That was an excellent one.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

I haven't seen this movie in 30 years so I don't know if I would like it as much as I did when I was 12. At the time, however, I loved this movie. This is a great "starter chick-flick" for young pre-teen girls. Be careful of the ending, though. There are tears and harsh emotions.Looking back at it from a 2008 perspective (with so much more knowledge of child psychology, politics and political correctness), I think it would be interesting to watch again. Patty's uncaring, abusive father, indifferent mother and favored sister all contributed toward making her vulnerable and starving for companionship. Patty was sad when Anton left. She was heartbroken when he was killed. The rage that was directed toward her afterward was shocking. After all, she was only 12 years old.The thing that I most strongly retained is how this movie taught me even "enemy" soldiers are people too. Not all German soldiers were hateful Nazis. When I was older, I saw TV shows like Hogan's Heroes and The Rat Patrol which also made the point that the "regular" German soldiers were not the same as the Gestapo."Regular" soldiers were drafted. The Gestapo were handpicked among volunteers for their special attitudes of hate. I believe that one of the privileges of being a Nazi was that they had special assignments and, therefore, didn't go into battle. Their specialties were interrogation and torture.Later, during the cold war, I would think about Russian soldiers and remember SOMGS. We were taught that the Soviet Union was "evil". But the reality was that Russian soldiers weren't out to destroy America. They had a job. Their government probably told them that our government was out to destroy their way of life. Which, in a way, was true, since the US fought to end Communism.The lesson is still applicable today. German soldiers were not the same as Nazis just as Muslims are not the same as Al Qaeda.

I would catch this cornball melodrama years ago and its ridiculous attempts at confronting discrimination and racism and showing love can conquer better than war or hate is as preachy and as alienating as the most disapproving image of Mother Superior or any other kind of Catholic priest or charismatic evangelist. Other posts have relayed what the story was about. I can honestly say I didn't catch on to it being a wonderful love story, that's for sure.McNichol and Davison were hardly a sweet teen romance. I recall Constantine's quiet "youre dead to me" comment to McNichol, but McNichol would also scream at all those around they were murderers when the escaped German prisoner was shot and killed. Talk about cheesy angst, over and over again with this thing. But I guess the funniest moment for me was at the very end with Anne Haney, the elderly lady perhaps best known for her final appearances in "Mrs. Doubtfire" when Robin Williams shoved his face in that cake, and she was in "Liar, Liar" with Jim Carrey as his assistant. Haney is a gossipy neighbor lady, representing society at large in this one woman.As McNichol and her only ally, it seems, Esther Rolle (who won a supporting actress Emmy for this thing) are walking down the streets, enduring all the glaring stares of disapproval.Haney spews out the most incredible slur I think I have ever heard, "Jew Nazi n*gg*r lover."I was totally confused how one could be a Jew lover and a Nazi lover as one was killing the other in WWII, when this movie was taking place. Where on Earth did the Jew figure into it? Rolle would then deliver a tirade on Haney "leave this child be!" which of course would be highly unlikely for a Black woman to talk to a white woman like that in the forties, as anyone who checks out Oprah Winfrey's imprisonment in "Color Purple" will see. This movie was alot of wishful thinking; that people could speak so freely and that others would be silenced so easily. Unfortunately all it does is more dividing of the masses, leaving society as a whole back at square one, if we are to believe the messages here.

We read the novel Summer of my German Soldier in school and then we watched the film.If you have read the book before you saw the movie,like I did,you might feel a bit more disappointed.The feelings weren't shown as intensely as the book shows them.Also the relationships are not as clearly shown as the book.But it is still a good film to watch if you have not read the book.

A touching story told with tenderness: awkward young Jewish girl in WWII America befriends an escaped German POW who is hiding out in her clubhouse. They discuss their lives and beliefs (he's anti-Hitler), she sneaks him food, he becomes her only friend and ally. All this reminded me of the much-better theatrical film "Whistle Down The Wind", where Hayley Mills befriends convict Alan Bates, but you certainly can't fault the direction here, which is smooth, or the performances, which are sterling. Mature in her pre-teen years, Kristy McNichol carries most of the picture and never hits a false note. Suddenly, when the prisoner is discovered (and Kristy is found out as well), the movie gets very tough. Her father, shocked and ashamed that his child would consort with "that Nazi", lays into her with a quiet fury I have seldom seen before (he tells her "You are dead to me," which must be devastating for a little girl to hear). The final scenes don't cop out; there are no big reunions, no hand-holding climaxes. The girl has to face the world, and in doing so learns a bitter lesson about neighbors, friends, and family. A startling film.