David Cotovsky

A grim portrayal of life and death and hardship under the Nazi regime in WWII. The title refers to a German girl who has a fondness for reading, and risks the retribution of the Nazi's while reading banned and burned books. This film captures the hardship and desperation not found in The Sound of Music. Of course The Book Thief takes place in Germany, where the Sound of Music is in Austria. Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson did an excellent job of portraying Germans who were not Nazis.

Considering the year this film was made, it was on the forefront of anti-racist attitudes. It is now 2021, and this film still has a message to deliver. The world has come a long way in 54 years, in part due to this film.

Good adventure yarn with romance, politics, animal rescue (whales), Russians, Eskimoes, Ronald Reagan, and more. A good family film that grows on you.

I'm sorry but this film is about the advent of WWII, so where is the combat, the artillery, the troops, death and destruction. All they do is give the Germans dirty looks and sing songs at them! What is this world coming to? They don't even boycott wienerschnitzel! Oh the kids are cute and the love story beatiful, sure. But surely I'm not the only viewer looking for historical accuracy! Captain Von Trapp is such a nice, warm-hearted guy, the Nazis wouldn't touch him with a 10 ft pole. These folks are so obedient, that when Mother Superior sings "Climb Every Mountain" to Maria, she gets the whole family to don liederhosen and traipse across the Alps to Switzerland. What kind of a war movie is this? There has never been another like it, and there may never be one. RIP Christopher Plummer.

The film has pretty special glitz and color, but does not correspond to the messages which should be given at Christmastime, especially for young viewers. Movies like A Christmas Carol and It's A Wonderful Life lack the color and pageantry, but carry more profound messages of compassion and giving. Christmas should not focus on superficial films, even if they happen to have Christmas trees in them.

This movie uses an iron mining site to show many scenes of bullying and raping women. It pays lip service to exposing these womens rites abuses, but it shows far more physical abuse than is really necessary to convey the legal issues. This movie exploits the crimes as pornography. I found what I saw insulting to anyone's intelligence, who thought they were just seeing a tough workplace for women.

December Boys is about life in Australia more than adoption. The possible adoption was a sidebar to the adventures and lifestyle they encountered. The boys, in their travels, seemed to embrace life, but while being adopted would be nice, it did not seem to be the boys primary goal. When one of the boys was selected to be adopted, he rejected the offer.

This is kind of like a Swedish Sound of Music, without war and Nazis. The enemy is within themselves, and the cast triumphs over the things that prevents happiness within themselves and each other. A great film!

Well the non-stop lasciviousness can wear on your nerves. The film is non-stop adult "fun" and decadence. This is why we have foreign films: to get a glimpse of cultures different from our own. But whether it is an important film, it should be compared to something like The Grapes of Wrath to decide its importance.

This is a really funny movie, particularly the attempted suicide. When Jim Carrey goes into manic mode in his early movies, it was new and amusing. However, his limited repertoire, like a suicide attempt, is just not funny.