Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

MartinHafer "Siegfried" is an amazing silent film to watch. There is a mystical quality about it--a luminous look that sets it apart from other films of the era. Artistically speaking, it might just be the most beautiful silent film I have ever seen--and I've seen a ton of silents. In addition, the sets are awesome, the costumes amazing (more on that later) and the film is just breathtaking. To make it even better, Criterion has included a brilliant score to accompany the film.Unfortunately, there is a 'but' to all this. While the film is just gorgeous, the movie is far from perfect and has one major problem and one minor one. The biggest one is that film crams the entire story of Siefriend into one film--and there is just way too much material. As a result, the film looks VERY episodic. Siegfried goes from one major event to another to another and it looks more like a highlights film than a coherent sage. Imagine if Peter Jackson had put all of the "Lord of the Rings" films into just one film--that is the experience I had watching "Siegfried". Although Fritz Lang was brilliant here, the script just tried to do too much. A MINOR problem, and this comes from a retired history teacher, is that the costumes are not authentic. Viking horns and eagle-winged helmets, unfortunately, never really existed--it's all myth promoted by the likes of Wagner and various 19th century illustrators. Now the helmets STILL are majorly cool--so I can't fault this over-idealized look too much.Overall, a mixed bag. It's worth seeing to say you've seen it but the film isn't perfect...but still packs a mighty punch.

Michael_Elliott Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924) *** 1/2 (out of 4) The first part of Fritz Lang's five hour epic has Siegfriend slay a dragon, bath in its blood and then head off to win the hand of Kriemhild. Story wise there really isn't anything overly excellent about the film but the real key naturally is all the special effects and set design. This here is another film that makes me believe that CGI has caused filmmakers to become lazy because what happens in this film is a lot more realistic and amazing to the eye than anything a computer could make. The slaying of the dragon works very well after all these years and the sets are downright eyedropping, although I still think those in Intolerance look better. I wasn't too drawn into the story and I think some editing could have helped but this is still a must see for film buffs.

Lee Eisenberg For those of you who don't know about it, "The Nibelungenlied" is to German literature what "Beowulf" is to English literature. The story of Siegfried, a warrior who must help a prince win a princess, was made into an ultra-cool movie by Fritz Lang. Most people might imagine 1920's cinema as primitive by today's standards, but this was a very good technical production. Whether it's Siegfried (Paul Richter) slaying a dragon, or becoming invisible to help the prince win a contest, every part of the movie has something neat.A strange irony to this movie was what it almost did for Fritz Lang. Adolf Hitler loved the movie and used "The Nibelungenlied" to represent a "strong Germany". Joseph Goebbels asked Fritz Lang if he would like to make propaganda films for the Nazis. Fritz Lang said that he would think about it and quickly fled the country (in the United States, he continued turning out famous movies). Lang's wife, Thea Von Harbou, stayed in Germany and worked for the Nazi propaganda machine.No matter. It's a great movie.

RKIRCHHOFF essential viewing (and listening)...the newly-restored Munich Film Archives dvd of this film is simply wonderful. the G. Huppertz score is a marvel (lovingly restored by Erich Heller making use of the widow's piano score). Kurosawa's tribute to this classic can be seen in his handling of the "siege of the third fire tower" in RAN)...and, of course, Kriemhild's vindictive widow was the model for the Wicked Witch in SNOW WHITE... a landmark of international cinema: not to be missed.