Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Let's be realistic.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

"Die Gustloff" or "The Gustloff" is a German double feature movie from 2008, so this one will have its 10th anniversary next year already. It is a small screen release and consists of two parts. Each of these runs for slightly over 1.5 hours. The title already gives away the time when this is set, namely during World War II, even if the word Gustloff will perhaps not be know to too many, even if it personifies one of the biggest German losses during these dark days of World War II. But today we are supposed to talk about this film and not about the historic event of the sinking of the Gustloff and honestly I would not say at all that the movie did justice to the tragedy. But first things first: The director here is Joseph Vilsmaier, a Bavarian filmmaker who has worked in the industry for a long time, so you may have some expectations reading this name. Then again he is probably not the one to blame for the disappointing outcome, but this honor goes to writer Rainer Berg, who may also have been experienced back then already, but not exactly with quality films. So the quality of these over three hours here that actually felt a lot longer even is somewhat predictable. Quite a shame. The cast includes names that you frequently find in these "television epics" like Wiesonger, Niehaus, Lauterbach, Fulton-Smith and maybe Mendl too, all people whose names ring familiar to German film buffs, but more because of their charisma than because of their range. Oh yeah, Vilsmaier's ill-fated wife Dana Vávrová is in here too as well as Karl Markovics, the only one who received awards attention from the cast. But these two I would rather count under the category of quality actors I think, especially Markovics.Anyway, as a whole the film lacks considerably focus during its almost 190 minutes and at this runtime it really hurts the viewing experience. Instead of really delivering on the informative level, the film loses itself in sequences and story lines about romantic relationships between characters, about generic power structure struggles, about parent-child relationships and it's perfectly fine to include stuff like that if you make a film of over three hours, but you still should not lose the core of it all out of sight, namely the Gustloff tragedy, but to me apart from the occasional camera shots and Nazi costumes this film felt for 90% of its time as if it could have been about any other random catastrophe to be honest. I do believe it is on the same weak level as the more known Dresden for example and I don't recommend checking it out. I have seen other reviewers mention the West German 1960 black-and-white movie "Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen" and that it deals more accurately and realistically with the subject, but I cannot say if this is true. I remember not liking that one very much either. Perhaps the entire subject still needs a more competent execution to depict the events from over 70 years ago convincingly and entertainingly and informatively. "Die Gustloff" is not what you are looking for. Don't watch.

Just as sinking of 'Wilhelm Gustloff' out-do the sinking of better known 'Titanic' in the sheer size of catastrophe, the TV-made "Gustloff" beats Cameron's movie in almost every field. The film starts with life on German east and presents a wide array of characters each facing a dark perspectives flowing from inevitable Reich defeat. The chaos and fear that dominated the eastern Prussian provinces in 1945 is very faithful with historical truth. The film then goes on to showing Gustloff's voyage and chain of events that led German heroes to final fall. Each of characters is memorable: from comic Nazi official who cares only for the evacuation of fuhrer's portrait from sinking ship to stern and cold-blooded commander Harald responsible for navy intel. The romance story is interwoven carefully, without interfering with the main intrigue, and not so naive and pretentious as in 'Titanic', just as mysterious spy plot.

And by "sensational" I mean "over-dramatic" and "too sentimental." Read Gunter Grass' Crabwalk or watch the original film Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen for a much more critical, and thereby realistic, depiction of the worst maritime disaster in recorded history. Tanja Dückers Celestial Bodies does a pretty good job as well. Hollywood-caliber films that attempt to make a blockbuster out of tragedy will never succeed to capture the full complexity of reality!! Still, the only attempt in almost 50 years and the second of all time... so D- for effort.

Diane and I watched this fascinating insight into a little known WWII tragedy several nights ago and the horror of what we watched unfold will long remain with us. I had only read references to the sinking of the Gustloff and it being history's worst naval disaster but seeing the unfolding of the events of that disaster was truly harrowing. The inevitability of the outcome was like the unfolding of a terrible Greek tragedy, the end of which was already known.Diane and I both were impressed by the acting of the large cast and the ability of the director to manage this large group of people as effectively as was seen in the film. We were also impressed by the myriad of subplots that peppered the script: the subplot of the captains, some military and others not; the Russian spy; the girlfriend of the captain; the young boy trying to avoid discovery and inevitable induction into the army; the U-boat group forced to leave their school and overall, like some dark cloud, Hitler's continuing refusal to admit eventual defeat. All of this constitutes an extremely heady broth and one that will certainly provide an excellent evening's entertainment even though the fatal nature of this broth will probably be known by any person taking the time to view this film.