ever made. People in Europe in 2009 got to see it. It has never been played on television, and it has never gone to DVD or any other media. WHY? I am appalled, and angry that this movie has not gained any recognition from any film studio. And as I have not seen this movie, I will probably never be able to enjoy the last film of a great actor. There used to be a link to the official website where you could actually find out the status of the film and DVD sale. But even that has gone away. What do you have to do to make sure this movie doesn't die somewhere in a close vault??? Mad as hell.

I was lucky enough to receive an early screen for Beautiful Blue Eyes and I was hugely impressed with it. The portrayal of Joesph and the fallout from his traumatic past was conveyed with tremendous sincerely and emotional honesty.

I thought Roy Scheider was mesmerising, the film providing a harrowing swan song for the late great actor. I liked the intercutting of past and present and thought the presentation of Joseph's trauma was very effective. The ending was particularly haunting and will leave viewers with much to think upon long after the film has ended.

Given the horrific backdrop of the Holocaust and the sensitivity it requires, I thought the film handled the subject matter respectfully and portrayed the scars created in the aftermath poignantly. I would highly recommend watching this.

It's difficult to be too critical of the movie because the production coincided with not only the death of the great Roy Schieder, but also the director's father (a holocaust survivor) upon which Schieder's character is based...but:

This is a simply poor piece of filmaking that is close to risible due to the decision to use the holocaust as a background to make a quasi-action pic. Based on a Q&A with the director and his son (who co-stars), it seems that the holocaust is simply another way for Newton to get his directing kicks: as he said, a project he thought up while waiting to direct a "divorce thriller." Rather than a serious investigation of what his father's experience meant, Newton takes it as reason to portray gratuitous violence and hone his camera skills. A set-up that could lead to a veritable graduate seminar of fascinating themes and conflicts is dispensed with in order to follow a ridiculous whodunit.

Poor editing, acting (with the exception of Schieder and, surprisingly, Newton's son) and an absurd plot are hallmarks of many films, but few manage to be offensive, cloying, hilariously melodramatic, painstakingly dull, vain, and just shootstormingly bad. And this is just in a twenty minute section in the middle of the movie. There's actually some kind of anti-brilliance on display here because things start out fairly okay, like a cheesy made-for-TV movie, but develop into "holy cow - am I really watching this?" mode about halfway through.

Sadly, the ineptitude isn't easily available for a Room-like mockery because of Schieder's passing, but there are some classic moments where it would be fun to imagine a packed theater laughing at all of this. Nazis rounding up houses full of people speaking with British accents, the worst storytelling neighbor in cinema history, a fall-out-of-your-seat lesson in compassion through an analogy with a bee, and a visual style that seems like Edgar Wright without the wink would make for some brilliant midnight watching. If you get a chance, find the DVD and skip to the barn scene, but otherwise ignore the obvious planted reviews above.

My wife and I had heard of Joshua Newton's film being developed many years ago, and we were saddened by Roy Scheider's untimely death. With new technology, the film was able to be finished.

We were not disappointed. Beautiful Blue Eyes is constantly moving, always moving forward type of movie. The historical uniforms, trucks and equipment look very authentic.

So many people associate the Holocaust with Auschwitz alone, yet mass shootings were also a large part along eastern Europe. This movie illustrates another side of the Holocaust.

We strongly encourage everyone to watch this gripping film.