Customer Reviews

A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Import , All Regions), Douglas Sirk

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

A Time to Love and a Time to Die is a unique film experience. Two German lovers, caught up in the horrors of war, struggle to make sense of their feelings and the future that might not come. Art Direction and Costume Design are all accurate to the period, which helps the audience obtain a sense of the darkness that was coming over Germany. Love is fragile and unique, no matter what side of the Atlantic.

I haven't watched this movie for years but now that I know that it is available on DVD I will be ordering it soon. My wife and I used to watch this movie years ago every time it came on TV. Each time it ended we would ask ourselves "Why do we keep doing this?" The ending is so sad and ironic that we would be bummed for the rest of the night. Yet here I go ready to order the movie and do it all over again. The Amazon review sums up the plot pretty well so I won't elaborate. Highly recommended if you can stand the pain.

A Time to Love was designed for and filmed in Cinemascope - a 1 to 2:33 aspect ratio. This pressing chops off both sides of the picture to force the movie to fit wide screen TVs - an aspect ratio of 1 to 1:85 or so. Sirk's images fill the screen, there is no 'dead space' in his images. Chopping the picture in this way results in much important information being off screen (and clearly so as noses, elbows, etc. are constatly part on and part off on both sides. Even more so, the stunning compositions are all undercut and what is amazingly powerful imagery when seen as intended, is much deflated when cropped as it is here. This pressing lacks both the Universal-International logo and the CinemaScope credit and just starts with the title and cast/tech. credits (with spill way off the screen on both right and left as an indication of what is to come. The color is only so-so, as well.
There is an expensive multi-disc Sirk set from Carlotta in France that presents the film in the proper aspect ratio - I strongly suggest that anyone really interested in seeing this film as intended get that pressing and avoid this one.

This is an amazing DVD - an American-made film about World War II (based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque) in which all the characters are German and Americans are never mentioned - and the DVD is Korean-produced. But what a moving film it is: a Wehrmacht soldier on the Russian front, disgusted by the brutality of war, returns on furlough to his home-town in Germany to find it practically destroyed. He locates the pile of rubble that used to be his parents' home, but cannot locate his parents. As he searches for them, he finds a young woman whose outspoken father is now languishing in a prison camp and who, herself, has been pushed into one small room of the family home to make way for others who have been bombed out of theirs. One of her housemates is an officious harridan who makes it her business to spy on, and report, any perceived criticism against the Nazi regime. Naturally, even as bombs rain down upon the soldier and the girl, they fall in love. But it is a bittersweet affair, because dangling above their heads like the sword of Damocles is the end of his furlough. And probable death on the Russian front.

Remarque, whose books were banned by the Nazis, must certainly have watched the war from the safety of his home in the United States with immense disquietude. His sympathy for what his former countrymen were enduring comes across movingly in `A Time to Love and a Time to Die,' as does his revulsion of small-minded people who have been handed great power, like the harridan in the girl's home: Remarque's sister was beheaded during the war after an accusation was made that she caused low morale for having voiced the opinion that Germany could not win the war.

John Gavin plays the soldier and Keenan Wynn has a bit role, but all the other actors were unknown to me; Remarque has a small part, as well. The film, made in 1958, has the inevitable whiff of the fifties, but that did not stand in the way of my enjoyment of it. And while all the writing on the back of the box is in Korean, the actors speak English and the Korean subtitles can be removed.

In the crowded annals of World War II films, `A Time to Love and a Time to Die' occupies a niche all of its own, and one no less interesting, exciting, or moving than the others. Highly recommended.

an excellent film, its a long time since i saw the original film. its as good as I remembered if not better.

I consider this a great classic film! Based on the book by Erich Maria Remarque, who also wrote All Quiet on the Western Front (WWI; also made into a movie), it is a classic anti-war statement.

This movie encourages the viewer to think, and deserves to be watched repeatedly to note the details which are included by the director. It is faithful to the original book and includes a cameo of the Author, who helped write the screen adaptation.

I believe that I first saw this movie on Los Angeles TV in about 1962. Hadn't seen it since, until I connected to the internet and started searching for it. I had a hard time tracking down a VHS copy, since it was out-of-print. Finally I found a rental copy, and I also read the book on which it was based.

Recently I found the movie on DVD through Amazon. The DVD version was produced in South Korea with Korean (and French) subtitles, with (spoken) English Dialog. I think the video quality is excellent for a 1950's movie, better than I remember the VHS rental copy.

I seldom have seen a movie as stupid as this one. Everyone in the movie is portrayed as greedy, self-centered, mean spirited and stupid! If you want to watch a purely anti-German propaganda movie this is it! Trash!

The movie is based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel with the same title. The famous German writer is better known in the States for his first novel, "All Quiet on the Western Front". This is a riveting, sad and moving story of a WWII German soldier's last days when he encounters love and unexpected death by a Russian partisan he just let go to save him.

Product was in very good condition.
It was delivered faster than I expected.
This is a great movie,one which I will
always treasure.