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Divided We Fall
Sony Pictures Classics


9.7

based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 10 votes
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FILM:

Up and Down

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some violence and sexual content

Starring Bolek Polívka, Csongor Kassai, Jaroslav Dusek, Anna Sisková, and Jirí Pecha

Based on a true story, this film is set in a small Czech town occupied by German forces during the last years of the Second World War. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Jan Hrebejk Petr Jarchovský (also story)
DIRECTED BY:	Jan Hrebejk
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 27, 2001 Video: November 27, 2001 Theatrical: June 8, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	120 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Czech Republic
LANGUAGE(S):	Czech / German (with English subtitles)

Original Czech title "Musíme si Pomáhat"; Received nomination as Best Foreign Language Film at the 73rd Annual Academy Awards; Voted Most Popular Film, 2000 Vancouver International Film Festival

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...

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The tonal elegance of this black comedy set in a dark time -- is boldly dependent on performances that tug at taut lines of moral complexity.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Profound, powerful Czech import takes a tragicomic approach to the Holocaust, though unlike Benigni's film, the movie does not sentimentalize those caught up in the Nazi dragnet.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Not only is the film that good, it's also that wonderfully, inescapably Czech.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

The film treats the ensuing issues of conscience and compromise with subtlety and warmth.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The film's triumph - and it is a triumph - in the end rests on the ability of Hrebejk and his actors to convince us that they never stop being normal people.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Based on a true story, the movie takes us through some harrowing times.

Time Richard Schickel

The result is a lovely movie, one that allows its characters unexpected spurts of growth and regression, darkness and grace.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Divided We Fall briskly, often hilariously, forbids us to wallow in the specious comfort of untainted local heroes or irredeemable villains.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Hrebejik directs with a sure hand, deftly balancing comedy and drama in a most involving and satisfying manner.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Audiences will talk about how satisfying this movie is.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Parts of the movie play like French farce, but ultimately Hrebejk uses very simple cadences to unveil, movingly, the big picture.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Has the literary richness, depth of character and tone that such a morally difficult, powerful narrative requires.

Chicago Reader Mark Peranson

An amiable black comedy.

Variety Eddie Cockrell

Confronts an incendiary topic head-on with grace, style, compassion and exquisitely practical wit.

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

Were it not for the gravity of the setting, the movie could just as easily be a comedy -- with everybody play-acting and doors opening and shutting and the repercussions of lies multiplying geometrically -- as a drama.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Bears no resemblance to the smarmy fraud that Roberto Benigni perpetrated in "Life Is Beautiful."

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The filmmakers explore not only the banality of evil, but also the banality of goodness, and the ridiculousness, as well as the tragedy, of their collision.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

This a deeply humane and affecting movie, surprisingly gentle in spite of its black-comic tinge, and without the slightest hint of schmaltz.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

In its compassionate absurdism and underlying dark humor, the movie seeks to reestablish contact with the Czech new wave.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Divided We Fall is intended to be restorative, but its wish fulfillments, while charming, are also a bit too gaga for that.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Divided We Fall has a lot going for it, but its Places in the Heart ending, sentimental and incongruous, helps ensure that it will not find a place in a demanding audience's heart or mind.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Demonstrates that even if you live in a country intimately familiar with fascist occupation, you might still not have the least clue how to communicate that experience on film.

TV Guide Ken Fox

None of this is funny, the surreal touches are ridiculous and the final fantasy sequence, in which the nameless ghosts of the murdered Wiener family smile on Josef, is simply nauseating.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.7 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it an8:
If you're too close to the holocaust, by all means, avoid the comedy of Sara Silverman and irreverent tragi-comedies like "Life is Beautiful", and this curious offering from the Czech Republic. In "Schindler's List", Spielberg allows Fiennes' Nazi to be vulnerable without losing sight of the Aryan's despicable disregard for human life. "Divided We Fall", however, has the audacity to have as its most pitiable character, a Nazi, who might have you humming an old Sting song in which the former Police frontman sings "...the [Nazis] love their children too." It's easier to feel sorry for this German because although we hear his rhetoric, we never see him commit a violent act. But despite these reservations, it's hard for me to deny that the action which follows the Czech city's liberation, does indeed find the right tone to get away with murder.

Abrea S. gave it a 10:
Giving the young generations a glimpse of life with the German forces. Less in violence but never in dread. --bré, Philippines.

Paty L. gave it a 10:
Excelente.

Miriam G. gave it a 10:
Great movie, both touching and realistic- I enjoyed it immensely.

Cole L. gave it a 9:
This movie encrypts Czech power and faith at there own time of need. This movie really shows how much liarary power and kindness this kind of brillant movie has stored in itself.

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Divided We Fall Sony Pictures Classics

Divided We Fall
Sony Pictures Classics