SunnyHello Nice effects though.

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

fredcdobbs5 Italian cowboy movies are called spaghetti westerns, so maybe this German one should be called a schnitzel western, or a sauerbraten western, or some such thing, but it's definitely not a "western" western. This German-made film about a group of Germans traveling from the US through Canada to get to the Dawson gold-mining area in the late 1800s has some beautiful Canadian scenery, and a realistic look to it, but overall it's just too slow-moving and, frankly, depressing to qualify as a "western".It has the cold, gritty look of Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider" and Kevin Costner's "Open Range"--not necessarily a bad thing--but I think it's too relentlessly downbeat and, to be honest, depressing for most viewers' tastes. The film is totally and completely humorless--I know the West of the time was not exactly a laugh riot, but so many bad things happen to so many people so often that you actually start getting depressed watching this. Just about the only "light-hearted" moment is when one of the group stops in a saloon while traveling through a town and asks the bartender for three bottles of whiskey and one glass, while the other customers just stare at him. That's pretty much it.The box cover says the film is 101 minutes long, but believe me--it seems a LOT longer than that. Unless you like dark, moody, somewhat self- indulgent westerns that move like molasses, I'd say skip this.

Nathan L I remember very well the feeling I had when I walked out of the theater after watching "Gold" : the movie was so realistic that I couldn't get out of my mind life's knocks during the particular era of the movie - and how lucky I was to live in Europe these days, have a secure job, a house and loving family."Gold" deals with a common story of the 19th century in North America : a trek of settlers decide to go up north in search for gold. The variety of characters makes it easy to identify with a least one : there is the lonely guy, the intriguing girl, the elderly couple, the crook ... the harshness of nature and human behavior point out their vulnerability but can also reveal their pugnacity and strong character. Everything seems to match in "Gold" : the beautiful landscapes without any track of man, the very discreet music, the simplicity of these settlers' habits, the whole making this movie quite fascinating. I absolutely recommend it to anyone willing to see what a contemporary western could be.

operdoc Well, it shore is pretty. Little reason to watch this implausible movie, unless, like me, you're a fan of Nina Hoss and you like to watch beautiful scenery.The trip itself is plausible enough. Plenty of fools made their way to Alaska for this second gold rush. There is even another movie (a better movie) about a similar subject called 'The Far Country' with Jimmy Stewart. But what happens along the way, and the way it is plotted and executed is absurd and comical.Woe if you were a horse in this movie. Or one of the actors forced to speak the stiff dialog. The two main characters, Nina Hoss as Emily and Marco Mandic as Bohmer are believable enough, but tripped up by a silly plot. It's always difficult to make a movie about a long arduous trip without it seeming artificially episodic and here, the director and screenwriter, have failed.

samkan As the four COMMENTERS before me point out, GOLD is not a Hollywood western but a rather sincere attempt to depict fellow countrymen (The film is German-made about Germans) a century ago in a foreign land. Indeed many languages were wailed across the western prairies in the 1800's, a fact seldom seen in Westerns. Credit the maker with allowing his culture to have the same faults as the rest of us. But whether this "virtue" of GOLD may have been intended is unknown; e.g., we see a single Chinese, but no mix of trekking humankind. Such was surely financially prohibitive - GOLD was made on a shoestring budget using not sets but small historical parks in British Columbia and with contemporary German actors and limited extras. As much as I loved Nina Hoss in BARBARA I think a younger actress; e.g., Anjorka Strechel, would have been a better fit. The film's plot holds no legitimate twists or surprises and the ending may prove inconsequential to many. GOLD could have been greatly enhanced by superior camera work, vistas and imagination. Instead we appear to see the same locales and areas throughout. The group, at one point, appears reluctant to cross a river that appears ankle-deep. A ten yard splat of mud is likewise a major obstacle. But I found GOLD charming in it's simplicity and consideration of mundane hardships (bad food!). The characters were provided realistic and historical backgrounds. Hey, hard to make a film set in the 18th century North American West WITHOUT falling into the trappings of a "Western". In this GOLD succeeds. PS / I so agree with PlanktonRules observation that the trials of the GOLD crew parallel the 90's video game OREGON TRAIL, which I played dozens of times with my kids. Broken wagon wheels and disease are indeed catastrophes.