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07/15/06
Before the Fall (2004)
65 %
Reviews Counted: 37 Fresh: 24 Rotten:13 Average Rating: 6.3/10
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
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 boxing match by a young man who teaches at an elite Nazi National Political School, or Napola. The... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Max Riemelt, Tom Schilling, Justus Von Dohnanyi, Michael Schenk
Reviews
Top CriticClick to read the article
08/16/07
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08/19/06
Gansel is to be commended for finding a way to tell a beautiful story simultaneous with indicting his countrymen for their ugliness.
05/30/06
Friedrich isn't particularly sharp, but Riemelt's wonderfully nuanced performance gives him intricate layers of feeling.
04/14/06
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.
04/07/06
It asks us to sympathize with teenage boys being groomed for National Socialist glory, and for that reason alone, it absorbs.
03/24/06
One senses that Gansel took the most egregious stories from his research and stuffed them all into the shapeless script.
02/24/06
The film is a competent but callow work dealing with a monstrous subject that automatically rejects callowness.
02/24/06
... the coming-of-age military drama is... the same old drill driven by brutal master race fervor.
02/23/06
It's a promising subject for a film, but Before the Fall examines it in a disappointingly rote way.
01/16/06
The best thing about Gansel's film is it doesn't ask you to absolve anyone; it only tries to make everyone a little more human.
01/06/06
Gansel and his screenwriting partner, Maggie Gansel, bring not a whiff of fresh nor penetrating insight to these subjects.
11/18/05
A work of exemplary craftsmanship, crisp and forthright yet modulated by subtle nuances, Before the Fall ranks high among the year's films.
11/18/05
Top Critic
Completely predictable but affecting nonetheless, proof that when movie clichés are presented with rigor and feeling, they can pack a fresh punch.
11/17/05
While the background of the story is fascinating and enlightening, the foreground story could be more complex and original. The plot is a good story whose arc is a little overly familiar. Still the production values are high and the story is compelling.
11/11/05
Related Forums
Great German film and excellent acting
by: inessalenin 9/26/05
by: inessalenin 9/26/05
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