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The TruceRating:
Release Date: 03 June, 2003 Retail Price: $14.99 OUR Price: $13.99 You SAVE: $1.00! Cast: Complete Cast (5 total) |
The Truce Reviews
Primo's odyssey back to the living . . .
"God does not exist, if Aushwitz exists," says Primo on the train. Truce shows something else . . . how a man's soul cannot be destroyed. Truce is a travelogue through the chaos of post war Europe. Beginning in Aushwitz, Primo and has band of brothers traverse the wilds of Poland, Russia, and, finally, Munich en route to their home. Their souls are slowly reborn. They find love, compassion and a simple appreciation of nature before landfall in Italy. By chance, by laugh, they complete their journey from death to life. The only negative(a small one) in this movie was the use of voice over narration by Primo. The visuals tell the story; the voice over narration was unwarranted. I would have liked to have seen more of Primo Levi beginning his life in Turin, but this would have been a different odyssey.
Unrealistic
Having read most of the reviews in relation to "The Truce" - I think I am going to find myself in a minority of one.
I bought this DVD because I thought that the storyline was interesting and because of the good reviews.
However,having now watched it twice I found that most of the acting and the scenarios defided credibility.
Right from the start when we saw the alledged inmates of Auschwitz virtually running to the open gates - a situation which,to anyone who has seen original footage of the liberation by the Russians,would know that,most of the unfortunate inmates could hardly stand let alone run.This immediately struck an un-realistic chord.Shortly afterwards we are introduced to a large Greek gentleman(with the boots)- a totally unbelievable character,with an OTT performance by the actor concerned,played more as a caricature rather than an actual character - and there were numerous others who were just not convincing.In fact the main character (Primo) was the one performance which was excellent and believable,who did convey the fact that he had just come from Auschwitz,most of the others gave the impression that they had just come from a holiday camp.
Also there were too many musical pieces in the film,which gave me the impression that the director wasn't sure whether to go for serious drama or a semi- musical.(At times I almost expected Topol to come in singing "If I was a rich man" or similar!)The scene with the swords-man dancing to "Cheek to Cheek" was one such case and rather pointless.
The plus-points of the film were the superb photography,the fact that,as some other reviewer mentioned,sub-titles were not used when many of the different nationalities were encountered "en-route",which did convey the difficulties in making one-self understood,plus,as already mentioned,the excellent performance by the main character Primo.
The thing is though,with any film,unless you are regarding it as pure escapism - you need to believe what you are watching,and this was not the case with this film.As already mentioned,there were too many un-believable characters and too many un-likely scenarios which was a great shame as the basic story could have been made into a good film,but it needed to be under-played NOT over-played.
If you are the sort of person who can just accept that whatever you are seeing portrayed is true and life-like, you may enjoy this(plus any John Wayne war films!)- but to me it was totally un-convincing.
I am aware it was based on a true story and,if all the incidents in the film did truly happen,I am convinced that they didn't happen quite as portrayed in the film.
"The Pianist" is so much better,my advise,buy that instead.
More Customer Reviews (5 total)
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