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Before the Fall

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Before the Fall (2004)

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67 %
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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

US Box Office: $0

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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Reviews for Before the Fall

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
10/18/08
Eddie Cockrell
Eddie Cockrell
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
08/26/06
Marrit Ingman
Marrit Ingman
Austin Chronicle
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 | 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

Gansel is to be commended for finding a way to tell a beautiful story simultaneous with indicting his countrymen for their ugliness.

Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com | comment Comment
05/30/06
Eric D. Snider
Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

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

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

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

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

... hooks you by focusing on Friedrich's very human story.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
03/10/06
Ruthe Stein
Ruthe Stein
San Francisco Chronicle

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 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

... 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

A fascinating look at a little-known aspect of the Nazi regime.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
01/12/06
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
01/06/06
Janice Page
Janice Page
Boston Globe

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

A work of exemplary craftsmanship, crisp and forthright yet modulated by subtle nuances, Before the Fall ranks high among the year's films.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
11/18/05
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Completely predictable but affecting nonetheless, proof that when movie clichés are presented with rigor and feeling, they can pack a fresh punch.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
11/17/05
Chuck Wilson
Chuck Wilson
L.A. Weekly
 
 
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