Watch Colditz For Free

The Worst Film Ever

That was an excellent one.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

When a very solid movie has been made on a true event, based on a book, or both, the Hollywoods of the world are hard pressed to repeat success with a remake. A rare few have been as successful when they copy an original hit movie. The vast majority either have failed outright or have had much less audience appeal. Yet, if one has a good story, or maybe a couple of good stories that you can change and mesh into a new tale of sorts, it's worth a try. That's what we have in this TV mini- series. "Colditz" was produced by Granada TV and aired on the BBC two nights in March 2005. The movie title is taken from the famed German POW camp for Allied escapee officers. The filming in the Czech Republic gave some reality to the period and the place. And, it has some similarities to real prisoners who had been imprisoned at Colditz. The most striking of these is the character of Willis, played exceptionally well by Laurence Fox. Ironically, the real person he portrayed, Michael Sinclair, was called the Red Fox by the Germans. They had distributed his picture throughout Germany. The red-headed British captain may have been the most expert escape artist in WW II. He escaped nine times, including twice from Colditz. In this movie, Willis is finally killed when a German soldier shoots him. This scene is depicted about as it happened to Sinclair. He jumped the fence and was running to the woods when he was shot. He was the only prisoner in the six years of the Colditz camp to be killed while escaping. But, this film otherwise has a major detraction from the story about Colditz Castle and the escape attempts. The first film about Colditz was in 1955. It had to condense much and the filmmakers made some changes, but it told the story as written by one of the first Colditz escapees, Patrick R. Reid.Another American movie was made in 1971; and in 1972-74, the BBC ran a series with 28 episodes. Reid advised and worked on that series, and had written a follow-up book with more details. Now, jump forward 30 years, and someone at Granada TV thought this would be a good candidate for a remake. But, it couldn't copy the original. In fact, it should have the gratuitous female for romance and then some. So, the writers came up with a new story that they hoped would have appeal to modern audiences. The two-installment mini series was the result. I don't know why they bothered to identify it with Colditz, except for the likely appeal from the name and real story. That was another way to draw people to the series. And, to be fair, it does show some realistic scenes about prisoners and escape attempts. But the story is much more about betrayal than it is about romance or escape from a POW camp. Those things surely are part of the story. But this more clearly is a story about a faithful girlfriend during wartime; a self-centered, rebellious and uncaring British soldier; and betrayal of another soldier, his girlfriend and his country by lustful persistence, lies, deceit murder and treason. So, for all of this, this rendition of "Colditz" is captivating and quite good. It has strong interest and entertainment appeal. I found myself wanting and looking forward to justice being done with the betrayer and lout. I've not used character names here to keep the intrigue in the story for anyone who hasn't yet seen the film but would like to watch it. And by all means, if you haven't yet seen the original 1955 film with John Mills and Eric Portman, by all means watch for it to air or look for it in stores. It's worth the purchase price to have the real story and film.

I've already watched some 2 hours of this incredible flop! I'll go through it to see to what an extent the two script writers have gone.Have they ever read a single line of the many books about Colditz and in particular Pat Reid's. Probably not.Their sole interest in this movie is to show a love story and all the rest is just for the fun and accessory. The skills of all those prisoners, the friendship which developed between 6 or 7 nations united in the same hardships is second in line in the story.This movie is an insult to the memory of so many young chaps who suffered for days in that awful prison."Biscuitcharley" has written in his review in 2012 "It may have been filmed in the Czech and England, but it is an American production, and yet again, they have demonstrated their ability to rewrite history to fulfill their own greedy, empty past. Thanks again Hollywood, for making me sick to my stomach and aching for you not to destroy history, again!".I totally adhere to his analysis. What would say Americans if we Europeans dared to rewrite the Civil war period? They should really be ashamed of themselves. No words can express my disgust before such a production!

I nearly didn't see this because of the critical slating.I'm glad I did. It certainly isn't historical fact, but neither is Robin Hood or King Arthur etc.This is a love story based on the 'legend' of Colditz Castle the notorious POW from WWII.If Mr Tarantino can get away with that nonsense of 'inglorious Basterds' I think a little artistic license can be granted here. At least they aren't misspelling the title and they made it in 2005 before you could get away with totally rewriting history. This is a movie whereas that was a cartoon.Colditz did exist so did MI9 and other parts of the story are founded in fact, but this is a romantic drama FICTION! Get over it you anal historians.It is well acted and has a reasonable plot, provided you believe that men will lie for sex. There I said it, people lie. It or 'shit' happens.I enjoyed this movie as a movie not a historical document. Watch it before you criticize. I am glad that its not true.

This was just sad. I mean I expected a prison escape flick and I get a soap opera that's beyond ridiculous. To come up with a scenario where a Scot who never wanted to be in the war to begin with, escapes, then comes home and becomes a member of MI9, proceeds to steal one of his fellow escapees girl then weaves his way through a nefarious plan to silence anyone who knows about it. I'm pretty sure that there's no girl on earth worth this kind of duplicity. This plot deserved a Soap Opera run. It didn't deserve anything from the BBC.I will say Damian Lewis shines though. He's good in anything he does. Very versatile actor. Laurence Fox does fairly well also but this plot was just not even remotely believable. Damn shame it didn't get a batter writer for it.