The Only Way

In German occupied Denmark during WWII, since the German invasion in 1940, the Danes had mostly been left in peace. In October 1943 word gets out that thr Nazis are planning to remove the relatively small Jewish population to concentration camps. The resistance plot to help the Jews escape.

Produced by Barry Levinson, this low budget small production tells of one of the great stories of WWII, but sadly this US-Danish production lacks much in the way of powerful drama. The period detail and location work is well done.

This Danish made and filmed movie about the rescue of Jews in WW2 is quite good even though there are a few unnecessary faults and it can feel awkward compared to a Hollywood movie like Counterfeit Traitor.

The use of many Danish actors and the on location filming makes this a very authentic non glamorized war movie.

It's quite delightful to see a very young and beautiful Jane Seymour dancing ballet. She plays the daughter of the family. There is no contrived romance to get in the way. There are no crazy heroics either or overly sadistic Nazi monsters. One gets to see a broad view of how the Danish helped the Jews escape by train boat hiding hospitals etc.

There is a rather intrusive music that distracts from certain scenes.

Worth a watch.

The film begins with an auction, and one of the items is an Amati violin, which is purchased by the owner of an instrument shop, and with him is his young colleague Lars, and it's the violin, the instrument shop and the innocent Lars who become the chief victims in this film, telling the story of the German round up of Jews in Denmark in 1944, which turned out a formidable failure. They were hoping to catch all the Jews of Copenhagen in one strike, and all they got was a poor old man, as the Danes made a major contribution by standing up for every single Jew to their knowledge and helping them all escape across to Sweden. This is a true story, it is filmed in Denmark by Danes and a Danish director, and there is only one British actor in the cast, apart from Jane Seymour, who later became one of the Bond brides, but she is already excellent here. The film is very basic, there are no Hollywood tricks or special effects, and all the acting therefore gives a very natural impression. The film follows the fate of the precious violin, but we never learn what ultimately happened to it, although there are reasons to believe that the good Mr Petersen, the best actor in the film, succeeded in saving it.

I like war movies. I like movies about the Jews in World War II. So this movie gets 4 stars just for being a movie about the Jews in World War II. However, this is by far the worst movie of its type I have ever seen. If you aren't a fan of this type of movie, then it has no saving graces and would probably only be worth 1 or 2 points at most. As a viewer I felt no tension whatsoever, despite the topic being one which should have been dripping with tension from start to finish. This was largely down to the musical score, which was totally inappropriate for the type of movie it was. It's as if the orchestra made the score without any reference to the movie content itself. Just re-doing the musical score to something appropriate would probably lift the movie's rating a point or two.

That lesson is multi-layered: German National Socialism was not just about destroying Jews -- it was about destroying individuals and individualism.

Another lesson: Because demagogues can, often easily, arise and take control of governments, it is important, in these United States, to honor our Second Amendment. (You will see the usually peaceful Danes take up arms against the invader.)

This powerful motion picture is based on the true story of how the people of Denmark, almost unanimously, arose against a tyrannical and murderous invader to protect and defend a persecuted minority.

It is mostly very well done, especially the score by the magnificent Carl Davis, and the superlative acting. Directing and editing were not quite up to the script or the acting (and the haircuts seemed anachronistic), but this is a movie I can highly recommend.

As shown here, even the German invaders, as individuals, probably draftees, could often be humane and decent, just more people caught up in the viciousness of government. But war doesn't pay much attention to individuals, except as targets, as cannon fodder.

The single most important lesson for us all is that each of us is an individual human being, and we are valuable for our own sakes. Each of us is sovereign, each of us is self-owned and we must remember and we must remind others.

Freedom is our proper and natural condition, and each of us must remember that, must remind others, and must work to protect that freedom, must work to save other individual human beings from tyrannical government.

"The Only Way" is now almost 50 years old, and the incidents it portrays are more than 65 years in the past. Yet tyranny and mass persecution are always just around the corner.

Honor those brave and generous Danes, and remember this lesson: Government is always a danger, and most especially when it forgets that "We, the People" are sovereign individuals, when it concentrates (as 2019 politicians are doing) on groups rather than individuals, and when it assumes such total control over individual human lives.

I urge everyone to see this film, which is available at YouTube.