Crete, 1944, and Fallschirmjäger Max Schmeling, thought to have fallen in battle, is miraculously found alive. Told in flashback, it is the story of the rise and fall from grace of Germany's once world champion boxer.
While he was winning, he was a Nazi poster-boy (though his own political sentiments were far more prosaic and membership of the Party was never a consideration.) But having a Jewish manager very quickly became a liability, and when he eventually lost a rematch to the black American Joe Louis in 1938, the end was nigh.
This movie offers a very sympathetic portrait of a man of obvious principal, but it is poorly made and poorly cast: Henry Maske (as Max) has all the acting prowess of, well, a boxer. The fight scenes were merely probing and feinting and ducking and weaving - watch "Napola" for a model of how it should be done. And after all, this is the story of a boxer, so they could have done much more to get this right.
Furthermore, the uniforms (especially those of high-ranking political figures such as Göring, played by a Fred Nile look-alike) were abysmal fantasies.
These things jar in a movie of supposed quality, and detract significantly from whatever value the narrative may have.
(And the jacket sleeve of my copy, with not so much as a boxing glove or spittoon in sight, but rather explosions, tanks, aircraft and what appears to be a crumbling Reichstag, alludes to something other than the actual content of the movie itself.)
Could have been, should have been, much, much better.
While he was winning, he was a Nazi poster-boy (though his own political sentiments were far more prosaic and membership of the Party was never a consideration.) But having a Jewish manager very quickly became a liability, and when he eventually lost a rematch to the black American Joe Louis in 1938, the end was nigh.
This movie offers a very sympathetic portrait of a man of obvious principal, but it is poorly made and poorly cast: Henry Maske (as Max) has all the acting prowess of, well, a boxer. The fight scenes were merely probing and feinting and ducking and weaving - watch "Napola" for a model of how it should be done. And after all, this is the story of a boxer, so they could have done much more to get this right.
Furthermore, the uniforms (especially those of high-ranking political figures such as Göring, played by a Fred Nile look-alike) were abysmal fantasies.
These things jar in a movie of supposed quality, and detract significantly from whatever value the narrative may have.
(And the jacket sleeve of my copy, with not so much as a boxing glove or spittoon in sight, but rather explosions, tanks, aircraft and what appears to be a crumbling Reichstag, alludes to something other than the actual content of the movie itself.)
Could have been, should have been, much, much better.