Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Charming and brutal

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

I thoroughly enjoyed this series and found it very moving. The 2 stories (21st century and 19th century), were intertwined beautifully and I learned much about a war and period of Danish history I knew little about. But mainly it was compelling storytelling! It also did well mixing the intimate story of people against the backdrop of the larger politics of the era. The characters were well rounded and real although of course some of them like Didrich and Inge's mother were not very admirable. The photography and music were beautiful and the battle scenes handled with great realism tempered with a poetic touch. I would have given it a 10 but there were a few loose ends (if I said what they were I would give too much away). I would highly recommend watching "1864"

A very mature and heart wrenching look at how nations are pulled into war.Although the series looks at a particular part of Danish history, it could almost be any country that has a history of nationalism of the reactionary kind. It succeeds in going to the heart of not only how devastating war is to the society which gives birth to it, but also how the set up of society means the lesson is not learnt. While not being overtly political, there is a good stab at the view from above. It could be (and is) at times depressing, but the focus on the humanity of the participants saves it from being a bleak look at hell.Im sorry to say that the low rating it receives here just reveals the narrow focus of the posters.

The bad stuff:1. Horrible dialog ! The entire host of characters seem like caricatures. 2. Boring side story. The recurring flash forward to 2014 is completely irrelevant and adds nothing to the production - a waste of time. 3. Worst manuscript ever - to spice up a rather generic main plot, a number of "weird" events occur: "soldier hypnotizes enemies to escape capture", "same soldier saves main protagonist's life by pulling out a piece of ice directly from protagonist's heart (with his bare hands) and then feeding it to him", "dumb girl suddenly regains speech, but has nothing to say" etc etc... 4. And finally - the director seems hellbent on proving his point of view: that war is a horrible thing and humans sometimes do bad things. This ambition is presented to the viewer in an extremely condescending manner. In other words, this could be all well and good if the production was aimed at children who are unfamiliar with these concepts, but of course it is not.The good stuff: Beautiful scenery, fantastic battle sequences and a pretty good soundtrack are the 3 only positive things I can mention about this production. This is why I give the production a "2"....

I'm one of those people that don't enjoy overt manipulation - and I prefer a balanced approach when it comes to portraying characters and I need a plausible setup, before I can invest myself in what happens on screen.I do enjoy experiencing something significant and then being allowed to think for myself, when reflecting upon what I've been exposed to. In this case, it's a TV series that certainly could have been significant, even profound.Sadly, the only profound thing about it is how blatant it is in its absurd treatment of human beings and supposedly historical events involving these cartoon characters.The budget is huge for a Danish production, and the good news is that it shows. It's remarkably well-crafted in terms of aesthetics. It looks and sounds fantastic - and you can clearly see where Bornedal excels in that way.He's an excellent director when it comes to setting up a scene or how to create an emotionally powerful moment, using slow motion and the appropriate music. He's also capable of extracting a lot of raw feeling from his actors. In fact, he must be so good at this, that they forget how to turn it off again, and to behave like plausible people.As such, the problem is that he doesn't seem to understand the economy of emotions and the impact they can have if handled with less spelling them out, and more letting them build over time without even talking about them.This was evident in "I am Dina" - and it's even more evident now, considering the change in material, which should have been treated with more subtlety.You DO NOT evoke a more powerful response through oversaturation. Instead, you evoke fatigue. Real human beings don't emote with such power with every sentence they speak - and we don't actually spout commanding exposition for each moment that passes by.Sometimes, less really IS more - and you don't have to use a sledgehammer to make pain clear to the audience.Personally, I don't understand why you'd take on a historically significant event such as this war - if you're not going to treat the people involved with respect. If you're going to talk about something that actually happened, then please start out by understanding something about human nature when depicting the key people involved.People don't reside in little boxes called "good" and "evil". We're a bit more complex than that.Monrad being borderline retarded, crawling around naked on the floor - and his "muse" being this completely powermad evil witch hypnotizing him into submission is a bit much, no? As far as I know, there's absolutely nothing in history about Heiberg to suggest she was anything like that. If you want a character to serve your cartoon version of reality - at least use a fictional person.So, how about taking a deep breath and attempt a bit of slight subtlety next time. It might actually work better. Did we really need to see theater-blood on his hands when war had been declared? Are we THAT incapable of seeing what's going on, Bornedal?Didrich? Is there a single moment in the series where his eyes aren't flooded with tears of pain - and does he ever cast a look at another person that isn't full of burning jealousy and hatred?Treating your audience with that kind of hand-holding simply isn't necessary.The less said about telepathic lover communication and hypnotic veteran soldiers, the better.As for the actual historical events, I can't speak about them in a very informed way. I simply don't know enough about this war. I can only hope they've researched them a bit more than they've researched real human beings.But since the people involved clearly aren't being depicted as real people - I have to wonder how much of the events being shown is useful in terms of relaying historical fact.But then again, this is just entertainment right? It's the American standard of using real history as "inspiration" and that's good enough, right?Wrong. Not to me, anyway.If you use a real event this important, please treat it with some respect for the facts.Otherwise, make something up and be clear about wanting to entertain rather than inform. As in, don't make it about a real war and pretend that the people involved are all caricatures from a fairy tale.Unfortunately, even as entertainment, this wouldn't work as anything but a farcical display of near-constant extreme human behavior.If you're a very young person looking to be told how to feel and to be grossly misinformed about human behavior, it's not bad - I guess. It's like a roller-coaster of emotional peaks and valleys if you can turn off your brain.It's clear that Bornedal is in complete denial-mode after the massive criticism this show has received on a national scale, and I can sympathise with him. But, as harsh as it might seem, there's a really good reason it hasn't been received very well.If you're an adult looking for something relevant to real life, steer clear.