THE PLOT THUS FAR
Valor, courage, and betrayal come to the fore in this remarkable epic that shows the everyday realities of wartime life from a deeply personal perspective. Billed as a German Band of Brothers, GENERATION WAR vividly depicts the lives of five young German friends forced to navigate the unconscionable moral compromises of life under Hitler. In Berlin in 1941, on the eve of Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, level-headed officer Wilhelm (Volker Bruch) is full of patriotic fervor as he heads for the eastern front with his sensitive younger brother Friedhelm (Tom Schilling). Charlotte (Miriam Stein) is a young nurse in love with Wilhelm who is serving in the Red Cross. Greta (Katherina Schüttler) is an ambitious singer who longs to become another Marlene Dietrich, while her boyfriend Viktor (Ludwig Trepte) faces a daily struggle for survival as a Jew in an increasingly oppressive regime. These five exceptional young actors infuse their characters with the certainty of youth, which drains away with each successive month of war as the true horrors of the Third Reich are slowly revealed. At nearly every moment, they are faced with choices between complicity and rebellion, self-preservation and self-sacrifice, blood on their hands and love in their hearts. Eight years in the making and filmed on over 150 sets across Germany, Lithuania and Latvia, GENERATION WAR insightfully reveals a country still grappling with how previous generations could have become so tragically misdirected. In Germany, the film has sparked a passionate discussion about personal responsibility and the legacy of guilt for Nazi atrocities. German critics have widely praised the film, with Der Spiegel calling GENERATION WAR a “turning point in German television” and national newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung describing it as “the first and last chance… to ask our grandparents about their true biographies, their immoral compromises…the missed chances to act.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
“Generation War” wants you to feel the power of a couple of friends heading off to War. Unfortunately, they are Nazis. But, they’re not the worst Nazis. They’re just invading Russia and giving Stalin the fits. We get a token Jewish character who is there to walk around the others nervously and act like she’s not one of the chosen people. I know that I’m being jokey, but it works.
I get the “Band of Brothers” comparisons to a point. Still, so much of the film feels like it is Germany trying to absolve itself of war guilt. People had it rough and not everyone joined the army to go around committing genocide. However, you took part in it and you’re guilty by association. While America didn’t send in a crack team of Black Ops commandos to carve a Swastika into your forehead, there needs to be some resulting guilt from the military actions. What we get is, it’s hard to remains friends during war.
The DVD comes with a featurette and booklet as the special features. The A/V Quality is pretty strong. The transfer is clean, but the Dolby track get a little too aggressive in the back channel support. Ultimately, it’s a pretty standard foreign war movie sent to DVD. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to the curious.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!