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Visitors Review

FlickJunkie-2 2012-05-20 03:44:24

A poignant and compelling film

This 1996 film, which was not released in the U.S. until 2000 in the rentalmarket, offers a fresh German perspective of World War II. It puts a morehuman face on the people of the Third Reich, much in the same way as ‘DasBoot'. We are used to depictions of German soldiers as brutally evil,soulless killing machines (and there is a bit of that here) but this filmmostly presents a softer more balanced portrayal. This is the story of Abel, an affable simpleton from France with a love ofchildren and animals (no, there are no undertones of pedophilia). Prior toWWII, he is wrongly accused and convicted of child molestation. Whileworking in the work camps, he is captured by the Germans and through aseries of events ends up as a prisoner of war worker in a training schoolfor Hitler youth. He is emotionally seduced by the romantic notions ofHitler's national socialism and the great devotion to the fatherland that isbeing taught there. And of course, he loves working with the boys. TheGermans notice this and how much the boys like him as well, so they ask himto recruit more boys for the school from the local countryside. Things goalong well until the Russians invade and the only defense of the school mustbe made by the students (who are well trained in the art ofwar).This is a terrific story that gives us a more realistic look inside Germanyduring the war. No, it wasn't an idyllic free society. But it wasn'texactly a factory for mechanized inhuman killers as it has been routinelyportrayed either. We come to understand that what we considered evil wasbeing presented to the children in terms that seemed good and noble. Theyfelt as if they were on an idealistic quest, not on a diabolical mission ofsubjugation.The direction of this film was expertly done. Volker Schlondorff'spresentation of the story, though slow moving at times, offered an excellentcharacter study of Abel and was patient in proffering revealing looks at thepeople and the feelings of those around him.Malkovich is fantastic as the naïve and slow witted Abel. He is wonderfullychildlike and sincere in his portrayal; reminiscent of his role in ‘Of Miceand Men'. This is the best I can remember him in quite sometime.This is a poignant and compelling film of substance. I rate it a 9/10. Thesophisticated viewer will enjoy it.

2012-05-19 20:11:50

Extremely powerfull !

Muller Stall best perfomance....and Heino Ferch incredibe acting, makes this a must see movie !

2012-05-19 07:20:35

Horrible

I honestly don't understand what people see in this shallow, boring movie. I honestly could not get into it whenever Malkovich started talking in his overly-American jargon, while everyone around him was either talking in a French accent or a German one, appropriately (Malkovich was playing a Frenchman). Just that intonation contrasted heavily to even when he was narrating in the background (he a different, heavier voice then) on the events happening around him. It is obvious the movie has no direction and some of the events are utterly unbelievable. It starts out well, when Malkovich's role is played by a younger actor in an earlier time in his life, but when Malkovich comes in, I think he ruins it.

Paul Emmons 2012-05-18 11:29:48

Beauty in malign inversion, per Tournier

One published reviewer said that Goring's character was written, andplayed, for comic effect. This complaint sounded plausible, but aglance in Encyclopedia Britannica reassures our confidence in theproduction's respect for authenticity. It suggests that VolkerSpengler's characterization may be on the mark.During Hitler's Putsch in 1923, Goring sustained a painful injury whoserelief by means of morphine turned him into a drug addict nearly therest of his life. This influence, in turn, made him "alternately elatedor depressed; he was egocentric and bombastic, delighting in flamboyantclothes and uniforms, decorations, and exhibitionist jewelry." We seeall these traits in Spengler's scenes, e.g. in his drunken alternationbetween a tirade and a blue funk at the fact that someone else had shota stag that he wanted to shoot. When a soldier enters to bring him somereally bad news, Goring is already so gloomy that he barely raises hishand from the table to salute, and his "Heil Hitler" is just a slurredgrunt.The article also establishes his corpulence and luxuriousness, to apoint resented by his colleagues in the party. "His hunting interestsenabled him to obtain a vast forest estate in the Schorfheide, north ofBerlin, where from 1933 he developed a great baronial establishment"called Carinhall, full of artistic war booty, to which he retiredwhenever he could.The film showed Goring as an often jovial man given, like Hitler, tooccasional fits of imperious screaming. This behavior, according to onebook I read recently, was to be expected of any top leader of the ThirdReich not merely as a habit but as a deliberate technique. Peopleoutside of Germany were slow to take Hitler seriously as a threatbecause this conduct was so strange to them. They did not realize thatGerman culture of the time regarded it as a standard part of thefatherly role. Therefore, as Hitler understood well, the more hescreamed and shouted at his countrymen, the more closely they wouldidentify him as a father figure and the embodiment of Der Vaterland.Many superstitious beliefs have been associated with precious stones.The novel explains that Goring was not unique in imagining thatplunging his fingers into a bowl of gems would drain away nervousenergy and uncomfortable emotions. Other sources recount that when Hugovon Hofmannsthal's first poems appeared, under a pseudonym, they wereso heavy with sensuous Weltschmerz that one critic declared they musthave been written by an opulent old man while dipping his fingers injewels. (He would soon be surprised that the poet was still a youth).So even this strange indulgence of Goring is in keeping with theambient culture among those few who could afford the experience.One could say much, much more about this complex film, but perhaps thiselucidation of just one minor aspect suggests the multilayered carewith which it has been put together.

