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Better than most people think

best movie i've ever seen.

Best movie ever!

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

"Ich war neunzehn" or "I was nineteen" is a German movie from 1968 and the duo who made this were Konrad Wolf and Wolfgang Kohlhaase, both very much known today here in Germany. There were so so many films that elaborated on the subject of World War II, also from the German perspective, and here we have one of the most known approaches from the Eastern Side of the Wall. Also it has lots of autobiographical impact in terms of Wolf's early years. All this is a good basis for an interesting and convincing film, but sadly I must say the overall outcome did not impress me at all. It is tough to say what the major problem is, but I just felt that it was never interesting in terms of the characters, story or historic context. Lead actor Jaecki Schwarz is also a bit known today because of the work he did later in his career and he is still pretty active, especially in German television. Unfortunately, his performance here is nothing that got me really curious about his other works. This film is slowly dripping forward in its massive slightly under two hours, but there were no moments at all where I was really impressed or which I would call memorable. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

War propaganda movie? Pull-heeze. And what do you think Guns of Navarone, Sands of Iwo Jima and SPR are? Of course, for the popcorn-fed fan of Hollywood war flicks, those are instead "accurate, realistic depictions of war", so more credible than anything coming from beyond the former Iron Curtain. As for me, let me put it this way: if I was abducted by sadistic goons and given the choice of having to watch non stop SPR or IWN, I'd choose IWN hands down. This is why.For a propaganda film, IWN is pretty restrained. So much so, even if we are here in the weeks of the final Red Army assault on Nazi Germany, the moment of greatest military glory for the URSS, you won't see a single Soviet flag. The only flag seen here is one made of bed covers to be used to identify a Command Post. And that in a movie 2 hrs. long long--did you see that, Steven?. No triumphalism or braggadocio either. Nowhere you'll see here the gun-ho attitude of the soldier eager to kill enemies so present in so many Hollywood war flicks, neither the blatant jingoism nor the spiteful treatment of the enemy. But in all fairness, more than a war film this is one about things happening during a war, as there are few combat scenes and those shown are mostly to remind us of the realities of war. But IWN isn't about Russians either but about a 19-year old from Cologne, Germany, whose parents had to emigrate to the URSS when he was 8 because of Hitler and who comes back in 1945 with the victorious RA. So this is really about returning to your roots, which in his case are German.It has been said many times that IWN is about memory, but I disagree. To me it's mainly about identity, national or cultural. Greg Hecker is now a Lt. in the Red Army and, perhaps because of that, he's picked as CO in Bernau. That takes the whole first chapter of the film, where we see him grappling with his new obligations, which include taking, as POWs, a few Germans who have already stopped fighting anyway and deals with two girls--German & Russian--whose lives have been destroyed by war, thus giving occasion for the most emotionally charged scene in the film and one of the best dramatic scenes I have seen in a war flick. What makes the power of this scene, as of most, is the authenticity of the people playing the parts. They really live their roles; this isn't just a job or a chore for them--and that right from the lead down to every soldier, farmer, child, parading in front of the camera. All that make for IWN one of the most gratifying movies you'll ever watch.IWN could be a bigger treat if you watch it back to back with Downfall. One amazing thing—considering that it was made when East Germany was still a satellite of the URSS and that DF was shot in a free, united Germany--is how much both resemble each other. You may even put them together, in your mind, and get a good global idea of what was going on while the RA was taking Berlin. They really complement each other, the events of one fitting to perfection the other. See for ex. the rant of the Nazi boss in Spandau, in the dark catacomb that has become his last refuge, how eerily echoes that of Hitler to his generals (and his end also: he shoots himself when Spandau falls). And his previous chat with the tank-destroyer kid reproduces the medal giving ceremony in the Chancellery. And the kid himself could have been Peter Krantz, had not been for him becoming a POW hours later. The German officers debating the Spandau surrender also mirror the discussions in the Berlin bunker at that time and the officer, amongst them, using the Russian truce bearers to conceal his own escape could have well been Fegelein. (As for Russian raping & pillaging, don't ask Germans to delve on that, and they know well why).As said, the acting is superb all across the board, while understated at the same time. No Rambos here. There is for ex. one episode on the surrender of Spandau, where Gregor and his pal succeed in an almost suicidal peace mission, but this is treated with the utmost simplicity: just a Thanks from the General. No medals, nor patriotic speeches, just Thanks.The pacing is fast; from its beginning IWN takes an intense, suspense filled, rhythm and it never lets up. You never know what's gonna happen next--even if you know already the end of the overall story--as the plot takes an episodic nature. At any given moment the action could take an unsuspected turn, except during a brief lull for May Day celebrations.The cinematography is masterful, despite the B/W, and the soundtrack hauntingly evocative. I could watch some scenes many times over: the hanged soldier floating down the river; Spandau and its catacomb like corridors. But most of all the scene where a truck leaves a girl and we see her disappearing from our field of vision, as the vehicle takes a turn; then she appears again, barely visible in the morning haze; then she disappears again. Simply genius. But what I loved most here is Greg being recognized by every German as one of their own and that bothering him a lot.Vastly ignored, underrated, classic. 8.5/10.

The main problem with Ich war 19 is that glosses over several essential realities. It seems like a Soviet propaganda movie trying to white wash the past. The invasion of Germany by Soviet troops in 1944/5 was nothing short of barbaric. 18 million people were driven from their ancestral lands - over 2 million civilians were brutally murdered. More than a million POW's were liquidated and another 2 million Ukrainians, Poles and White Russians of German descent were also exterminated by the Soviets. The landscape was almost completely destroyed by allied bombing and soviet artillery. 80% of the buildings were destroyed. Women (and boys) were frequently raped on the spot. The boys were lucky - they were invariably bayoneted after-wards - but the women were passed to next comrade. Of course we can argue that this was justified because of the Holocaust and the German barbarism in Russia and Poland. But women and children? The film does not even suggest this was happening. It represents the war as a sort of part time activity in which a few unlucky people got killed. The buildings are all intact. The people all look well fed. The faces look completely undramatized. It doesn't bring home the reality of truth. 1945 was truly horrific for everyone between Berlin and Konigsberg (Kaliningrad)It is an indelible scar on the memory of everyone old enough to remember it. This film does not convey that horror.

Shot in Eastern Germany in 1968, 'Ich war neunzehn' (= German for 'I was nineteen years old') is among the better films from the former Communist part of Europe.Set in the last days of Adolf Hitler, 'Ich war neunzehn' deals with Stalin's Red Army invading Germany from the East. To avoid the countless atrocities committed by both sides in the most savage war in history of mankind, the East German filmmakers choose to show events through the eyes of a nineteen year old boy. A logical choice: this introduces innocence, as well as hope for the future.The rest of this enjoyable film is propaganda, sold in a friendly and human way. The Red Army is presented as liberating the German common people from Hitler's rule. Its victorious soldiers show themselves eager to make friends with them.In reality, after three terrible years of German occupation in the Soviet Union, Stalin's soldiers applied a fearful revenge when invading Germany. A revenge encouraged by steady Communist propaganda. It resulted in many crimes, such as the free rape of German women. You will understand that 'Ich war neunzehn' ignores this.