The Scarlet and the Black (1983)

People are voting emotionally.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I think this is an excellent film.Both Peck and Plummer are very good in their respective roles.It shows that there were many people who risked their lives to save Jews and others from the Nazis. Despite the fact that the Roman Catholic church was criticised for not doing more to speak out about the crimes committed by the Nazis this film shows that there were members of the church who were prepared to try to save others.Plummer and Peck engage in a form of hide and seek. Peck as O'Flaherty risks his life to save others and assumes different disguises to avoid capture. Plummer as Kappler is frustrated by O'Flaherty always managing to stay one step ahead.I thought the end where it is revealed that O'Flaherty had saved Kappler's family was quite moving. Kappler had begged O'Flaherty to save his family despite the fact that Kappler had been responsible for awful atrocities. At the time it appeared that O'Flaherty had rejected Kappler's pleas because he was disgusted by the things that Kappler had been responsible for. Later, when Kappler has been captured by the Allies, we find out that Kappler's family had in fact been smuggled to safety. This shows that O'Flaherty had decided that his belief in God meant that he had to try to forgive so he had saved the family of a brutal tyrant.It can't have been easy living in an awful period under a brutal regime like the Nazis. This film helps to show that people from all walks of life were brave enough to risk everything to stand up to them. Excellent performances help to make this a film well worth watching.

I was recently handed this DVD by my family and was amazed, given its strong cast and terrific story, that I hadn't heard of it before.Set in 1943 with Italy slowly being prised from the Nazi's grasp, hundreds of POWs and political refugees wash up behind German lines in occupied Rome. A support network is rapidly set up to hide these refugees and somehow smuggle them to safety. The local chief of the SS (ironically modelled by Himler on the Jesuits), played by a suave and sinister Christopher Plummer, is determined to destroy the network with all the means at his disposal, but is continually thwarted by a spry and resourceful Irish monsignor attached to the Vatican, a role incarnated with gusto by Gregory Peck. The resulting cat and mouse scenes are played out against the fabulous backdrop of the Eternal City.The action is tense and gripping throughout this tale of plucky good against remorseless evil, based on a true story and with a startling twist of redemption at the end.

A impressive cast of characters with excellent acting bring us a powerful historical WW2 movie. One of my favourite movies. A movie based on a true story and very accurately portrayed which shows how difficult it was for genuine Catholics to stand against Nazis. This movie shows the result of fraternity which was fully endorsed by so many to help save so many lives at the risk of their own. This movie shows who the braves are and what true heroism is. A must see and I hope that Jewish families see that movie and then remembers those who saved their elders' life. This true story ends with an impressive optimistic tone since it seems possible to turn any monster into a human again, perhaps a proof that God exists and what it means to be almighty.

The note says Kappler was visited in prison only by Msgr. O'Flaherty. Not so. After the wife who was shown in the movie divorced him, he married his nurse. She then carried him out of the prison in a suitcase and took him to Germany, which refused extradition. The movie also omits Kappler's major crime (not the execution of the priest): the massacre of 305 people at the Ardeatine caves. This was the worst war crime committed in Italy. Finally, the movie failed to name the top SS general, Karl Wolff, because he was still alive. My U.S. Army division, the 88th Infantry, stopped Wolff from handing out medals in Bolzano to his men AFTER the Krauts had lost the war.