A Time to Love and a Time to Die

While not liking every film Douglas Sirk did (my recent viewing of 'Magnificent Obsession' for example really underwhelmed me, sorry to anybody who disagrees and they undoubtedly exist), he was an interesting director and one of the most interesting when it came to melodramas which he specialised in. His melodramas are not for all tastes definitely, with some working much better than others, but at his best (i.e. 'Imitation of Life') his films were brilliant.

'A Time to Love and a Time to Die', a title that some people are going to love and others are going to hate (even if it is an over-the-top one it is generally a poetic one in my view and pretty much sums up what the film is about), may not be one of Sirk's best. Having said that, while it is not perfect by any stretch, it is one of his most interesting with the subject matter for example and also one of his most underrated and deserving of more credit than it does.

It isn't without problems in my view. It does run a little too long and it makes the film occasionally drawn out, the romance occasionally slows things down a bit. Some of the dialogue is rather soapy and could have had more punch, at least it is not as unintentionally camp or as sentiment-heavy as some of Sirk's other films.

Did feel generally that debuting John Gavin, once you try to get over the fact that he is not remotely believable as a German, didn't do too badly a job, but inexperience does show initially where he doesn't always look comfortable.

Mostly he plays his role with authority and pathos and Liselotte Pulver is both fetching and affecting as his love interest. Their chemistry is charming. Keenan Wynn and Charles Regnier are memorable in support, the whole cast in fact give everything they've got and make characters that sound on paper cliched and potentially sketchy interesting and certainly more plausible than those in other Sirk films, the conflict having tension too. 'A Time to Love and a Time to Die' looks great and is especially lavishly and not too glossily shot. Miklos Rozsa's score is sweeping and haunting.

Sirk's direction has the sensitivity and passion that was missing in 'Magnificent Obsession' and the war scenes are staged very powerfully without being cluttered. While the script is not perfect it is sincere on the whole and as said it is not camp and sentimental. Furthermore, 'A Time to Love and a Time to Die' is an emotionally powerful film without being manipulative or over-sentimentalised, the war scenes are harrowing and poignant. The ending is shocking and really did appreciate that it didn't go the too pat route like other Sirk films did.

Overall, interesting and powerful film that deserves more credit than it does. 7/10

This film, beautifully shot, is the tale of a simple soldier falling in love, during trying times. The soldier is German. The struggle is World War II. The setting is Berlin.

1958 was surely a hard year to make such a film. In fact, this film could not be made today. However, this love story was made, with the enemy at the focus. Of course, enemy never crossses the viewer's mind. We are with the protaganist throughout the movie.

In short, this is an important film of significant value. Not because it is about history, but because it is about the redeeming quality of humanity, even if displayed in the setting of our onetime enemy.

This film complements "The Downfall" in putting a human face on the Germans who fought during WWII and the suffering of the people of Dresden during the allied bombing, but it beat the "Downfall" by 47 years!! The problem is that Sirk is a highly underrated director because he shot mostly "melodramas" in the 1950's America, starring the likes of Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman (who was Ronald Reagan's wife at the time!!), so his German films are not even known in America. This is one of them. It's an important film that speaks for the simple people, the common people of Germany, who also suffered on the German side. And the writing credits are not bad, including Erich Maria Remarque who wrote "All Quiet on the Western Front." This film and "The Downfall" should be seen along with "The Fog of War" in which Robert McNamara, who was Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and the Vietnam War, confesses that if the Germans and the Japanese had won the war, he and his superiors would have been tried for war crimes for ordering the fire bombing of both Dresden and Tokyo during the war. War is hell and everyone --bar none-- on all sides has committed atrocities. McNamara, at 87, has the courage to admit that: "Sometimes you have to do evil to do good," as he put it. "The victor writes history..." he added. Films like "A Time to Love and a Time to Die" and "The Downfall" add a bit of revisionary touch to the cracks in that history...

I'm not one to watch really any film that seems to have romance in it set during war. However, the first time I watched this movie, I was really amazed at how well it was done as well as the most excellent cast for a movie and the realism that it showed. Also, I do not care for films with much romancing in it however, I liked this film and how the romance between a German Soldier and some Fraulein; was shown.

Young German soldier returns to a devastated hometown on leave from the Eastern Front. First he tries to locate his family after discovering their home was destroyed on some bombing raid. Whilst looking for family, he runs into an old professor of his as well as his daughter. During his time on leave, he falls in love with this girl and they eventually get married. Also, the professor had been arrested for some reason and was shucked away to some interrogation center - which really was a Concentration Camp. Sometime later in the movie, this soldier discovers the professors fate.

During his leave, this soldier befriends and teams up with another soldier--who is also looking for a loved one. Don DeFore excellently plays that soldier. Also in the film in memorable roles include: Keenan Wynn as a rich German Corporal, Jock Mahoney as Steinbrenner, a "crack" machine-gunner who is in Gavin's (Graebers) platoon, as well as a very young Dana "Jim" Hutton, as a young German soldier in Graebers platoon.

I do not want to spoil what happens at the end of this movie but will say that Graeber gets sent back to his platoon somewhere on the Eastern Front.

This movie is so good that it really deserves to be released on DVD. It is in color and the sound is excellent.

I can recommend this war film. Despite distracting weaknesses in production quality, the power of the material carries the viewer along very effectively. The scenario is the dying days of World War II from the perspective of a German soldier. This represents unusual material for Hollywood, and romantic leading man John Gavin is odd casting as the hero. Although his flashes of American pearly whites are incongruous, he and indeed all the actors do quite well in their parts although hampered by the forced pace of the direction and the artificial quality of the sound recording. Clearly overdubbed, the dialogue has the quality of a read- through in an indoor studio, despite most of the action being out-of-doors. The cinematography is quite good and the sets impressive as the soldier Ernst moves from the horrors of the Russian front to the heavily-bombed hometown where he returns on leave. Trying to find what has become of his parents, he receives little sympathy from his countrymen and women, who are deadened (or maddened) by the bombardment from the skies they are experiencing. Officialdom is represented by a range of repulsive types, underlining the moral ambiguity the hero is struggling with after his experiences on the front. Where in all this horror is anything worth living for? The answer comes in his developing relationship with the winsome Elizabeth, portrayed by a delightful actress whose name is not familiar to me. What hopes of happiness in the maelstrom of the times? A poignant moment comes when the couple fantasize where they would like to go for a honeymoon, only to reflect that as Germans they would be hated just about everywhere. I found this a memorable film.