My Zero Hour (1970)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Russia 1943, the German army is still deep in Russian territrory. The former Berliner worker Kurt Hartung, now a private in the wehrmacht (German army) , just survived a Russian dive bomber attack. despite is comanding officer's order, to disarm a dud. As it turned out, almost a suicide mission. Shortly after this incident he is out on a scouting mission, behind enemy lines, where he is being captured by a Russian patrol. Kurt Hartung, never been a Nazi-Sympathizer, is winning new insides about the nazi cause to invade Russia. He is more and more convinced to have fought on the wrong side. Now he just wants to help is new Russian friends to end the war as soon as possible. He joins the commitee New Germany. He volunteers to a mission, to capture an important German officer. Together with two Russian special forces soldiers, he is out to accomplish it. The whole enterprise develops into a hair rising enterprise with unexpected turns and twists, sometimes tragic and sometimes loaded with the typical German-landser humor. The movie sometimes might come across as a comedy, but it is not. Manfred Krug carries the movie with a sort of proletarian charme, that works well on the German audience. He delivers a strong presence. Well yes, this movie definitely belongs in the soviet propaganda category, nevertheless it is well made containing a lot of jokes, adventure, tragic and nailbiting suspense. Even by today's standarts, Manfred Krug stages a believable landser character, not only for his aging audiences in east Germany but with some measurable success in west Germany too. The viewer will get drawn into the story without being nagged too much by the DEFA style. The east German style of delivering a good propaganda show. Well you might say it's cleverly done. Keep in mind, the DEFA classics experience a renaissance in Germany, that was not anticipated. But by the quantity standart of the current entertainment, that is often force-fed to us,the DEFA productions will strike you with complexity and intelligence.