DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Recent DVD/Video Releases
60
9
xx
Across the Hall
56
Adam
37
Amelia
73
Amreeka
35
Babysitters, The
70
Big Fan
57
Boys Are Back, The
81
Bright Star
71
Bronson
60
Brothers at War
55
Brothers Bloom, The
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
64
Che
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
54
Dare
68
Departures
19
Downloading Nancy
55
Endgame
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
27
Gamer
50
Give Me Your Hand
46
Halloween II
73
House of the Devil, The
94
Hurt Locker, The
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
17
I Hate Valentine's Day
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
83
In the Loop
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
41
Little Ashes
80
Lorna's Silence
33
Love Happens
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
xx
Ministers, The
67
Moon
59
More Than a Game
49
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
28
Pandorum
68
Paranormal Activity
85
Passing Strange
63
Perfect Getaway, A
44
Peter and Vandy
54
Pontypool
35
Post Grad
30
Saw VI
79
Serious Man, A
36
Serious Moonlight
76
Soul Power
40
Spiral
39
St. Trinian's
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
47
Time Traveler's Wife
43
Tru Loved
61
Trucker
47
Weather Girl
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Before the Fall
EMAILPRINTPicture This! Entertainment
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 10 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Foreign | War
Written by:
Dennis Gansel
Maggie Peren
Directed by: Dennis Gansel
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 7, 2005
DVD: June 13, 2006
Running Time: 111 minutes, Color
Origin: Germany
Language(s): German (with English subtitles)
Summary
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)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Like its singular central character, Before the Fall stands out from the pack.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
When movie clichés are presented with rigor and feeling, they can pack a fresh punch.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Janice Page
Unusually compelling, even if it's treacly enough to be "The Chorus" in goose step.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The film is a competent but callow work dealing with a monstrous subject that automatically rejects callowness.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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"!
