Dresden: The Epic Mini-Series

 

 

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This is a rather improbable story of an RAF bomber pilot bailing out and escaping (wounded) into the crowded wartime city of Dresden, and recovering just in time for the next big raid. Moreover with his knowledge of German he manages to blend in and even fall in love with the nurse who is caring for him.

To me this was not very likely, given the wartime obsession with checkpoints, passes and IDs. But the tension is high, right from the start, especially as this pilot gets somewhat reckless in his interactions with people in authority.

The presentation is fair to both sides. One can just as easily hope the flyers survive the raid, as that the ordinary people of Dresden will survive the bombing, since we have spent time with both groups of people and come to like them. In the end they are simply people, caught up in something not of their making.

An interesting device is that the characters speak in their own languages, English or German, and appropriate subtitles are supplied. This adds realism to the characters.

The ending comes too soon. One would like to see some personal issues cleared up before the story ends.

Koch Vision and BBC presents "DRESDEN: THE EPIC MINI-SERIES" (2006) (180 mins/Color) (Dolby Digital) --- As seen on The History Channel -- No one could totally recreate the effects of the London Blitz or the Dresden bombing, but this mini-series "Dresden" makes a strong effort --- Must recommend the BBC presentation ultimately is a fascinating illustration of the effects of war --- The 30-minute making-of featurette only gives a little bit more background on the bombing itself, but it does go into detail about the production of the movie and the production team's efforts to achieve accuracy --- The big budget movie is impressive for a television miniseries; those 10 million euros turn up on the screen --- The films soundtrack is full of 1940s Big Band swing music, comes through with flying colors.

Under the production staff of:
Roland Suso Richter - Director
Nico Hofmann - Producer
Nikolaus Krämer - Producer
Sascha Schwingel - Producer
Stefan Kolditz - Screenwriter
Harald Kloser - Composer (Music Score)
Thomas Wanker - Composer (Music Score)
Jürgen Schuster - Executive Producer
Lucia Faust - Costume Designer

Our story line and plot, Brings together two major themes -- one dealing with the war itself, showing the German civilians living day to day in fear of severe retaliation on behalf of the British RAF --- It also shows how the British pilots, who risk their lives to bomb the enemy -- how ruthless the Nazi's were --- The other theme is a fragment of the previous theme, showing a love story between a stranded British pilot and a German civilian nurse working in a local hospital during the war --- This film betrays something more about World War 2 while 'witnessing' it from another point of view --- and at the same time enjoying an intriguing story about two 'enemies' falling in love --- It's well worth watching

the cast includes:
Felicitas Woll ... Anna Mauth
John Light ... Robert Newman
Benjamin Sadler ... Alexander Wenninger
Heiner Lauterbach ... Carl Mauth
Katharina Meinecke ... Magda Mauth
Marie Bäumer ... Maria Goldberg
Kai Wiesinger ... Simon Goldberg
Wolfgang Stumph ... Pfarrer
Jürgen Heinrich ... Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann
Susanne Bormann ... Eva Mauth
Paul Ready ... William
John Keogh ... Flight Lt. Leslie, Master Bomber
Christian Rodska ... Arthur Harris
Anja Taschenberg ... Grashena
Pip Torrens ... Saundby
Bert Böhlitz ... Mutschmanns Adjudant
Andreas Günther ... 1. Feldgendarm
Gabriela Maria Schmeide ... Frau
Sandra Nedeleff ... Jüdische Frau
Michael Brandner ... Blockwart
Denis Behnke ... Engl. pilot in briefing room
Oliver Moser ... Junger Soldat (as Marc Oliver Moro)
Louis El Ghussein
Tomas Spencer ... Mann

SPECIAL FEATURES EXTRAS:
1. Making-of Featurette
2. Archival Military Footage of the Dresden bombings

Great job by Koch Vision --- looking forward to more high quality titles from the BBC Collection film market --- order your copy now from Amazon or Koch Vision where there are plenty of copies available on DVD, stay tuned once again for top notch releases --- where they are experts in releasing long forgotten films and treasures to the collector.

Total Time: 180 mins on DVD ~ Koch Vision KOCV-6508 ~ (2/05/2008)

Really enjoyed this film. It treated the subject of the Dresden bombing with fairness & senstivity. Performances were excellent & the story was very interesting too. Very well done.

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