Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

seanasnow8 I stumbled on this movie on the Vangard channel. I watched it from about midnight on, so I was tired. I have to admit I was drawn into this film because of the nature of the main character. I enjoyed his changing situations and the make-up artist who made him look more of a despot than a human. This movie has a few areas that confused me. Like when he is being attacked by the wolves and he is transported to an native tribe/village? I also was sickened by the sudden violent attacks made by the fat river man. The movie lets you believe that our main man will survive anything, but then you get socked in the stomach by the films evil characters. I enjoyed this film. I would recommend it.

Bob Shank I took pleasure from this film =8-). I enjoyed it, and see no reason to diagnose its content to death, as so often happens within this IMDb venue of puerile reviewers begging attention. It is a good film with credible acting and directing. In the right mind-set, its flaws are easily overlooked. Its true story-line has obviously garnered interest from a plethora of international viewers, most of whom (as well, myself) are pleased with its content, acting, directing - and who have eloquently expressed so in their own words. I found humanity and justice within its depiction, the attendant emotions (oh yeah, I teared-up on occasion), and not just a little of history unbeknownst to me. My hope is, viewers can beg-off cultural bigotries of their own and work-through this little gem with an open frame-of-mind from the outset, emotionally digesting its often not-so-subtle atrocities and poignant beauty.

hasosch "So Weit Die Füsse Tragen" (2001), directed by Hardy Martins, a stunt coordinator who seems to have a natural great talent in directing and who will hopefully continue making movies in this genre, despite Vilsmaier, has presented a movie that is in two respects more than remarkable: First, it focuses on the often forgotten Stalinistic concentration camps. No one is to accuse the Nazis because of their concentration camps unless he also accuses those of Stalin and makes known of what happened not only before, but also behind the Iron Curtain. Second, the movie tells the story of one single individual without any attempts at generalizing the fate of others or smuggling pseudo-documentary material (f.ex., as it is unfortunately so often the case, in the form of archive footage) into the movie. In its compromise-less realistic and not naturalistic description lies the big value of this movie.Without any scroll-work, the film shows the way of Clemens Forell from his way from Munich to Stalingrad in the last year of World War II, then his deportation to a Stalinistic Concentration Camp in Siberia, afterward his flight, made possible by a terminally ill German physician who provides him with the preparatory work originally intended for himself, then his basically indescribably pains on his unimaginable long and excruciating way through ten thousands of miles of Ice deserts, the taiga, downwards to the South into an Iranian prison, and then his miraculous, yet not fairy-tale-like release and return to his family after more than eight years of absence on Christmas Eve, like scheduled for Midnight Mass.

Dennis Littrell This is a German language film with English subtitles based on the novel by the same name which was based on a true story about a German POW in the aftermath of WWII who escaped a Siberia work camp and made an amazing 8,000-mile trek home to Munich to be reunited with his family.I haven't read the novel, but of course it was a novel and so much of it was made up. It doesn't matter however, since what counts in a movie is simply the movie itself. I am always a little put off when the blurbs for a film scream out: "Based on a true story!" So what? Sometimes that's significant and sometimes it isn't. In this case the fact that there actually existed a German POW who managed such an amazing escape is important. The exact details of what happened to him would be wonderful to have. But in lieu of that, we do have this wonderful movie.Bernhard Bettermann stars as Clemens Forell, and he is perfect for the part. To survive such an epic adventure the person has to be strong of body and strong of will. Bettermann looks as though he could actually do something like this, except for the fact that he is so tall and pale I suspect he would stand out and be easily identified as a foreigner in those strange lands through which he trekked. Also a bit not so realistic is the Soviet camp commander who personally chases Forell all the way to the Iranian border (although that resulted in a nice ironic scene on the bridge at the border between Iran and what--I think--is Turkmenistan). In reality there were probably several Soviet officers who played that part. And I would also liked to have seen a little more about how he found enough to eat. And finally it is clear that the last parts of his journey were sped up a bit as though the filmmakers were in a hurry. But these are small quibbles.I don't know if this "coloration" (as I will call it) was in the book, but what director Harvey Martins does is make the tall and "Aryan" Forell experience some of the same horrors that the Jews experienced. In the beginning he is in a cattle car and nearly starved to death as he is taken to the Siberian lead mines. He is in rags and nearly frozen and gets kicked around by sadistic soldiers. If you saw just this part of the movie you would swear it was about the Jews being sent to a concentration camp. In the camp after Forell is caught in an early escape attempt he is shown being beaten by his fellow soldiers, who of course, were punished because he tried to escape. This was exactly the sort of thing the Nazis did in the occupied countries during WWII—if a single German was killed, that killing would be revenged many times over. Later, one of the people who helped Forell is a Jew who lost relatives to the Nazis. Nonetheless he helps Forell, and in doing so demonstrates not only a superior morality, but the kind of courage that is rare. And why did he do it? Because that is the kind of person he is, and that is the kind of persons we all should be.While Forell is a positive, even a heroic figure, and a nice change for Germans who have to endlessly read about and see Germans portrayed in a most negative way throughout their whole lives, the movie itself tends to be neutral politically.The scenes of the snow and the forests and the various places that Forell travels through are nicely done. The ending is exquisite and brought me to tears.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)