Into the White Movie Review

Into the White

                                              

Into the White is a World War 2 based drama movie released in 2012. This movie was also titled as ‘Comrade’ and ‘Cross of Honour’. This film is written by Ole Meldgaard, Dave Mango and Petter Næss and directed by Petter Næss. Into the White has a very limited set of characters for almost the full movie, which are played by David Kross, Stig Henrik Hoff, Florian Lukas, Rupert Grint and Lachlan Nieboer. This movie is based on true events.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

Plot:

In an aircraft battle at the sky of Norway, a German and a British plane gets shot by each other. Both of them have to crash land in a snowy mountain area.  The German plane had four soldiers in it, where one of them dies at the time of crash landing and another of them gets badly hurt in one hand. A heavy storm was approaching, so they search nearby and find an empty wooden cabin nearby. They take shelter in cottage just before the storm hits.

Soon after that, two surviving British soldiers of the British plane also come to the cottage. The British soldiers have no firearms with them. Considering their situation and the weather outside, the Germans lets them come inside the cabin and takes them as prisoners. The German leader gives two beds to two of British soldiers and also marks their place to stay inside. According to the Geneva Convention, the British soldiers demand food and the Germans provide them that. The British soldiers also demand for respect and the German leader finally agrees to that.

From the beginning, none of them behaves in any violent or attacking manner to their opposition soldiers. Both of team knows that, in such a situation, they need each other’s cooperation to stay alive. Both of the teams has to put the rules of warfare aside and cannot pick an enemy inside the cabin. The British feel sympathy for the wounded German soldier and give tips to the German leader to ease his pain. And also the German soldiers, in spite of holding the British at gunpoint, give them respect. The British soldiers’ target is to make the Germans angry, so that, being furious, they attack the British and make a mistake. But the cool headed German leader never falls on that trap even though the others are provoked.

The storm is running continuously and the soldiers inside the cabin are running out of foods to eat and woods to burn. They start to break the woods inside the cabin to burn. Meanwhile, the condition of the wounded German soldier is getting worse. He is also paranoid by the British. But with time, both of teams gets trust on each other, starts to get friendly and distance between the captors and the prisoners is getting smaller. But at one time, when they take woods from one of the columns of the cabin and the cabin starts to fall, the German leader was trying to hold the cabin and the British leader uses this opportunity to take the gun from him. From that moment, the Germans become the prisoners of the British. He starts to treat the Germans with respect equally of what he has received. But the Germans manage to retrieve their gun and again, make the British prisoners.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

But the weather (the snow storm) was not getting any better and finally both of the teams lose any interest over the guns. They start to live there in a friendly manner. Suddenly they discover a small stock of food and drinks under the cabin’s floor and starts enjoying them. They get to know each other better over the drinks. But the wounded German soldier gets gangrene on his wounds. The only way to save him is to cut off his hand. Putting the guns aside, they do it together, but finally, fail to save his life. They bury him outside the cabin.

At last, in one fine day, the storm stops and the sun comes out. They all get ready to go outside and find the nearest way. Meanwhile, in a nearby Norwegian army camp, they send out scout teams to look for the wreckage of the crashed planes. One German and one British soldier goes out together to find ways down from this mountain and meets the Norwegian scout teams. Then the unexpected happens.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

My review about this movie:

First of all, I liked this movie very much. And according to my guess, everyone else will.

Although the plot of this movie is set in World War 2 and is about two groups of conflicting soldiers, but Into the White is not, at all, a typical war movie with the fighting, the shootings and the killings. It tells the story of survival, cooperation and humanity.

The plot is movie is very good and innovative, although it will not seem that innovative when you know it is based on true events. But in a beautiful movie like this, I was expecting a happy ending, which didn’t happen. At the very end, this movie gives you more facts from the real events after the end of this particular plot, which feels very interesting and will leave you wanting for more.

The director and the screenwriter have done a beautiful job here. The location, the screenplay and the dialogues match perfectly with the plot. The psychology of the soldiers inside the cabin seemed very realistic. Another important point about this movie is, even though it is a Hollywood movie, it does not portraits the Germans as ‘evils’, which I’ve found as a rare case. The effects of the storm and the set inside the cabin was very good.

The acting of all the characters felt natural and flawless. Although, I think, the best acting was performed by the German leader, but the character of Rupert Grint was the most amusing of all. Even in a serious movie like this, the dialogues of his character will make you laugh. This famous kid actor has also done an awesome job of acting here as a soldier. But as I’ve said ago, the acting of all others were also impressive. The dialogues are very well chosen and the makeups were good  too.

This movie is completely safe to watch with kids.

After you’ve finished watching this movie, you should look for the facts about it in wiki (the link is given below) which is obviously worthy a look.

We can also see some stunning scenic views in Into the Whitenear the end of the movie.

So, overall, it was a beautiful movie and I really enjoyed my time watching this one. I’ll definitely recommend Into the White to all movie lovers as a must see.

How did you like Into the White? Feel free to comment.

