NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

ronnietg I review storytelling for film from the perspective of a screen writing teacher, which is not usually the norm for most reviewers. The script for this film was superb for so many reasons: First of all, the audience comes to this film already knowing the ending of the tragic serial murder/genocide of the Jews in all of Europe during the rise of Adolf Hitler and his henchmen. So, to call this film a Holocaust story set in France does not do it justice. The genres are Drama/Historical Epic. What the writer added was elements of Thriller by transcending the usual story beats found in this genre. Hitler as the Main Opponent remains a hidden Main Opponent by letting his henchmen and Nazi army of puppets and evil barbarians do his dirty work. His flawed and pathetic character are portrayed by showing him a slave of the drug needle; a music connoisseur, particularly Wagner - music to play in the background while plotting the destruction of European Jewry and or millions of Russians, Poles, Gypsies, mentally disabled, priests, political adversaries; his family is so very loving and he is a kind and devoted uncle and so reserved and elegant. His story world is juxtaposed to the story world of the French Jews, poor, patriotic (many had served France in WWI), acculturated, etc. Then there is the Hero of the story - a young, Christian nurse, the daughter of a pastor, who is swept up in the barbarity of this epic story. Her character arc is brilliantly laid out for us: She begins as a novice and ends as a war weary, emotionally scarred righteous Gentile, whose love and caring were a paradigm for all the non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews. The doctor is the point of view character, a Jewish man who certainly knows his own fate, yet a brave man who stayed with his children to protect them as much as humanly possible. The Narrative Drive of the story was ramped up by the use of cross-cutting between the Hero and the Jews being rounded up and the Main Opponents - the Nazis, the head of the Vichy French government, their henchmen who brutally beat the Jewish civilians once they felt their anti-Semitic power had full backing by the regime that was now in power. The Reveal to the Audience is in play in this script in a very powerful way - We all know the horror that awaits the characters in the story - This knowledge puts the audience in the driver's seat throughout - The surprises are historical and epic in nature: The firemen who acted like righteous humans when most of the world had gone mad; the actual plight of the French citizenry during the Roundup, never told with such accuracy before; the behavior of the French Gendarmes, who in many cases were as evil as the German Nazis they colluded with. The historical revelations were honest and the dialogue was honest - No glossing over truth in this story. Another great sign of a good story writer is that the message was not preachy. The characters in the travesty did NOT KNOW their end - The Final Solution is known to the audience - not to the characters. The Designing Principle, so important to storytelling, is that no matter what happens to human beings, they can somehow prevail, but there must always be those who are not afraid to come forward and "do the right thing." To be different, with a moral compass, in a sea of indifference - That's the theme of this story. The writer stuck to that theme and imbued the Hero and supporting characters with this Desire Line throughout the story. All the way to the end, the Self-Revelation moment, this Designing Principle remained steady and purposeful. And so, another story has been told about one of the darkest periods in human history - But the story was told by using transcending elements to Drama and Historical Epic. I might also add that the use of children as part of the Designing Principle was another beautiful decision on the part of the writer. The audience knows how this story ends before the movie begins, but the children carry the message even further because they are the future. So, the structure of this story was superb; the plot was written with depth and powerful Narrative Drive, the acting was stellar.

Ben Larson In the summer of 1942 more than 12,000 French Jews were delivered to the Nazi. They were locked at the Vélodrome d'Hiver for several days without food or water or sanitation.It was up to Red Cross nurses, like Annette Monod (Mélanie Laurent), and Dr. Sheinbaum (Jean Reno) to care for the prisoners and mitigate their suffering.La Rafle is not a film about the deportation of Jews and the horror of the concentration camps with Hitler's Final Solution. This film is powerful testimony to the denaturalization of French Jews, the appalling conditions of the Vel d'Hiv, the lack of resistance of the French police as well as the existence of the French camps.

zaidalsaji Other reviewers have given a good overview of the film so I will limit my review to explaining why the person who gave it only 1 star is flawed in his/her analysis Firstly, let me say that I'm not sure we've been given the usual offering of holocaust films year after year but that's not a point worth arguing over even if it were the case. My main points are twofold:1. The comment made that The Roundup left the viewer in a "state of severe depression" is lamentable. Perhaps he/she felt a sense of despair not depression but I'm not sure anyone would want to watch any such film and come out feeling full of joy. The ending certainly allowed one to feel a certain sense of happiness for the few individuals who survived but the fact that so few did so is reason enough not to sugar-coat events through unnecessarily focussing on one or two good moments for a few individuals. This is what might have happened had "character development" gone beyond what is required of a film of this type. The storyline is grim because the events were grim. 2. The reviewer seems to have missed the main point of the film. The interest for me in seeing such films is the light they shine on those who collaborated with the Nazis in various countries in Europe and the varying reasons and motives that drove this collaboration. For me, this film gave an interesting look into the attitudes of the Vichy French and the anti-semitism that pervaded their thinking.

John Raymond Peterson Mélanie Laurent is convincing. At the time of this review the rating averaged 6.9, so it has crept up from what it was earlier, as I can tell by reading other user reviews; I think it has a fair result considering other movies on the subject. Speaking of the subject, the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of 1942, it is an historical fact (easy to check on Wikipedia). This movie highlights the children's fate more than the rest and the actors in those roles did a pretty good job. Because we see children being torn from their parents and being brought to be killed as they were, it is a difficult movie to watch, how can it not. Some reviewers complain about the numerous movies on the subject of the holocaust; there have been genocides before WWII and more even since, so as long as there are, there must be movies on the subject. Books and encyclopedias can relate facts etc., but motion pictures about genocides do a far better job at conveying the horror and the evil it is. Two movies were produced and released in 2010 on the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of 1942, the other being 'Sarah's Key'; I hope as many people as possible see at least one of them, because I for one understand how movies help shape the thinking of a generation.