The Fallen

As with most independent features, shot with an ultra low budget, I ordered the DVD of the Fallen with lower expectations than I would have of a Hollywood war movie. However I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the film as it was unlike most conventional war movies, which tend to tell the historical aspect of the war. What this film achieves is to bring the war down to a personal level for the audience. This is done through sensational acting from the whole cast and excellent directing from Ari Taub, who chose to tell the story in both German and Italian, shying away from the commercial idea of using only English (so that American's don't have to read the subtitles). I normally dont like war movies, but this was really interesting. Not your typical shoot em up, big explosions, good guy vs. bad guy film. This film had a lot of heart and the director has created a very refreshing and truthful film that I would recommend anybody to go and see.

As others have said, this isn't Saving Private Ryan by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not as bad as some reviewers have stated. Looking at their other reviews, it looks like many of them are younger guys who ususally buy sci-fi flicks or electronics. If you're into stuff like Halo 3, I can see where you might find this movie boring.I'm a WWII reenactor and collector of military vehicles. I have relatives who were in the Luftwaffe during the war, so the era of the Third Reich has always been a big field of study for me. I've collected militaria, primarily WWII uniforms and weapons, for thirty-five years, so that's who I am. Now, on to the movie.Yes, this is a low budget movie and it reflects that. The story line could definitely have been better, the soundtrack could have been MUCH better, and the special effects are not overly impressive - as one person stated, the small charges they used to simulate bullet hits are downright explosive! However, if you go into this movie realizing it's a low budget ITALIAN movie (it definitely has a foreign flavor) AND you are a serious WWII movie guy, then this movie's worth the buy. Here's why.To me, it was worth the purchase price just to see an unusual topic approached with a good deal of historical accuracy. The actions may not be 100% correct throughout, but the equipment, uniforms, and vehicles are very nice. Here's some interesting stuff I liked: the main Feldwebel has a unique jacket made of zeltbahn material, the Italian uniforms and field gear are spot-on perfect, the mixture of German uniforms is great, the Americans are wearing a mix of M43 and M41 jackets, some have leggings, some have double buckle boots - all very typical of late 1944 northern Italy. There's a lot of nice weapondry - a scoped G43 rifle, Carcano carbines, an MG42, an MG34, MP40s, a working MP44, Thompsons, BARs, Garands, Mausers, M1 carbines, double barrel shotguns (partisans) and even a water cooled Browning .30. The military vehicles are a bit too clean, but I suspect these are owned by European reenactors and they just didn't want to get them too messy. On the plus side, there's some decent footage of a replica German 8-wheeled recon panzer, which is something I've not seen in any other flick.To sum it up, yes, it could've been better. But, it's not a bad little movie. For the money, I would seriously recommend this one if you're interested in the war in Europe.

Refreshing divergence from Hollywood style maximum pyrotechnics war movies. This was a drama, not an action movie. This movie was quite ambitious in the way it tried to flesh out characters from so many different cultural groups, something I never saw in a war movie before (maybe I just never watched enough of them, though). The costuming and props were convincing to a person (myself) who does not make a hobby of learning the detail of this time period. This was a low budget movie, obviously, but rather well done. The actors put themselves into their characters. Attention was paid to including realistic detail, for example, there was that scene where two soldiers struggled to get a cigarette lit in the wind. That would never have been shown in a cosmetically correct Hollywood glossovers. More and more we find ourselves watching foreign movies to get levels of intelligent detail complexity no longer found in increasingly simpleton Hollywood fare.

The Fallen was very good for a low budget movie. It focuses on thefragile relationship between an Italian unit and German Unit on theGothic Line. It is a little confusing to follow the plot in thebeginning but once the movie got going I could not walk away from it.The equipment and uniforms were correct and the acting was very good(For the struggling actors in this movie they really put there allinto it. Watch the making of the fallen, none of the actors are notprofessionals so they have regular jobs. One actor is even aprofessional dog walker in real life and another works in a deli. Theacting they do in this movie is definitely on a professional caliber).The fallen is a definite must see.

