As "Blood & Gold" (2023 release from Germany; 100 min.) opens, we are in "Germany, Spring 1945". A German solder is running for his life, chased by other German soldiers after he apparently deserted them. The German deserter is captured and left for dead... At this point we are less than 10 minutes into the movie.
Couple of comments: this is an entirely German production, and none of the names (from director on down to the cast) rang familiar to me. The movie invites comparisons to Quinten Tarantino, but comes up short (and it's not for a lack of trying). The violence is at times over the top, alas not in a ballet-reminding kinda way. And what is with the Morricone-reminding spaghetti western music? Despite all that, I did enjoy the movie here and there. This movie feels like it's more important to Germany's ongoing reckoning of its dark past that it is to us the average movie watcher. Yet somehow I stuck with the movie through the very end.
"Blood & Gold" started streaming on Netflix this past weekend, and I just caught up with it. If you have an interest in WWII movies and/or in hyper-styled over-the-top violence, I'd readily suggest you check it out, and draw your own conclusion.
Couple of comments: this is an entirely German production, and none of the names (from director on down to the cast) rang familiar to me. The movie invites comparisons to Quinten Tarantino, but comes up short (and it's not for a lack of trying). The violence is at times over the top, alas not in a ballet-reminding kinda way. And what is with the Morricone-reminding spaghetti western music? Despite all that, I did enjoy the movie here and there. This movie feels like it's more important to Germany's ongoing reckoning of its dark past that it is to us the average movie watcher. Yet somehow I stuck with the movie through the very end.
"Blood & Gold" started streaming on Netflix this past weekend, and I just caught up with it. If you have an interest in WWII movies and/or in hyper-styled over-the-top violence, I'd readily suggest you check it out, and draw your own conclusion.