hyped garbage

Don't Believe the Hype

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's 1932. Zishe Breitbart is a Jewish blacksmith in Eastern Poland. He and his little brother Benjamin are attacked by racists at the restaurant. To pay for the damage, Zishe takes on the strongman at a traveling circus. Landwehr is impressed and recruits him to Berlin for Hanussen (Tim Roth) in his Palace of the Occult. The audience is mostly Nazis party members and Hanussen turns Zishe into an Aryan ideal.Werner Herzog picks interesting characters and subject matters to do films about. Sometimes it works really well. This one works somewhat. I really like Jouko Ahola. Despite his size, he has a gentle innocent demeanor. He is perfect for the role. Tim Roth is mercurial. The style of the movie lacks the needed tension. It's simply not exciting and the excessive running time of over two hours really drags out the story. Herzog needs a sharper editing style to pump up the excitement.

While this movie is based on a true character, (Siegmund Breitbart, also known popularly as Zishe) a late 19th - early 20th Century Polish-Jew strongman cum Samson, remember, this is a movie, and a highly fictionalised one at that; given that he was actually dead some 7yrs prior to the time frame of the movie setting. So don't expect an accurate blow by blow account of this mans life, and certainly not his eventual personal crusade to save the Polish Jews from the impending horrors of Hitler's antisemitism purge. Yes he was a Blacksmith, and a very strong one at that, yes he did perform some amazing strongman acts and yes he did die of an infection (very likely Tetanus) and perhaps he did have a higher calling and foresaw the holocaust, but not in 1932, which is the setting of the movie (because he was already dead). One can understand why Jouko Ahola, was cast as the strongman, having actually won that title in reality twice, 2 & 4 yrs before the movie was made, though he isn't by any means a great actor, but let's not forget that neither was Arnold Schwarzenegger much of an actor in his early movies either, but look at him now!!! The movie covers a lot of ground, such as antisemitism, greed, naively and self awakening, but rather superficially, including a rather lame attempt at romance.

a shtetl. a strong young man. first flowers of Nazi movement. an illusionist. a sacrifice. short definition - a puzzle. or only a map under the precise style of Werner Herzog. because, like each his films, Invincible is a lesson. not about performance - Tim Roth is brilliant - not about a time - Jouko Ahola does a character with all nuances of spring day -, not about survive or end of innocence. the subject, the real subject, is the right answer to ordinaries problems of each society. masks, fear, truth, hope, love. and gray circles of power. the price of shining hours and the happiness as fragile building. two central characters as sides of same coin. different options. same root. and nice game - for a good cause - with historical details.

A film broadcast at 2am on channel 4 and starring Tim Roth ! I remember the last movie broadcast on channel 4 with Tim Roth in the credits which was THE WAR ZONE , one of the few movies I've regretted watching due to the depressing content and since INVINCIBLE centres around the birth of Nazism I wasn't expecting too many uplifting moments but I certainly recommend Werner Herzog's strange and interesting drama based on a true story !!!! SPOILERS !!!! In a Polish town the circus arrives and blacksmith's son Zishe Brietbart beats the strongman in a competition and impressed with Zishe's physical strength a theater agent signs him up where he performs at Berlin's Cabaret Of The Occult which is owned by Danish nobleman Hanussen . Since it's 1932 the Nazis are on the rise so Hanussen reinvents Zishe as " Siegfried " and shows his predominantly Nazi audience the physical strength of this Ayran . Hanussen shows this as proof of Ayran superiority while at the same time impressing his audience with his own occult powers . However despite his own naked opportunist agenda Hanussen has a secret of his own that he doesn't want known to his audience ...Some people may claim how ridiculously ironic it is having a Jew pretending to be an Ayran strongman in order to put forward a racist agenda but this I feel is the whole point of the story which one has a feeling has been turned into a fable rather than a story that has stuck to rigid facts . Certainly the most bitter irony about the rise of Nazism is that one of the architects of Nazi philosophy Alfred Rosenberg had a Jewish name while Hitler , Heydrich and Eichmann were of Jewish descent themselves ( Though technically not Jews - According to tradition if your mother wasn't a Jew neither are you ) so people with an irony deficency will have a problem understanding this beautiful and intelligent film And I don't apologise for thinking this is a beautiful and intelligent film , it might not have the reputation of Herzog's other films like the painfully overrated FITZCARRALDO but it's one I can certainly recommend for a mainstream audience . However there is one serious flaw that stands out and that is the casting of Jouko Ahola as Zishe . You do get the gut instinct that Herzog wanted to cast a certain Austrian body builder turned politician in the lead role and it's impossible to watch Ahola without being reminded of Big Arnie except Ahola is an even more wooden actor and his lack of thespian skills is made even more obvious when he's playing opposite Tim Roth is one of his most impressive roles which slightly damages the movie