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Before the Fall
Picture This! Entertainment


8.7

based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 10 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Max Riemelt, Tom Schilling, Devid Striesow, Joachim Bissmeier, Justus von Dohnanyi, Michael Schenk, Florian Stetter, and Gerald Alexander Held

As Hitler launches the first major military aggressions of World War II, the strongest and smartest German young men enter exclusive schools known as "Napolas" to train as future leaders of the Third Reich. In 1942, a recruiter from one such Napola sets his sights on Friedrich, a talented adolescent boxer, who sees the training and prestige offered by the Napola as his ticket out of an impoverished family unit run by his anti-Nazi father. (Picture This! Entertainment)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign \| War
WRITTEN BY:	Dennis Gansel Maggie Peren
DIRECTED BY:	Dennis Gansel
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 13, 2006 Theatrical: October 7, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	111 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Germany
LANGUAGE(S):	German (with English subtitles)

Original title "Napola - Elite für den Führer"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Every movie about the Holocaust should be this good, but few are.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A potent and well-executed drama.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Commands attention from its very first frame and never lets up right through the fade-out. It is a splendid example of classic screen storytelling with no false steps, and Gansel's understated approach pays off with resounding emotional effect and meaning.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Like its singular central character, Before the Fall stands out from the pack.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Gansel based the film on the memories of one of his grandfathers. The acting is believable; the photography, atmospheric; and the moral, unmistakable.

TV Guide Ken Fox

All the paraphernalia so important to the image of the Reich, particularly the uniforms, are painstakingly rendered, bringing a heightened sense of realism to what might otherwise have been a romantic coming-of-age tale.

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

If Before the Fall feels a tad overdetermined, it also feels emotionally honest. Calmly and carefully, Mr. Gansel makes large points with small scenes.

Chicago Reader Joshua Katzman

The hero (played with the right amount of adolescent insouciance by Max Riemelt) is a working-class boy admitted to one of the academies for his formidable boxing skills, and through him director Dennis Gansel captures the ordinariness of Hitler's supporters.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

It's an emotionally chilly movie with a blank, inexpressive protagonist, but it gains cumulative force en route to a viscerally moving climax.

The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis

This well-made World War II film from Germany is both a coming-of-age story and a critique of National Socialist ideology.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

When movie clichés are presented with rigor and feeling, they can pack a fresh punch.

Boston Globe Janice Page

Unusually compelling, even if it's treacly enough to be "The Chorus" in goose step.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The homoerotic relationship between Friedrich and Albrecht is stopped short by tragedy, but the point is made - to Friedrich and the audience - that fascism has no room for humanity.

Variety Eddie Cockrell

An intermittently gripping story about an idealistic young boxer who becomes disillusioned with the Third Reich during his elite training, Napola is finally KO'd by an overdose of Nazi fetishism.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Surely played better on the page than on the screen. What's left is the same old drill driven by brutal master race fervor.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The film is a competent but callow work dealing with a monstrous subject that automatically rejects callowness.

Village Voice R. Emmet Sweeney

The movie is too middlebrow to show us the superman-type sexual heroics they must've engaged in, or even allow the illicit subtext to float to the surface (as Sokurov does in Father and Son)--instead we get tepid moralizing on dehumanization in the military.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jim G. gave it a5:
Interesting if uneven drama about awakening to disillusionment.

Conrad S. gave it an8:
Engaging with excellent performances. Max Riemelt is particularly good. If the whole film was just a bit more subtle, it would've been truly outstanding.

Philip J. gave it a9:
The story of these two boys making a stand against the hideous nazi germany is one of the most emotional and inspiring films i've ever seen. experience it and believe it.

Tom Schuster gave it a10:
An overwhelming film for the viewer that is historically particular but also timeless in it's message. Societies that crush the most sensitive of their people are doomed to consume themselves by their barbarism.

[Anonymous] gave it a9:
This an outstanding film that builds slowly to an emotional, but not sentimental, climax. It's a movie about Nazi Germany that employs the effective elements of Dead Poets Society minus the treacly Robin Williams stuff. It's also interesting as a boxing film. Highly recommended.

David gave it a10:
An outstanding portrayal of two youths whose unspoken bond is steeped in grappling with new understanding of the word around them. Featuring lush cinematography and flawlessly acted, Before The Fall is a definite "must see"!

Before the Fall Picture This! Entertainment

Before the Fall
Picture This! Entertainment