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Before the Fall

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Before the Fall (2004)

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Reviews Counted:36

Fresh:24

Rotten:12

Average Rating:6.4/10

Consensus: Despite a degree of predictability and cliches, the high production values and sincere performances by the leads elevate this coming-of-age story set in Nazi Germany.

Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Oct 7, 2005 Limited

Synopsis: Berlin 1942. Friedrich (Max Riemelt), is a sixteen-year old amateur boxer from a working class family, who dreams of doing something with his life. His big chance comes when he's discovered at a... Berlin 1942. Friedrich (Max Riemelt), is a sixteen-year old amateur boxer from a working class family, who dreams of doing something with his life. His big chance comes when he's discovered at a boxing match by a young man who teaches at an elite Nazi National Political School, or Napola. The young man helps Friedrich to enter the institution, and there becomes Friedrich's mentor, guiding him through the rigors of the strictly run school. Among Friedrich's new friends is Albrecht (Tom Schilling), the son of a high-ranking official. A fragile young man who prefers to train his mind rather than his body, Albrecht is critical of the Nazi ideology being crammed into the students' minds. Friedrich starts to see that there is no room here for anyone unwilling to follow the party line. After the students are forced to take part in a nighttime massacre of unarmed Russian youths in the nearby woods, Albrecht writes an essay condemning the Germans' barbarity. Friedrich knows that his best friend is on a collision course with the authorities, but is powerless to change his mind. When Albrecht's father forces his son to take back his words, Albrecht refuses - and accepts the consequences. Devastated, Friedrich vows to avenge his friend's fate, even if it means losing everything he's fought for and abandoning his dream of a better life. --© Picture This! Entertainment [More]

Starring: Max Riemelt, Tom Schilling, Justus Von Dohnanyi, Michael Schenk

Starring: Max Riemelt, Tom Schilling, Justus Von Dohnanyi, Michael Schenk


Studio: Picture This! Entertainment

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Release:

Jun 13, 2006

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Reviews for Before the Fall

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1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
07/15/06
Time Out
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
07/15/06
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
10/18/08
Eddie Cockrell
Eddie Cockrell
Variety
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
08/19/06
Jean Lowerison
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
08/16/07
Wally Hammond
Wally Hammond
Time Out New York

Gansel and his screenwriting partner, Maggie Gansel, bring not a whiff of fresh nor penetrating insight to these subjects.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
11/18/05
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

I guarantee you nothing this cheesy happened during World War I.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
10/07/05
Chris Cabin
Chris Cabin
Filmcritic.com

Unfortunately, the more 'realistic' the film seems, the less pleasant it is to watch.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
10/29/05
Eric Monder
Eric Monder
Film Journal International

Nazis were once innocent children -- that, at least, is the notion behind Dennis Gansel's overcooked wartime drama about the ill-fated friendship between two teenage boys at a training school for elite German military recruits.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
10/07/05
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The plotting is too obvious, too contrived and too convenient.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
04/28/06
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

The film is a competent but callow work dealing with a monstrous subject that automatically rejects callowness.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
02/24/06
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A polished, German-tinged Dead Poets Society with budding SS automatons subbing in for privileged Vermont WASPs.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
08/26/05
Nick Schager
Nick Schager
Slant Magazine

We get tepid moralizing on dehumanization in the military.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
10/04/05
R. Emmet Sweeney
R. Emmet Sweeney
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

... the coming-of-age military drama is... the same old drill driven by brutal master race fervor.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
02/23/06
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Though well-made, Before the Fall never really comes to cinematic life.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
10/07/05
Shlomo Schwartzberg
Shlomo Schwartzberg
Boxoffice Magazine

Nearly every point made in Before the Fall, be it about militarism or the secret sexual codes of fascism, is made too obviously, or has been made before, in films from Cabaret to Europa, Europa.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
04/07/06
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

One senses that Gansel took the most egregious stories from his research and stuffed them all into the shapeless script.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
02/24/06
Tom Keogh
Tom Keogh
Seattle Times

The Nazis were bad and evil. Is everyone clear on that? Good, because German filmmakers are finally taking a stab at the touchy subject of the Third Reich, with varying degrees of success.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
10/07/05
E! Online

It asks us to sympathize with teenage boys being groomed for National Socialist glory, and for that reason alone, it absorbs.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
03/24/06
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle

Friedrich isn't particularly sharp, but Riemelt's wonderfully nuanced performance gives him intricate layers of feeling.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
04/14/06
Arthur Salm
Arthur Salm
San Diego Union-Tribune
 
 
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