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41 out of 49 people found the following comment useful :- John Rabe, 11 February 2009 Author: Comandante666 from Vienna, Austria
I have just watched the movie 'John Rabe' three days ago at the Berlin International Film Festival. Fortunately the director was present and kind enough to answer some questions after the screening. Thank you for that.The movie itself is about the extraordinary achievements of the then director of Siemens Naking, John Rabe, who saved several thousand Chinese people during the Japanese assault on, and capture of the city in 1937/38.There certainly are several similarities to the case of Oscar Schindler, whose story is well documented and was made into a movie by Steven Spielberg, but those similarities are due to the story, and not because of any semblances of the two movies...Nevertheless, the most innovative and interesting aspect of the movie 'John Rabe' is the story, which is about this extraordinary person. The movie itself, and that's really unfortunate, is partially too declamatory and rather kitschy in some parts. Some scenes actually reminded me of sad experiences such as the movie 'Pearl Harbor'. This critique may sound a little harsh, because on the whole the movie isn't too bad, but I still think it should be mentioned.Now, if you are able to take some kitschy love scenes and some heroic moments, you might actually enjoy this movie and be able to discover a very interesting and less known story about the Second World War...
0 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :- not very interesting without being boring, 17 November 2009 Author: comeau
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
JOHN RABE is a well-enough-made war movie set in Nanking at the time of the Japanese siege.*minor spoilers ahead* The story is fairly cookie-cutter (though "true"). In fact, the 'hero' John Rabe does not really seem to be much of one, though nor is he an anti-hero. He is more or less a corporate (Siemens) functionary with a solid German character. He is also as it happens a Nazi party member (as were many) and a firm believer in Hitler (as were many), who does not find much reason to question these beliefs during the span of the film. Fine. At the end, when throngs of Chinese chant his name as the Japanese expel him from Nanking, it is both jarring and perplexing, since he doesn't really appear to have much to do with the people of Nanking during the movie. We can therefore only assume his legend preceded him... although nothing up till this point had suggested this Rabe might be the stuff of legend.*spoilers end* As usual, a ragtag band of white people (led by two "principled Germans", proving "they weren't all bad" a la Schindler and von Stauffenberg) set the moral tone and fight courageously to protect the hapless and defenseless "native" population. That may in fact have been the case, though I really tend to doubt it. And, even if it was exactly thus, it is a scarcely defensible narrative for such a movie in 2009.In the final analysis JOHN RABE seems to have been made as crowd-pleasing award-bait, and judging by the German Film Awards it has racked up it can already be judged as success in those terms. Although the film industry in Germany being what it is, that could also mean simply that there wasn't much in the way of competition this year...Gallenbarter, a 'blue-blood' who won a short film Oscar several year's ago, and who specializes in cultural appropriation (though at least there were a couple of Europeans in this one, not just poor/wretched people of colour), will have wanted to be sure that the fate of his little-watched first feature would not be replicated here. Thus the broadest of broad strokes, sweeping orchestral movements to let us know when we should be feeling something, nothing remotely controversial or 'interesting'... again, in terms of its apparent objectives JOHN RABE can only be termed a success.Juergen Juerges' cinematography as always provides a bright stop in the otherwise unremarkable proceedings.
0 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- advice to imdb-557-352846 from Netherlands, 29 November 2009 Author: kForKirstie from Australia
To dear IMDb-557-352846 from Netherlands I would like to see the movie and perhaps read his diary BUT i just wanted to say that it's "diary" not dairy... and if it were not for IMDb's rules on comments i would have said the above and "that's all" ... But no. Wow, the peeps at IMDb are too intelligent for me. i tried to just do a whole stack of "enters" to make the required ten lines of text, but no, that is just not possible madam. so now i am forced to write far more than the succinct "it's 'diary', not dairy...that's all" original response that i had written, and to be honest, was quite proud of. i have had to pad it out, give it a whole "introduction - body - conclusion" that would make my year 7 English teacher proud. and now, one line past the minimum of ten lines required, i'm out. Footnote: it was 11 lines. my bad.
5 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :- Movie does not match with Rabe's dairy, 17 October 2009 Author: imdb-557-352846 from Netherlands
Before watching this movie, I went to Rabe's house in Nanjing and I read his dairy. I was surprised that the movie does not match with the dairy. Important parts are missing, and there are even contradictions at some points. For example: according to the dairy, Rabe's wife Dora is outside Nanjing before the Japanese invasion starts. In the movie, Dora is still in Nanjing. And when it comes to the date that Rabe leaves Nanjing, there's also a couple of months difference between the dairy and the movie. It seems as if the movie producers wanted to 'dramatize' the original story. I don't understand why. Rabe's dairy is dramatic enough. My advice is to skip the movie, and read the dairy instead.
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