Watch In Darkness For Free

Waste of Money.

hyped garbage

Absolutely the worst movie.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Of course it is not a new "Schindler's List" as the protagonist is of a much smaller dedication in my opinion. This is not like "The Pianist", since the movie does not have the talent of Adrien Brody. I believe a lot of people including myself understand that it is not a GREAT movie. But still it's full of emotions, regrets, memories that many of us don't want to accept actually. I am absolutely convinced that the military drama must keep some traces (conclusions) in reasonable people's minds. If a trace wasn't left, then, the filming team did not cope with the task. No doubts this film did cope. So the conclusion is pretty simple: it is not a great but a GOOD military drama about Poland, Nazis, genocide, horror, dignity and of course love.I usually say about on-war movies that it is necessary to watch them, to remember and to be desperately willing (or to pray if you are a believer) to a similar never happens again. Never ever.7 of 10

Director Holland follows a cliché that has become very shopworn; cinema schools should do what that can to outlaw it. As antidote, instructors should repeat as often as needed: "Don't film in the dark." I know the temptation. The director or screenwriter will say, "Let's make the film very mysterious. We will film in such a way the audience will hardly know who is talking or where they are. The intense confusion of the audience will lead the audience inexorably into the terrible frustration and confusion of the film's characters." Sounds plausible. And when Shakespeare produces the ghost of Hamlet's father in the darkness of night, the staging is effective. That however is because the darkness is a brief interruption in the light; there's dramatic contrast. When darkness becomes a dominant cliché, the contrast is lost, and the effect is boring. The audience tends to wonder when the director is going to get back to work. Also, what Aristotle regards as the indispensable identity of the audience with the characters becomes very difficult to generate. IN DARKNESS is a poorly made film about an important subject.

Agnieszka Holland directs "In Darkness". The plot? Deep within the rat invested sewers of Poland, Jewish adults and children spend 14 months hiding. They are aided by Leopold Socha, a Catholic sewer worker. He's your classic "Oskar Schindler" character, initially motivated by greed but begrudgingly morphing into a saviour who risks life, lungs and limbs so that others may one day live free. By the film's end, Socha's Jews are able to exit the sewers, the darkness of the German occupation over and so the darkness of life below ground.Like "The Grey Zone", Holland's "In Darkness" is yet another Holocaust movie which draws clunky, symbolic linkages between literal shadows and the dark immoralities of the Holocaust. And like most Holocaust movies, "Darkness'" tone alternates from moments of simple sentimentality to even simpler brutality. There is no insight here, only a kind of middlebrow art which reduces suffering and history to easy movements.The film was based on Krystyna Ghiger's memoir, "The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust's Shadow". Agnieszka herself had one Catholic and one Jewish parent, the film's ethical/religious split perhaps echoing her own childhood.At its best, "In Darkness" draws parallels between the sewers and life above ground (no space is sacred, someone is always eavesdropping and everyone is always at risk of being interrupted, discovered or walked in on). Elsewhere Holland does well to show how the filthy sewers gradually become prisons and then tombs. For the most part, though, the film is very weak. Its script is obvious, its poorly shot, Agnieszka can't convey any sense of claustrophobia, of time's passage, or even the squalid conditions of life below ground. Compare with Andrzej Wajda's "Kanal", which likewise attempted to portray life within Poland's underground networks.4/10 - Worth one viewing. See Gavras' "Amen", Holland's own "Europa Europa" and Vittorio de Sica's "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis".

'In Darkness' proved to be a worthy Polish contender against the foreign film winner 'A Separation'. This film to me is a more successful version of 'Schindler's List' - similar in terms of the portrayal of an unlikely hero who had no reason to save the Jews but did it in the end.(Why so? Schindler's List covered a much wider span, all above ground, with a longer time frame as well, and yet failed miserably as it chose to tone down A LOT of what could have happened in reality given the weight of the situation. I expected more from it as it is not even realistically outstanding to some of the other commendable Holocaust-related work of art.) This film focuses not on the atrocities in the surface, but more on the intricate details in its core matter - things happening underground. Roughly half of the film happens inside the sewers, but with enough details that reminded me of "Hunger" even though the dire situation were not full-fledged in my opinion.We not only get to know of the conflicts between the hero, his non-Jew community against the Jews, but also the conflicting portrayal of the Jews themselves who are not all one-dimensional characters unlike in some other movies (i.e. not overly depressed or in a state of hopelessness, they actually hate each other, some of them are annoying/ traitors/ greedy etc).I too believe things are pretty toned down as well in this film, as living under the sewers in such a situation where the water rendered unusable, the stench unbearable (augmented by the stench of corpses), absence of light, hygiene and proneness to diseases/fatal accidents could easily cause multiple levels of discord and unwanted psychological behaviors.I have read that the director deviated from the real account a little as some of the characters 'killed' are actually survivors today. But in a way, maybe it is for the better as the film is already disturbing enough.Also, some of the scenes done above ground are a little bit unnatural...hence I could not grant a rating above 7 stars. But all in all, this is a well made Holocaust-related film but it is also a film about humanity that is much better than average.