Boris Todorov 2012-05-18 02:07:29

the story of Michael Jackson?

Tournier is among the great French writers of the latter 20th century,maybe the only one living competitive enough for the Nobel prize. Themovie is, however, rather unsatisfactory, even if Malcovich does a goodjob. The reason for the lameness of the production is that the directornever dared to explore more fully the darker side of Tiffauges, to makeit clear why people were afraid of him, why he could not buildfriendships and so on. Apparently the producers were afraid that ifthey made the main character more graphic, this would really turn himinto a pedophile and alienate the viewer. Here is the big hitch incinematizing great books. In cinema characters inevitably end up beingmore positive than negative. So in view of making the character likableand keep hope alive that one day he would be able to survive hisobsessive manias, the screenwriter and the director deliberatelytwisted the end. In the movie, Abel turned into a real Christophercarrying the child-Jesus (a Jewish refugee from a concentration camp)as a sign of his Christian redemption, but... in the book Tiffaugesdoes not survive the crossing of the Mazurian swamps: on the contrary,he deliberately drowns, together with the young boy, in a tragicculmination of his unending obsession with young children. This is whythe original title of the book is "Le roi des aulnes", the elven-kingfrom Goethe's dark poem. Even if I greatly admired the book, I longsuspected Tournier to have been carried too far away in his creativesearch, up to the point of inventing a kind of mania which does notbelong to the list of pathological states. Such non-sexual pedophiles,obsessed with children, but harmless and protective, do they exist? Arethere really people who want to protect children from growing up?Apparently the real-life Michael Jackson suffers from exactly the samemania as the imaginary Abel Tiffauges. It is a pity Tournier isvirtually unknown in the US, so as the public opinion to be betterprepared for the inevitable consequences of projects like Neverland.

