This is quite entertaining. It shows the lives of two brothers in Nazi Germany up to the defeat at the end of WW2. It does jump around a bit and seems a bit rushed in places but this is understandable considering the events that had to be fitted into the fairly short running time.
Bill Nighy and John Shea play the brothers and both are quite convincing although neither seems to age much throughout. David Warner is excellent as the scheming, ruthless and utterly evil Heydrich. Nighy finally begins to realise just how evil the Nazis are. He even risks taking some books to his old teacher who is Jewish and is living in a rundown flat after his home is confiscated by the Nazis and he is no longer allowed to teach. Nighy's character had believed that having people like him inside the regime might tone down some of the atrocities but of course he was wrong. At the end he tries to get away but is shot dead when he is recognised in civilian clothes by a soldier who tears his shirt to reveal an SS tattoo. I don't think they had an SS tattoo but the blood group instead so not entirely accurate.
A particularly moving scene is when Nighy tries to get their kid brother to desert from the Hitler Youth but the boy is so indoctrinated with Nazi ideologies that he refuses. He ends up getting killed by the Russians while fighting in Berlin and it is quite sad when Shea goes to collect his body near the end. This shows just how sick the Nazis were and that their complete disregard for life meant that they virtually brainwashed young boys into dying for a criminal and evil regime.
Overall I thought this was a good film which has its faults but does a fairly good job of conveying the sense of fear and oppression that living under a brutal and evil regime must have felt like.
Bill Nighy and John Shea play the brothers and both are quite convincing although neither seems to age much throughout. David Warner is excellent as the scheming, ruthless and utterly evil Heydrich. Nighy finally begins to realise just how evil the Nazis are. He even risks taking some books to his old teacher who is Jewish and is living in a rundown flat after his home is confiscated by the Nazis and he is no longer allowed to teach. Nighy's character had believed that having people like him inside the regime might tone down some of the atrocities but of course he was wrong. At the end he tries to get away but is shot dead when he is recognised in civilian clothes by a soldier who tears his shirt to reveal an SS tattoo. I don't think they had an SS tattoo but the blood group instead so not entirely accurate.
A particularly moving scene is when Nighy tries to get their kid brother to desert from the Hitler Youth but the boy is so indoctrinated with Nazi ideologies that he refuses. He ends up getting killed by the Russians while fighting in Berlin and it is quite sad when Shea goes to collect his body near the end. This shows just how sick the Nazis were and that their complete disregard for life meant that they virtually brainwashed young boys into dying for a criminal and evil regime.
Overall I thought this was a good film which has its faults but does a fairly good job of conveying the sense of fear and oppression that living under a brutal and evil regime must have felt like.