It is evident that a considerable amount of time went into this movie, however many of the mannerisms are clearly not World War II era, but instead 21st century viewpoints of that time period. An example of one of the many inaccuracies of the time period, was the graffiti that was shown painted on the wall in black. It was clearly sprayed and NOT painted brush strokes! Although spray paint cans were invented in 1927, the economically starved German country would have in all likely hood, not have had spray paint available to people who would then waste a practically brand new invention on graffiti, not to mention right after going through a period of hyperinflation since the mid 1920's! Sorry, no!
Another of the many mistakes are the table settings in the homes and restaurants showing fresh grapes, fruits, selections of wine, meat, etc. I have spoken first hand with people who lived during Hitler's regime, and there was NOT much food available for civilians. Everything was rationed. Store shelves were practically bare. Even the United States during the same time period was rationing food and gasoline! Most of Germany's food was used for the military and high ranking politicians. And they didn't have enough, especially the low rank ranking soldiers. Civilians had to go out everyday and "glean" the fields after the crops had already been picked. Such as potato fields. Parents and their children, would search those fields for an entire day, along with all of the other starving people, only to come up with one, or perhaps two potatoes, if they were lucky. Quite often multiple families would live in one house, with a family per room. Chamber pots and water basins. Running water and indoor plumbing was a luxury. The hyperinflation mentioned earlier, resulted in most things that were edible, an extreme luxury! People sold almost everything of value just to survive. Times were very, very, bad! Very unlike the movie, which seemed merely to depict a conflict in the way a couple of brothers viewed the atrocities that were being committed, and not a correct example of life during that horrible second world war. These inaccurate portrayals of "German life in general" are evidence that the author of the screen play, and the director, read only a small percentage of what life was really like during the 12 year period known as the "Third Reich". It seems that they wanted to keep the plot simple by only showing conflicting attitudes and atrocities. They did succeed in doing at least that much. Last, the streamed Amazon Prime subtitles were made by someone who, for lack of a better word, is functionally illiterate. For example, Stalingrad was written as "Stalling grad". "Führer" was written in a couple of different ways, "furer" being one of them, but never any correct spelling. Many other words in the script were also written incorrectly and misspelled. Which leads to an obvious question, did that subtitle typist have a high school education? Hard to answer. Naturally, the quantity of subtitle mistakes do not have anything to do with the quality of the movie. Yet this film could have been so much better if only the director and screenwriter would have devoted more time studying the time period. 2 Stars, one for the costumes, and one for the actors who did their best with what little direction they had to work with.
Another of the many mistakes are the table settings in the homes and restaurants showing fresh grapes, fruits, selections of wine, meat, etc. I have spoken first hand with people who lived during Hitler's regime, and there was NOT much food available for civilians. Everything was rationed. Store shelves were practically bare. Even the United States during the same time period was rationing food and gasoline! Most of Germany's food was used for the military and high ranking politicians. And they didn't have enough, especially the low rank ranking soldiers. Civilians had to go out everyday and "glean" the fields after the crops had already been picked. Such as potato fields. Parents and their children, would search those fields for an entire day, along with all of the other starving people, only to come up with one, or perhaps two potatoes, if they were lucky. Quite often multiple families would live in one house, with a family per room. Chamber pots and water basins. Running water and indoor plumbing was a luxury. The hyperinflation mentioned earlier, resulted in most things that were edible, an extreme luxury! People sold almost everything of value just to survive. Times were very, very, bad! Very unlike the movie, which seemed merely to depict a conflict in the way a couple of brothers viewed the atrocities that were being committed, and not a correct example of life during that horrible second world war. These inaccurate portrayals of "German life in general" are evidence that the author of the screen play, and the director, read only a small percentage of what life was really like during the 12 year period known as the "Third Reich". It seems that they wanted to keep the plot simple by only showing conflicting attitudes and atrocities. They did succeed in doing at least that much. Last, the streamed Amazon Prime subtitles were made by someone who, for lack of a better word, is functionally illiterate. For example, Stalingrad was written as "Stalling grad". "Führer" was written in a couple of different ways, "furer" being one of them, but never any correct spelling. Many other words in the script were also written incorrectly and misspelled. Which leads to an obvious question, did that subtitle typist have a high school education? Hard to answer. Naturally, the quantity of subtitle mistakes do not have anything to do with the quality of the movie. Yet this film could have been so much better if only the director and screenwriter would have devoted more time studying the time period. 2 Stars, one for the costumes, and one for the actors who did their best with what little direction they had to work with.