2012-05-17 14:15:14

Children of Light, Children of Darkness

Is a man's character forged at birth, in his genes---or is it determined by his experiences, by his loves, by his ambitions, by his will? What is the difference between a man and a child? Why is the dreamworld common to a child's playtime any more---or less---real than the often nightmarish, brutal 'reality' common to grown-ups? These are questions that Volker Schlondorff's fine, haunting, surreal and compulsively watchable "The Ogre" spends a great deal of time with, though Schlondorff is far too subltle and skilled a craftsman to beat the viewer over the head with these things---at least, until the movie's final minutes, which felt oddly ham-handed (given what had preceded them) and grafted on to a film that devotes itself to the mysteries, secret fantasies, and occasional horrors of childhood. "The Ogre" mixes a very modern evil, Nazi Germany, with a very ancient one, the legend of the Ogre (known in Germany as the Erl-Konig, the horrible "Erl-King"), stirs them together in Schlondorff's black cauldron, and produces a potent, visually haunting witche's brew indeed. The movie chronicles the short, bizarre, and strangely happy life of Abel Tiffauges(played brilliantly by John Malkovich), a Frenchman who strikes up easy friendships with children, chiefly because he himself is in many ways a child: innocent, simple but not simplistic, drawn to myths and fairy tales and ripping yarns of adventure in the Canadian wilderness---and especially the silly faces and scary spook voices that endear him to his young friends and, as "The Ogre" progresses, his charges. Wrongfully accused of attacking a young girl, Abel is spared prison by the outbreak of World War II, and agrees to join the army to fight the Germans. His brief military career is brought to a halt when his command unit, blithely sipping champagne and discussing the use of carrier pigeons on the front, is captured by German soldiers. Abel is sent East on a prison train, and it is at this point "The Ogre" slips into high gear---and takes a decidedly surreal turn. While Abel's companions plot everything from escape to using Abel's pigeons to convey information back to the doomed French High Command (they ultimately eat the pigeons, causing Abel, in his fanciful way, to renounce the Motherland forever), Abel sees his imprisonment, ironically, as a doorway to freedom. He gazes upon the passing German countryside he glimpses from the slats in his boxcar, and imagines his dream: a cabin, smoke curling up from the chimney, deep in remote woods. Interned at a German prison camp, while his comrades toil to build a landing strip, Abel wanders off into the nearby woods, discovering the cabin of his dreams---and a moose, "The Ogre", who roams the surrounding wilderness. Rather than plot escape, Abel returns to his prison camp, but makes weekly visits to the cabin in the woods, and ultimately encounters the keeper of the estate, Hitler's Chief Forrester, who takes the simple man under his wing and transfers him to SS Reichmarshall Hermann Goerring's hunting lodge, where Abel begins his slow, strange transformation into a procurer of young boys for nearby Nazi Kaltenborn Castle and Hitler Youth training camp, and into the Legend itself: the Ogre, eater of children. There is far too much to "The Ogre" to describe in a brief review; it is a masterful, compelling, gorgeously shot film, and from Goerring's opulent hunting lodge, to the medieval castle that is the SS redoubt, to the sublime carnage of the hunt, to the sequences in which Malkovich pursues terrified boys through a darkening forest on a black horse with snarling dogs at the leash---every shot, every sequence tells. The acting is also excellent, from Volker Spengler's childish, impudent Goerring to the deranged eugenicist played by Dieter Lasser; particularly important are the child actors, all of whom turn out utterly believable, naturalistic performances. But this is Malkovich's movie, and his Abel is no simpleton, but rather a grown child, which is why he is so good with children of all ages himself, and ultimately so much more innocent than the young SS footsoldiers he recruits from the surrounding countryside. Malkovich plays the role with restraint and with a childlike, affable quality which underscores why so many decent minds could have been ensnared by Nazi Germany, and this touches on the film's underlying notion of childhood: Nazi ceremonies, with their dark pageantry, their torchlit marches and ceremonies, their pounding drums, were calculated to appeal to the mind of the youth, the adolescent, the dreamer of dreams. Even the wicked, depraved Goerring is himself an easily distracted child, and is soothed by Abel in a moment of pique, dipping his fat hands into a bowl of gem stones to calm himself. "The Ogre" is shot as a dark fairy tale, from Abel's rambles in the woods, to Hermann Goerring as the reincarnation of Abel's sensual childhood friend Nestor (look at Malkovich's face when the eugenicist praises an SS youth's "Nestorian" nose), to shots of Malkovich riding out through haunting forests straight out of the Brothers Grimm, to the image of Jews, fleeing concentration camps in the final days of the dying Reich, viewed as "legions of the dead" marching past Castle Kaltenborn. There are some missteps, particularly the ending, which strikes me as completely out of character for Malkovich's Abel; Mueller-Stahl also phones in a performance in which his lines are so mumbled that you need subtitles to decipher them. But that is quibbling. "The Ogre" is an amazing movie, one that requires repeat viewings to unlock its treasures. Darkly fanciful, hoplelessly tragic, it is a deeply rich study of the Children of Light and Darkness.

2012-05-15 05:21:57

good movie no subtitles

The movie was very good. It was in English not subtitled or dubbed. Really good screenplay and directing.

siderite 2012-05-14 19:21:10

Euro Gump during the second world war

John Malkovich is doing a fine role here, as expected, and the moviedepicts Europe around 1940 from the viewpoint of an emotionallychallenged French orphan. You might have thought from the plot that itis about pedophiles or something similar. It is not. This guy movesfrom "prison" to prison, while happily doing the work assigned to him,all the time seeing the world as no one sees it. All his good deedsresult in punishments and all his bad deeds make almost no impressionon him. He perseveres in both.The movie is spanning a few years of time and the rhythm is slow, asone would expect from a film made from a book, and, while a littleboring and depressing, it is a nice movie.Bottom line: imagine Forrest Gump in Europe. No humour, no hope, nocares in the world. Oh, except the war. ;)

