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The German Doctor Reviews

Jan 27, 2025

Remembering the Holocaust

Dec 19, 2023

Gripping despite it being obvious who the German doctor was. I don't know if this story was true or not, but either way, watching the doctor manipulate people to his ends was chillingly fascinating. Scenery was gorgeous. Now I would like to find out more about the postwar Nazi presence in Argentina.

Jul 27, 2020

Una película que está muy bien dirigida y tiene una trama sólida.

Mar 11, 2020

A very interesting take on Mengele although it seems to consider him as a compassionate, nice guy - which surely cannot be right. A great film though.

Mar 13, 2019

The beautiful scenery of Patagonia is captured in this film. The storyline is very interesting without diluting the horror of the Second World War which is left out. It concentrates on the present [1960] and Mengelaâ(TM)s ability to live a relatively good life albeit wanted as a war criminal. Very atmospheric drama well acted and directed with a convincing storyline and period setting.

Jan 22, 2019

This is a film of many layers with a true portrait of a monster who is inhuman--like the dolls that the father in the story makes, he is without a heart, and so feels nothing. Unlike the monster in the horror film the children watch, his monstrosity is not seen outwardly, but comes from a lack of conscience. Like Dr. Frankenstein, his goal is perfection, but like the Goya print, The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters. As in the book Frankenstein (how ironic that the name seems Jewish) the creation looks perfect without life, like the dolls, but when they live, the unnatural force that gave them life makes others shun them. The mother and father who seem good parents ultimately fail their children, the mother from the desire that her children be perfect, be like other children without difference. The German Doctor also trades on the trust that patients have in doctors and science to do what is best for the patient, when the scientist is coldly concerned only with his experiments. The father gives in to his dream and so accepts the doctor's money, but also accepts the idea that his dolls (who emerge from ovens in pieces of body parts) be perfect in their sameness (just as Menegle is trying to do to humans) and "spotless," instead of individually created as he had done before. Their hearts that beat are just clockwork machines that feel nothing and can not make the perfect dolls alive. I remember when Eichmann was caught and his trial in Israel, where he was kept separated from normal humans in a bullet-proof glass witness box, like Snow White's coffin (which was prophetic of his coming death, a foregone conclusion) standing upright, or like someone in quarantine like the disease of Nazism that he was. What a pity they were unable to put Mengele into a similar death trap! He certainly deserved it! Because he was a doctor and had taken a Hippocratic oath to "Do no harm" perhaps he deserved it even more!,

Sep 4, 2016

Slightly insubstantial but not unwatchable imagining of post war episode in Mengele's life which rather ends in bathos.

Apr 25, 2016

From what I watched, magnificent setting for blandly told dramatic story.

Apr 3, 2016

Bariloche, Argentina

Jul 2, 2015

Love how I'm learning more history stuff through film... Good Acting...

Apr 17, 2015

Original approach on a world war II story.

Dec 4, 2014

Great atmospherics and build up. Not so good in terms of execution.

Nov 2, 2014

It has its creepy moments but ultimately lacks suspense.

Sep 24, 2014

Well-acted and directed, The German Doctor will be hard for many American audiences due to the foreign language. However, if you can get over that, you'll find some great performances, and a tight thriller to enjoy.

Sep 21, 2014

Lucia Puenzo's disturbing, if uneven, "what if" look at the after-WWII life of Nazi criminal Josef Mengele.

Aug 13, 2014

Low-key but gripping drama, with a charismatic cast that includes the excellent Natalia Oreira (Muñeca Brava) and Elena Roger. Wonderfully bleak Patagonian landscapes enhance the sense of impending dread.

Aug 3, 2014

Inspired by true events, Wakolda is about one of the world's most terrifying war criminals, Josef Mengele A.K.A 'The Angel Of Death'. It is chilling. Brilliantly cast and brilliantly acted. Amazing photography too.

Jul 27, 2014

A bad person doing bad things to nice people.

Jul 20, 2014

This is an independent and strange film. Beutiful landscapes of Bariloche are shown and a strange storyline is played there.

Jun 23, 2014

Lucia Puenzo se distingue por sus originales historias, planteando temas dificiles dentro de ambientes familares. "Wakolda" no es la excepcion, pero se siente debil a pesar de ser adaptada de un libro de su autoria. Hay buenas actuaciones, pero se siente corta, como un episodio perdido de alguna serie. (Texto intencionalmente sin acentos).

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