jacob steele

This is, by quite a margin, the best movie about the second world war that I have seen. It transcends the war by depicting one of the most hopeless settings imaginable in vivid, unapologetic violence and tension. From Hitler's climactic madness to the meaningful individual stories told about a seemingly unrelated group of characters in the background, the film keeps the movie engaging in every scene. I personally think there is so much depth here precisely because, as people from that time would likely attest, not much sympathy existed for all of Germany at this point. Nothing could absolve the actions of the country enough to proclude total destruction of their central base of operations even at the cost of innocent lives because they had themselves bombed civilians to seemingly no end. No one is innocent here. This fact is made no clearer than by the Germans who do give in to despair, and that is the main tone driven home. These people knew the retribution that was going to unfold even better than the enemies they had killed because there was no redemption or even vengeance to be had. But the story still finds a vague strand of hope by the end in that some do decide to give up, to live on, where many of their compatriots did not. Ultimately, though, the movie is incredibly grim and hopeless. It is a reminder of the idea that the degree of depravity in which one engages can bring upon them a response as equally uncompromising and ruthless.