A Time to Love and a Time to Die

The film relies too much on the sentimental and humanist ideal where people are inherently good, and where goodness resides in us all unless it’s poisoned by something like Nazism. This radiates to the characters that are one-dimensional; either good, evil and/or damaged by the war experience. While a commendable effort to extend sympathy towards the ordinary German with a humane depiction of social and emotional conditions, the film makes a caricature out of its own purpose.

oddly reminds me of how children play war, like how action might be really grim and kids know a lot about the horrors of war but then the set is a cozy pillow fort that is fun and easy to blow to pieces

Some good parts and some other parts. Good cast.

This Sirk drama is memorable for Gavin's performance and for its dark ending.

Em honra de John Gavin (1931 - 2018) filme #2. Cinemascope é amor. Douglas Sirk nem se fala. Filme de guerra deslumbrante sob a perspectiva do alemães médios, não os nazis, sem que não deixe de fazer uma crítica à estes, de como isso será eternamente algo que não fará o mundo esquecer. Plus: E eu nunca poderia imaginar que ia encontrar o Klaus Kinski num filme do Douglas Sirk! Interpretando um nazi, é claro. BlurayRip RARBG

Star Rating: ★★★★

awesome performance by Lilo Pulver. I mean, how fucking cute is she in this one?

A great film in its own right, but also totally fascinating when held against Hitler's Madman. Sirk's first and last movies about the same subject but different in every conceivable way.

#985

The romantic affair of a newly conscientious, repentant Nazi soldier home on vacation. Far better than it sounds. Such instances as when the lovebirds lament their inability to honeymoon in Paris or Holland as they'd be hated, feel chillingly decadent considering context - until finally a horrid Nazi atrocity is mentioned in brief but purposefully, giving perspective. The hammy delivery belies a nuanced, moving and thought-provoking script, with dialogue tottering between pathos and profundity.

986

It's kind of unfair, but my biggest problem with the movie is that it's too good at what it does, making me sympathize with a Nazi soldier just doesn't sit right, even in a film that makes no attempt to whitewash the terrible things the Nazis did. Visceral reactions aside, it's a wonderful film with well handled nuance, compelling characters and a very delicate balance between love and death. Sirk manages to make the film his stylistically while keeping an appropriate tone, quite a feat.

994

Creating a sympathetic view of Germans is done more successfully in All Quiet on the Western Front, perhaps because that war doesn't have such awful baggage with it. Still, Sirk manages fairly well. There are few surprises here, it's your typical "the human side of war" story. But it's handled deftly... though the Technicolor occasionally threatens to beautify things too much, for the most part it's kept in check. Bonus point for a brief appearance by Klaus Kinski, in one of his earliest roles.