tieman64 2012-05-10 16:32:22

Holocaust movies: part 27

Volker Schlondorff's intermittently powerful "Ogre" stars JohnMalkovich as Abel Tiffauges, a seemingly mentally handicapped Frenchmanwho finds himself gallivanting across Europe during the Second WorldWar.Like his character in "Of Mice and Men", Malkovich plays Abel as a dimwitted, obedient giant. Abel's only joy comes from tending to,protecting and helping children, a love that many in the film mistakefor paedophilia.Pretty soon Abel finds himself working for the Nazis, firstly atHermann Goering's hunting lodge, and later at Kaltenborn Castle, anelite training camp for Hitler Youths. At both locations, Abel'sfawning attitude toward children epitomises Nazi delirium. Nazism, likeAbel's whole being, is a pathology bent upon preserving and protectinga certain "chosen people". It's an ethnic pathology which mirrorsAbel's own drive to "photograph" and "preserve" a very specific,idealised view of youth and beauty. What the film stresses is how bothstances operate in a cloistered, secluded realm in which thedistinctions between the internal and the external world no longerhold, both Abel and Nazism creating fantasy, fairy-tale narratives forthemselves and their believers. In this regard, everything Abel does,though benevolent and altruistic in his mind, leads to great violence.And so Abel, like the film's Nazis, is mild mannered, has littleinsight into his nature, lives in a fantasy world, always defers toauthority, does not believe he is hurting anyone, and yet causes greatharm. This "Nazi pathology" (the desire to "not see", a form ofdisavowal that is hard-wired into the very structure of modern life) isstill very much a part of our modern, or post-modern, world.The film ends with Abel rescuing a Jewish child. For Abel, love is bydefinition always never-ending and always excessive; he loves allchildren. This brings him in conflict with Nazi ideology, which, ofcourse, demands that he kill the boy. This contradiction leads to Abelbetraying his masters during the film's climax, and subsequently wadingoff into the sunset with the Jewish boy on his shoulders. Hauntingly,the duo think that they're protecting each other with magical powers.They are now each other's "chosen one", a stance which itself nowforeshadows contemporary politics (protecting the Jew to protectoneself, protecting Israel to protect America).Aesthetically, like Schlondorff's earlier film, "The Tin Drum", "TheOgre" takes the shape and tone of a dark, grisly fairy tale. Somepassages recall both Goethe and the Brothers Grimm (and a huntingsequence Renoir's "The Rules of the Game"), though Schlondorff tonesdown his customary surrealism (and removes all sexual subplots presentin the original tale), his eyes now on the more direct tastes of massmarket, global (ie Western) audiences.8/10 – Ranges from great to very watered down and very poor, butMalkovich sucks us in.

Redeye-2 2012-05-10 02:07:36

Glorious failure?

Interesting film! Such a wealth of crucial questions, great performances -and yet, the final cohesion remains lacking here.The paradox of the enchantment of Nazism has been too little problematizedin the cinema, and any attempt to say anything new on the subject iswelcome. Schlöndorff does a cinematically good work, but where the filmfalters is in the way actual, brutal history and Abel's vision of Nazism asthe Magic Kingdom are bound together. It's hard to pinpoint where the faultlies; there's just a sense of maybe trying too much at once. Anyway, anhonorable and perhaps too multi-layered analysis of the 20th centurynightmare.

PWNYCNY 2012-05-01 22:25:36

A warped personality.

How is that someone can honestly believe that they are doing good whenin fact all they are doing is harm? This is the theme of this movie.John Malkovich gives a commanding and chilling performance as a man whois frightening and engages in harmful behavior but has no insight as tothe abominable nature of his conduct. The Malkovich character isutterly depraved yet his depravity is not driven by animus which makesit even harder to figure out. He wraps himself up in some kind offantasy world but he is not psychotic, is essentially mild mannered anddeferential to authority and does not seem intent on hurting anyone.Yet, everywhere he does people get hurt because of him. He believesthat he is doing good when he is doing bad. This what the Nazi warcriminals apparently believed. They believed that they had a mission toaccomplish and had no problem rationalizing and denying thedestructiveness of their program. In fact, they vigorously defendedtheir actions as being in the best interest of humanity. The Malkovichcharacter thinks in much the same way and not surprising is equallywarped.

PWNYCNY 2012-05-01 06:57:19

John Malkovich gives a commanding performance.