Ari Taub's film shows World War II in the eyes of American, German and Italian soldiers all pitted against each other on the Gothic Line. One gets to feel compassion for all these young men who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. We have the Americans who have come to liberate Italy from its German occupiers. The Germans are faced with certain defeat but we get to meet some interesting and caring characters who in a peace time situation might become very close friends. The film does not have any really big battle scenes on special effects, so if anyone is expecting this, they will be disappointed but the realism and attention to detail and characters is really good.Mr. Taub finds a unique way to show the futility of war.

ottimo film. Lo consiglio, non storicamente precisissimo e poco realistico per via di alcune fasi in cui la sceneggiatura cede un po' per eccesso di fantasia . Comunque alla fine è la guerra in se a fare una brutta figura, ma i soldati di tutti i fronti, amici o nemici, sono tutti vittime ed eroi al tempo stesso. Di qui emerge la stupidità della guerra. Peccato che non sia disponibile in lingua italiana per la stupidità e l'ignoranza di certa parte politica che vede fantasmi in camicia nera ovunque!

Bien !

Handlung bescheiden, z.T. nicht zusammenhängend, lückenhaft und langweilig. Dialoge entweder schon im Original grausig oder extrem schlecht übersetzt. Bildauflösung unansehlich. Absolut nicht empfehlenswerter Film.

Je ne comprends pas qu'on fasse des films comme ça. Je suis ... étonné. Ca ne vaut rien du tout, même pour celui qui aime les films atypiques et j'en suis un. Un film inhabituel ne me dérange pas pourvu qu'il apporte quelque chose de nouveau; une ambiance, un climat... il n'y a pas besoin de toujours avoir des scènes spectaculaies, l'intérêt peut être obtenu par tant de moyens (etrange, gros plans, une attente de quelque chose...) Là il n'y a rien à attendre et c'est le drame, tel que c'est au début, tel que c'est jusqu'à la fin et je trouve que quand on n'a rien à dire, nous tenir 111 minutes avec ça, il y a de l'abus! Dire qu'il existe des fims de trois heures qu'on ne voit pas passer tant ils sont bons... L'action et le jeu des acteurs est ici propche de la caricature et cela sied mal au propos. Je suis très très déçu et surtout surpris qu'on sorte en DVD pareil navet. Je l'ai acheté pour son atypisme prometteur, et ben...il ne l'est même pas. Un genre de comédie ridicule qui ne s'avoue pas comme tel. Dommage, le sujet était bien trouvé. Deux étoiles pour les décors, la couleur, l'absence de flou, tout est bien net, hélas... Certes, la pochette est accrocheuse et dramatisée (plus que dans le film); cette magnifique flamme sur la tourelle du char, ce n'est qu'un ricochet de balle de mitrailleuse; rien de plus. Le char n'est même pas abîmé (le personnel encore moins), mais quelle étincelle! C'est très vendeur une image pareille. C'est la seule du genre dans tout le film! Vous voilà prévenus.JS

Passé totalement inaperçu, "the Fallen" est un film de guerre atypique, peuplé d'acteurs inconnus mais convaincants (notamment le lieutenant allemand et l'officier italien). Et surtout, la réalisation et le montage vous plongent dans un espèce de no man's land (une forêt italienne, au sud des Apennins, en 44), sans presque aucun repères spatiaux, avec une foultitude de personnages brièvement (mais puissamment) dessinés. Un récit à vous perdre, en compagnie de soldats eux-mêmes perdus (dans leurs illusions, leur idéologie, leur trouille, leur hiérarchie,et perdus tout court dans la forêt).En présence,donc : une patrouille de GI censée ravitailler un groupe. Des soldats de l'intendance, bien embêtés de se retrouver au feu ; Les Italiens, commandés par un aristocrate ; les Allemands, biffins voués au sacrifice ; les partisans italiens. Les seuls qui ne soient pas perdus.Le film alterne scènes loufoques, façon comédie italienne (il y a un troisième groupe, dirigé par un espèce de chef maffieux amateur d'échecs (!)), bouts de vie ordinaire et explosions de violence. Et là, le choc : pas d'effets "esthétisants" à la Mallick ou à la Spielberg (qu'on retrouve depuis dans quasi tous les films de guerre). La mort brutale, injuste (quel que soit le camp). on y croit, on est secoué. Quand on ne voit pas la mise en scène, c'est qu'elle est bonne, dit-on...Et tous nos personnages s'effacent dans le final, petite boucherie, fabrique de fantômes. Une croix de fer arrachée à un uniforme, générique.