...rather stodgy but still affecting historical drama...

| Aug 10, 2022

It is a tale of a true hero, even if in its minor details it's less than entirely true. For a movie with ambitions as big as "John Rabe," that doesn't just make it good. That makes it epic.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 17, 2010

Thanks to Tukur, what we get here is still something: a stunning portrait of a good man caught in a widening inferno.

| Original Score: B | Jun 18, 2010

Drawn from Rabe's diaries, the film is rich in telling and ironic details.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 4, 2010

One of the main virtues of John Rabe is to demonstrate that, however much we know about the worst of all wars, it still has little-known corners that can amaze us.

| May 24, 2010

Despite its gruesome scenes of hundreds of Chinese prisoners of war being lined up and executed and its ostentatious shots of severed heads, the movie is less than indelible.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 21, 2010

There are many powerful moments, including a mass beheading, before the film turns into a sappy, Frank Capra-esque affair.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 21, 2010

Reduced to obscurity after the war, Rabe deserves to be remembered for his role in shielding hundreds of thousands in a "safety zone" on company grounds. But the film will help little in securing his legacy.

| Original Score: C+ | May 20, 2010

Gallenberger has an astute visual sense, and he's good at transmitting lots of information with a single image.

| Original Score: 8/10 | May 20, 2010

Think of this once-removed re-creation as a melodramatic shoehorn into unspeakable despair.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 19, 2010

Cello-scored pantomimes of resilience and grief can make us feel, but it's not always evident who or what that serves.

| May 18, 2010

In Gallenberger's film, the Chinese are allowed onscreen as victims only.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 17, 2010

A great story that needs to be seen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 7, 2010

A worthy film that pales in comparison to Schindler's List, despite intelligent turns from Ulrich Tukur and Steve Buscemi.

| Apr 2, 2010

Everything seems glossy and muted, like a romantic novel without romance and Rabe's tragically forlorn and unappreciated existence after the war is not shown.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 2, 2010

Despite the emotive subject matter, pic is often too sluggish dramatically, and never knits together its stock Western characters into a satisfying whole.

| Feb 13, 2009

An effectively epic and sometimes moving rendering of a momentous event that easily could have remained a historical footnote.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 1, 1800