First, John Malkovich's performance is incredible. He is one of thegreatest actors today, and maybe in all cinematic history, and provesit in this movie.How is that someone can honestly believe that they are doing good whenin fact all they are doing is harm? This is the theme of this movie.John Malkovich gives a commanding and chilling performance as a man whois frightening and engages in harmful behavior but has no insight as tothe abominable nature of his conduct. The Malkovich character isutterly depraved yet his depravity is not driven by animus which makesit even harder to figure out. He wraps himself up in some kind offantasy world but he is not psychotic, is essentially mild mannered anddeferential to authority and does not seem intent on hurting anyone.Yet, everywhere he does people get hurt because of him. He believesthat he is doing good when he is doing bad. This what the Nazi warcriminals apparently believed. They believed that they had a mission toaccomplish and had no problem rationalizing and denying thedestructiveness of their program. In fact, they vigorously defendedtheir actions as being in the best interest of humanity. The Malkovichcharacter thinks in much the same way and not surprising is equallywarped.

2012-05-01 10:39:45

Great film, unnecessary DVD

This is a superb film, as I detailed in my review of the videotape version. If you don't have it, get it in one form or another. If you do have the tape, I must only say that this DVD has no extras whatsoever except for a couple previews.

2012-05-01 06:32:32

Debating Oneself

The genius behind The ogre, and its horror, is that the protagonist, Abel, is Everyman. Do we dare see ourselves in Abel? Are the cultural, racial, political, religious blinders that we unconsciously wear available to our conscious mind, or are we simply the victims of ignorance, rationalization or fear? To underestand a film like this one really has to be mature at all levels. Could I have been an unwitting dupe of the Nazis? Of course. And from this realization is born conscience and humility.

da critic 2012-04-24 17:30:59

over the top fairy tale

Through the eyes of a French man who never grew up, The Ogre depictswartimelife in Hitler's Germany. At the same time that the film takes up loadedquestions of power and subjugation, recreating the process of recruitmentand training for the Aryan army, it further challenges the viewer bypresenting the growing Nazi regime in a very human way. A great deal ofthevariety in characterization and the breadth of reach can be attributed tothe fairy-tale nature of this film. By introducing the character Abel asatroubled and weak youth, the film is able to trace his life's events underthe spell of `Fate.' And indeed, Abel is sheltered and provided forthroughout the course of events, even when faced with the most irrationalofmen.In film, characters are arguably always proponents of a few key traits,around which a believable person is constructed. In a fairy-tale, this istrue to a greater extent. So of course, a combination of the two leads toameeting of quite extreme characters. In The Ogre we are presented with aman who cares so much for children and animals that he is unable to seeanyevil in their presence. This oversight, or, in the heavy-handed symbolismof the film, blindness, is the basic motivation behind all events.A great deal of the film is artfully done, with many subtle displacementstostimulate emotions in the viewer. Although the oft-mentioned 'front line'is never seen, instead we are faced with the massacre of hundreds of wildanimals. The childhood friend of Abel returns to him in the form of themilitary official in the forest, and yet, Abel does not make a connectionbeyond a vague similarity. He is oblivious to the extravagant decadenceofdipping one's hands in jewels, or keeping a wild cat for pleasure. In hissimpleton's way he meanders through a landscape of potential knowledge,yetlearns nothing. It is the viewer who is given the chance to learn what hecan't. Unfortunately, this schema reminded me a bit too much of ForrestGump.However, the film speaks a great deal to the fairy-tale effects ofidealismand propaganda on young children, as finally Abel is cut off by the veryboys he loved, their allegiance to a greater unseen force much strongerthantheir understanding of fellow man.

Ralph Michael Stein 2012-04-23 23:55:16

Treason in the Name of Child Protection

Abel is not simply slow-witted, he is morally shortchanged and has littleifany ability to recognize even the reality much less the depth of hiswillingcollaboration with the Germans. Abel is a survivor and while his concernfor the children being trained as proto-Nazis in an ancient castle is real,so is his ruthlessness in collecting them by force for his German superiorswith the aid of snarling Dobermans.The film abounds in caricatures beginning with an outdoor picnic bycomplacent, indeed moronic, French officers who fail to even remotelyperceive the danger of the onrushing Wehrmacht. Reichsmarshall Goring isportrayed as a grinning fool except when he approaches the state of barkingmadness. This is a legitimate dramatic device but the real Goring, curedbefore World War II of doctor-induced morphine addiction, was more complexand, in that sense, more interesting (decades ago I took a psychologycoursewith Dr. Gilbert, who examined Goring at Nuremberg and wrote a book aboutthe experience which is still available in second-hand bookshops. HISGoring was chilling, no one to laugh at.).The film is most effective when it eerily recreates what must have been thealmost erotic attraction of nighttime rallies with flags, bunting, torchesand the steady beat of martial music. That little boys were inculcatedwiththe madness of Nazism through these rituals is powerfully shownhere.It was hard for me to care about Abel one way or the other but thecharacteris well-acted as are the other main roles.