If you are looking for more info:

IMDB link: Into the White IMDB

Wikipedia Link: Into the White Wiki

The Flowers of War Movie Review

The Flowers of War

                                                                  

The Flowers of War is a Chinese historical drama war film released in 2011. This movie is directed by Zhang Yimou and it’s plot is based on the novel “13 Flowers of Nanjing” by Chinese-American author Geling Yan. The major roles of this movie are played by Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Zhang Xinyi, Tong Dawei, Atsuro Watabe, Shigeo Kobayashi and Cao Kefan. The plot of this movie is set on Nanking, China during the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937.

A scene from the movie The Flowers of War

Plot:

This movie starts with a war scene where a group of Chinese soldiers ambushes a group of invading Japanese army who were chasing a group of schoolgirls. Although the Japanese army faces large damage at the beginning, but soon they bring strong reinforcements and crashes the Chinese resistance, leaving only two survivor of the Chinese army. But in the meantime, the group of schoolgirls manages to reach a church where they were supposed to come for shelter. While going there, they meet an American mortician named John Miller who is also heading for the same church to bury the priest.  

After reaching there, John meets the caretaker of that church (a small boy) but can’t find the body of the priest. He still demands money as he has come all the way for his job. He doesn’t care much about helping others in a situation like this, instead he tries to get comfortable in living in that church as the priest. Soon a group of prostitutes come to that church seeking for shelter, claiming that the church’s another caretaker has taken bribe from them to give them shelter here. As soon as they arrive, John and they starts to flirt with one another. They hide in the cellar of the church.

Now, the two survivors of the Chinese army from the previous fight come to church. One of them is severely wounded. The other one carries him and leaves him at the prostitutes’ care. He then leaves the church and takes position in a nearby collapsed building. Inside the church, the schoolgirls and the prostitutes don’t get along much, but somehow manages to live. John is attracted to the leader of the prostitute and tries to interest her in him. She offers John that she, with her team, will satisfy John if he can take them to the nearby safe camp.

But time doesn’t pass peacefully, a group of Japanese army attacks the church and after searching, finds the group of hiding schoolgirls. But a girl shows a noble gesture by not getting into the cellar when she was being chased, thus helping the prostitutes stay hidden in the cellar.  Some members of the army get brutal and try to rape the girls. John tries to stop them and fails. Then the lone survivor of that Chinese army shoots some of the Japanese army which gives away his hiding position. The Japanese soldiers leave the girls and go looking for him. He alone kills a good number of Japanese soldiers and finally gets killed.

Then a Japanese high ranked officer comes to the church with his team. The schoolgirls sing for him. Seeing everything, the officer provides them his words and also appoints some soldiers around the church for the safety of everyone living there. With the officer, there was a Chinese man who’s daughter was there among the schoolgirls. He was helping the Japanese only to find safety for his family. At a chance which came later on, John asked him for some parts of the damaged truck of the church, so that he could take everyone to safe camp. The said he’ll try his best to help.

One day, John finds two of the prostitutes missing. They went to their previous home, one to bring her earrings and another to bring strings for her musical instruments with which, she wanted to play to the wounded soldier.  John rushes to search for them with the caretaker of the church knowing they will not survive for long in this warzone. He finally finds them, one killed and another brutally raped before being killed. John then comes back to the church.

Few days later, the Japanese officer comes back to the church, giving John a written order that the schoolgirls and a prostitute (accidentally gets in the schoolgirls’ team) will have to sing at a victory celebration of the Japanese army. Fearing the worst, John doesn’t agree to send the girls. But the officer warns him that it is an order from higher officers and they may use force to catty on this order.

Everybody at the church can guess what is there in the girls’ fate. At the party, they will be brutally raped and even may get killed. Nobody wants the girls to go to that party. But John has no ways to say no. So, to avoid this horrific fate, that night all the schoolgirls together try to commit suicide by jumping off the bell tower of the church. John and the prostitutes try to stop them and then the leader of the prostitutes says that they will go to that party instead of the girls.

The last part of this movie is about their attempt to save the schoolgirls and the fate of John, the caretaker, the schoolgirls and the prostitutes. Can they deceive the eyes of the Japanese army? Can they be saved? You have to watch the movie to know the answers.

My review about this movie:

First of all, I felt that this movie is a beautiful piece of work.

The plot was beautiful and touchy. Like other great war movies, this will make you hate a war and will make you worried about the innocent lives of a warzone. This movie has showed what a dreadful fate waits for some people who are not involved with the war in any way. This movie also shows some extraordinary examples of some people in wartime.  

The acting and dialogues are good. There is no question about the acting of Christian Bale and he has done a perfect job. The acting of all other characters, specially the schoolgirls’ and the prostitutes’ seemed fluent and natural. The dialogs were also good according to the movie’s plot. Same goes for makeup. The plot needed some glamour for the prostitutes (specially their leader) even in these situations and the director has matched them pretty well.

There are some war scenes which fitted with the movie’s subject nicely and seemed realistic. These scenes includes some killings, dead bodies and some rape scenes which were needed to express the shocking violence  of a war and the director has shown them nicely without going too extreme. There is no direct nudity in this movie.

The special effects are also goods. I couldn’t catch any flaws in any scene or in the plot.

So, finally, I really liked this movie. To the fans of war movies, I’ll recommend this movie as a must see. If you are a fan of all other kinds of movies, for you also, The Flowers of War is a must see. 

For those who are interested: 

IMDB Link : The Flowers of War IMDB

Wikipedia link : The Flowers of War Wiki