Watch A Time to Love and a Time to Die For Free

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I can recommend this war film. Despite distracting weaknesses in production quality, the power of the material carries the viewer along very effectively. The scenario is the dying days of World War II from the perspective of a German soldier. This represents unusual material for Hollywood, and romantic leading man John Gavin is odd casting as the hero. Although his flashes of American pearly whites are incongruous, he and indeed all the actors do quite well in their parts although hampered by the forced pace of the direction and the artificial quality of the sound recording. Clearly overdubbed, the dialogue has the quality of a read- through in an indoor studio, despite most of the action being out-of-doors. The cinematography is quite good and the sets impressive as the soldier Ernst moves from the horrors of the Russian front to the heavily-bombed hometown where he returns on leave. Trying to find what has become of his parents, he receives little sympathy from his countrymen and women, who are deadened (or maddened) by the bombardment from the skies they are experiencing. Officialdom is represented by a range of repulsive types, underlining the moral ambiguity the hero is struggling with after his experiences on the front. Where in all this horror is anything worth living for? The answer comes in his developing relationship with the winsome Elizabeth, portrayed by a delightful actress whose name is not familiar to me. What hopes of happiness in the maelstrom of the times? A poignant moment comes when the couple fantasize where they would like to go for a honeymoon, only to reflect that as Germans they would be hated just about everywhere. I found this a memorable film.

The fact that you DO notice the length is indicative that this isn't top-drawer Sirk. It followed on the heels of The Tarnished Angels, another downbeat story contrasting with the largely upbeat fodder that brought belated recognition to Sirk late in his career. The Tarnished Angels was adapted from a novel (Pylon) by William Faulkner and shot in black and white. A Time To Love is adapted from a novel by Erich Maria Remarque (who also plays a supporting role) and is filmed in color so muted that it may as well be black and white. The two leads were relatively unknown in terms of the big screen; John Gavin was never much of an actor but his good lucks ensured a regular supply of television work whilst Lilo Pulver had a long and successful career in German-language films but did appear in Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three, shot as the Berlin wall was being erected. The story is slight but none the worse for that and it's certainly watchable.

Douglas Sirk's excellent war drama is unfortunately not as well-known as his luridly coloured 50's melodramas "Written On The Wind, "All That Heaven Allows" etc. That's too bad, because it deserves to be, and is one of the best films of it's type. It tells a harrowing, yet hopeful story. The German Army is crumbling in 1944, when war weary John Gavin (suprisingly good) is granted furlough. Hope comes to him through falling in love with a charming girl, Lilo Pulver, whom he kisses by the emerging blossoms next to the river. They marry, and enjoy whatever happiness they can. They revel in it, as you you do, but a gloom hangs over the film. This is also represented by the colour scheme employed by Sirk. Instead of the bright 'Scope of WOTW or ATHA here we have slate greys and smoky blues. His use of mis en scene here is also kind of remarkable, with the grotesque German officer who Gavin visits having what seem to be hundreds of dead trophy animals adorning his walls. Memento's of the dead, perhaps? Remarque wrote the novel, and also appears in the film. Challenging, moving and heartbreaking, with an ending that shocks and angers, yet is also justified.

Yes a time to praise Douglas Sirk,this magnificent director,too often forgotten!This movie is arguably his masterpiece.He used to work in Germany before making a career in the USA,and this war that tore apart his adoptive homeland would necessarily urge him to express his pacifism.So,he adapted Erich Maria Remarque ,whose books were burned by the Nazis and who plays a part in the movie. Some people said the title was melodramatic and dumb.On the contrary,it indicates that Ernst's and Elisabeth's happiness will be short-lived,so every moment is to be treasured,and we know their love will never know a humdrum mediocrity. Sirk's camera circles round calcined beams,ruined houses,nightmare landscapes.A sublime shot shows a hearse that stands still in a desert street ,while inhabitants take refuge in the shelters. A subplot is downright fascinating;Ernst meets up with an old friend again:this friend is rather dumb ,good to nothing,but he lives in a luxury flat,having taken advantage of the nazi rising.Later,Louis Malle will focus his whole film on such a character in "Lacombe Lucien". Compare the buddy's attitude with that of Elisabeth when Ernst wants to give her some food.She refuses so proudly he's forced to give it to a whore. Back to the front,Ernst will meet death in a very absurd way:understanding -like Elisabeth before him- the atrocity and the stupidity of the war he's waging,he tries to help Russian partisans and his fate is sealed.He tries ,in a last gesture ,to catch his wife's letter that the current sweeps along.Superb.(compare with the ending of Remarque's "all quiet on the western front" made by Lewis Milestone)NB.Sirk's son was probably killed in Russia and the final scenes might tell what had happened to him;Sirk's first wife forced his boy to join the Nazi,partly out of revenge cause Detlef Sierck 's second wife was a Jew.