2012-04-23 15:51:41

Great Movie!!

I saw this movie when I lived in Istanbul, Turkey, and I realy enjoy John Malkovich in this movie, I do not believe this movie was released in the United States, if you are aJohn Malkovich fan you need to get this movie, very great character portrayal!!!

2012-04-22 23:22:34

A really great movie

This is a really great DVD movie, one of the best I've seem in many years and I consider myself a hard critic. You can read the story line, a yound Frenchman, a loner with an affinity for children ends of accused of molesting a young girl and ends up joining the French Army on the eve of WWll. No sooner enlisted, Malcovich is captured and sent to a German POW camp. He is rescued by a German senior officer who sends him to Hermann Goering's hunting chalet where he is employed as an assistant. He later gains employment at a NAZI youth training school in a castle as a "house father" for the German youth. He fits in very well and eventually becomes a recruiter of young German boys from the local peasants who distrust their German NAZI Govt training schools. Soon the Russians are invading Germany, and the Germans begin enlisting the oldest boys from the castle school for the defense of Germany and the war is, of course, lost. It is a very sad movie in that Malcovich is never accepted in his native France and he truly wants to protect children and is given that opportunity in a NAZI youth school, where he excels. The action is good and easy to follow, the characters very forceful, especially the NAZI officers. This DVD is a bargain and a real gem.

2012-04-17 18:44:03

The Beauty within the Beast

Unfortunately, The Ogre was not released in the U.S. (as far as i know). I was fortunate enough to see it back in 1996 while in Europe. The film is one of the most incredible portrayals of humanity and the usually tepid John Malkovich rises uncharacteristically to the occassion, giving an incredible performance.Malkovich plays an ignorant man, Abel, living in a small town at the dawn of the Nazi movement. He seems to be mentally slow, but emotionally heightened as he has a great passion for the vitality of the children in the town. He is fond of photographing, especially children. However, due to a mis-understanding, because the people of the small town are so ignorant and afraid of the quiet lumbering Abel, he is sentenced to jail (undeservedly) for the crime of molesting a child. He is transferred to help with the war effort in France, and eventually comes to work for the Nazi party, "recruiting" children for the cause, in part due to his ability to relate with the kids. He, however, does not seem to know what the Nazis stand for, or why he shouldn't be taking in children. He cares for the children as if they were his own, and is eventually persecuted for harbouring a young Jewish boy, which is when he begins to realise the ramifications of his plight.A brilliantly scripted film with a very interesting study of disparity and what it means to be good or evil. A must see.-jgl

2012-04-17 15:37:03

A masterpiece !

Although lack of european cinema information tends and forces to see comercial trash and unreal productions of high budget and poor talent, fortunelety for exigent movie fans there are directors of the quality of Volker Schlondorff that are cappable of fullfilled behind his lens real masterpieces. The Ogre ( Der Unhold ) `1996' is a powerfull drama loaded of humanism, evil, and loss of valors, that reflects the fascination of a French ignorant man for children and their innocence (Malkovich), devenloped during the atmosfere of last days of WW II. The always Yugoeslavian ancess aclaimed actor Jhonn Malkovich shows in this film why is the one of the most respected. Not letting a side the exquisit and impactant perfomance of german Oscar nominated actor Armin Muller-Sthal (The third miracle), (The 13th floor), (The game), (Shine) , who gives in this movie a touch of decency to the Third Reich atrocities. The soundtrack's Michel Nymann music (CD only available in Europe) in The Ogre thrills the most hardest feellings. I have never seen before more realism in a scene as the one shown in the hunt of the mooses, the special effects, in that fragment of the movie was magnificent .No doubt the crew behind this production is of high level. In 1997, I saw it for the first time in a European Cinema Festival in Cinecanal, unfortunelety it has not been presented in U.S. theaters and even worse in the rest of Southamerica. In 1998 it was offered in VHS format at a price of $89 USD by special request. Now it is available in VHS and DVD format at a reasonable cost. This masterpiece of seven art has to be seen only for people with high cinematograph critery..... if you are one of them, don't miss the opportunity to watch and get this film !