The 49th Parallel is one the ten greatest movies of all time. What is truly interesting about the movie today is the historic value (among other things) of how people felt and acted in the days before the U.S. joined WW2. Notice the disdain the Nazis feel for Christians and others they feel weren't fit for the Reich. Hopefully, we can save these truly Historic works that were done before fanatics tried to rewrite History for their agendas. The film involves the villains instead of the heroes. And each character is fully explored and represented, even the vicious U Boat officers. The lead bad guy even relents and gives a dying man some water, yet remains an evil but believable character. Unlike today's movies, the bad guys are not supermen who can't be killed. They are mortal in every respect. This is a movie in which characters truly change, and believably so. Everything in the movie is so well directed that it helps define the characters, motives, and plot, if not the strange geographical path the bad guys take. For example, in one scene, two Nazis are taking a make shift shower in a mountain camp. One is a more opportunistic henchman instead of a Nazi who takes advantage of the hot water, while the other insists on using cold water so as to not taint his Nazi pride. If you enjoy character studies, I think its safe to believe you'll relish this movie. A lot of little things that grip you, such as the stunning religious community portion, when you see the hands of a baker, putting a cake with a Happy Birthday message for Anna, and the ensuing results. Guaranteed to leave you in tears. Each of the six fugitives are thoroughly three dimensional characters, different from each other. There is the true terrible Nazi idealist, there is the aristocratic party member interested in his own promotions, there is the career soldier who is stalwart until he loses his uniform, there is the one virtuous German (the most pivotal and sympathetic character in the film} who saves the others consistently and is shown more treachory than gratitude, there is the brute Nazi enforcer, and there is the one who could be most people in the situation, the opportunist who just wants to survive. The movie covers the odyssey of six "bad guys", so to speak. Ten stars.
Review of 49th Parallel
