Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This movie is superb! If you enjoy Wes Anderson, then watch this film! It's very similar in characters, cinematography, costuming and actor blocking.What a powerful message to the German people at the same time. This piece of art calls out their hatred and is quite blunt about it. No spoilers, but I love that the lead Russian soldier is German. It adds a sense of rebellion to his actions. It's refreshing and fun to watch. Again, I highly recommend this to Wes Anderson fans. The cinematography is fantastic! Great long shots, close ups and framed scenes.A film definitely worth finding and owning. :)

(Note: this film is based on director Konrad Wolf's 1945 diary. It is, therefore, pretty much an autobiographical story about his own life and experiences.)In 1934, to escape Hitler, a German Jewish family flees to Russia. In 1945, the son, now a nineteen year-old lieutenant, returns as a member of the Soviet army. Among the many things he experiences on his way to Berlin is a tour of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There a demonstration of the workings of a gas chamber is performed. The film as a whole, however, suffers greatly from having been produced in East Germany. The protagonist's Jewish identity is never introduced. This seriously weakens the ambiguous impact of his return "home." Also, in general, the Russian soldiers invading Berlin behaved badly. For example, a hundred thousand rapes or more are said to have occurred. Yet, the film presents not even a whiff of this. Indeed, only one German girl is shown to be worried, and she is reassured and sent upon her way. Meanwhile, throughout all the movie, Soviet personnel deport themselves in noble and gentlemanly ways. Thus, a potentially realistic classic is ultimately doomed by ideology.

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.