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!

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.

When I walked out of the theater back in the 70s, I had a glamorous smile on my face, I had just seen Flashback for the first time and I instantly knew it would become classic. In this 1969-film Fred Robsham makes his debut on the big screens, unknown and criticized, this young Norwegian delivers one of history's best performances. Playing the role of a German soldier Heinz Prulier stuck in WW2 who experiences the toughest time of his life, falling into depression and suffering from continuous Flashbacks from his previous life. Luckily his friend John Bauer (Pilar Castel) is there to support him; this is the beginning of a lifetime friendship. This is a story about life, war, depression and friendship. How Flashback has gone unnoticed from public attention is a great mystery. This movie is truly a masterpiece and if you have the option to get your hands on a copy, don't doubt a second.

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.

It is a shame that people need to die to get the attention they deserve. Raffaele Andreassi was a very good director. I have seen some of his documentaries and they are all very good but this movie is really something special, a true masterpiece! The plot is very unique. I have seen over 1000 movies but never something like this. It is a really different and brilliant World War 2 film. The originality makes this movie along with a storyline which isn't easy to figure out how it will end. Fred Robsham does a great job as Heinz, the German soldier and main character. The other actors do a very good job as well. This is a movie you should watch people. Rest in peace Raffaele!