Very Cool!!!

Boring

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

after years, for me remains a revelation. about hidden Romania. about small history. about cruel form of solitude. more than beautiful, it is a touching film. a circle of ash. a testimony. in 1980 years, when I watch it first time, it was subject of extraordinary experience. the name of Virgil Gheorghiu was prohibit, the image of a Romania out of propaganda images was strange. but , after a time, more than story remains Anthony Quinn acting who gives new fresh colors to the message. because it is a picture of East. and body of a suffering without cure. open wound. and border of a delicate silhouette of hope. must see it ! because it is one of that films who gives a lot of surprises. a movie who transforms opinions and verdicts. and who draws , in special manner, basic elements of life.

It says something that other reviewers are recalling this film after 30 or more years. It's like that with me too. Goodness knows how long ago I saw this, but it has haunted me for years.This film alone marks Anthony Quinn out as a truly great film actor. Never mind Zorba the Greek - all he did in that was be exuberant. Here his face carries complexities of suffering, confusion and other emotions.In this film he plays the little man buffeted by forces not only beyond his control but beyond his imagination, an eternal victim, one of the flotsam and jetsam of war. Never mind the details, if this film makes you think, it will be about displaced persons, chaos, disruption of lives, and the triumph of the human spirit. I did not realise that Michael Redgrave was even in this film until reading the credits today - never mind who plays other parts, it is Quinn, the screenplay and the direction that win the Oscar for me.

Considering this film was made in 1967, and on locations in France and Yugoslavia and with a mixed bag of actors, it still is an incredible and riveting film to watch, even realistic enough for Bosnia 1992 !True Anthony Quinn does not look like a Romanian peasant nor of Aryan origin, but he does a good job portraying the common man lost in the confusion of WW2, and displaced from his farm in distant Romania. Labeled and deported as a Jew despite his protestations to the contrary, he somehow ends up as a study of the perfect Aryan race for the Third Reich, and later loses on all accounts when no one wants to believe his story, least of all the Allies ...Eventually he gets repatriated with wife Virna Lisi and family somewhere in Germany but only after 8 years of European wilderness.Henri Verneuil doesn't cut corners, and the locations look authentic. But with so many nationalities, the acting suffers towards the last few scenes.A very enjoyable film, but from another era.

I was wrapped to see many other people also enjoyed this film. First watched it when I was in my early teens and then again several times late at night a few times after. Then sadly, no more. I'm now nearly 49 and so wish it could be made available on DVD. Why not? The best Anthony Quinn role, no one could have been more suited for the part or parts he plays - I've mentioned it to other film buffs of similar age and alas, no one I know recalls it. As the daughter of a generation that went through WWII and its aftermath (and myself deeply fascinated by what that generation endured) I guess this film at the time gave me a wonderful cinematic insight into some of the heartbreaking issues of the day. For classic final scenes this movie is a stand out.