BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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

biscuitcharley As an avid follower of all things Colditz, I have to admit I shall boycott this number until the end of time. Fine, drop a love story in front of the war, it's been done over and over again, and it works. It is greatly romantic, with all the heart wrenching death and lovers being ripped apart by the German army... I'm making myself sick thinking about it! I am sad that Colditz has been brought into it. I watched a trailer, and heard I think one English accent. It is an abomination of history. Drugs? In Colditz? The Germans letting someone go? It is a stack of poop so high, we are all in peril of being covered if it topples. It may have been filmed in the Czech and England, but it is an American production, and yet again, they have demonstrated their ability to rewrite history to fulfill their own greedy, empty past. Thanks again Hollywood, for making me sick to my stomach and aching for you not to destroy history, again! Don't even get me started on U-571!!

cymonerry I nearly didn't see this because of the critical slating.I'm glad I did. It certainly isn't historical fact, but neither is Robin Hood or King Arthur etc.This is a love story based on the 'legend' of Colditz Castle the notorious POW from WWII.If Mr Tarantino can get away with that nonsense of 'inglorious Basterds' I think a little artistic license can be granted here. At least they aren't misspelling the title and they made it in 2005 before you could get away with totally rewriting history. This is a movie whereas that was a cartoon.Colditz did exist so did MI9 and other parts of the story are founded in fact, but this is a romantic drama FICTION! Get over it you anal historians.It is well acted and has a reasonable plot, provided you believe that men will lie for sex. There I said it, people lie. It or 'shit' happens.I enjoyed this movie as a movie not a historical document. Watch it before you criticize. I am glad that its not true.

kluseba I enjoyed watching the two part television series about the Colditz Castle even though I have known better escape movies such as "Papillon" or "The Shawshank Redemption" and even though the melodramatic love and treachery stories were rather predictable and some historical details had not been taken into consideration. There were also some things that I would have liked to see further developed such as the escape at the beginning of the movie, the death of the electrician and the fate of Sawyer but these things are only details.I think that this movie got too many severe reviews on this side as the actors do some great efforts and the movie succeeds to keep the pace and attention quite high over more than three hours. I liked the fact that the plot spent some time on developing the different characters and the human conflicts which gave a philosophical and moral twist to the movie and treated topics such as desperation, drug abuse, treachery, bribery, love, dreams and freedom. The characters were authentic and diversified. The escape plans were mostly original and quite entertaining and it was good to see that an equal time was spent on the escape story and on the complex love story itself. That's why this movie was rather diversified and mixed action and drama passages with more romantic passages. I think that this dynamical mixture is one of the main factors that carried this good movie on.In the end, if you like historical movies about the world wars or complex escape stories, you might pretty much like this film even if it is not a highlight of the genre. You will though get a well done and very entertaining movie that will make you think and learn a lot about history and life.

benbrae76 Does anyone do any research for programmes any more? The holes in the production of "Colditz" were too numerous to mention, and the plot too ridiculous to contemplate.The history of Colditz must be so well documented that practically everyone must know that the first Brit to make a home run from the castle was Airey Neave, and he did not escape by way of disguising himself as an electrician and borrowing his three-wheeler. (Such an ingenious impersonation was tried, but the would be escapee was caught and photographed next to the unfortunate tradesman.) To be fair, the feature movie "The Colditz Story" was also at fault here, as it depicted Pat Reid as making the first Brit home run, but it's closing remarks did make an acknowledgement of Neave's achievement.In this latest effort little was made in capturing the flavour of situations and events (or hunger). Even a smattering of truth would have made all the difference, but then the silly love triangle turned the whole thing into a laughable fiasco. I have nothing against the inclusion of romance into such historical series, but here the facts were changed to fit the story. This should never be done but sadly it often is. As for the misguided depictions of mock executions, all surviving Colditz POWs (and indeed guards) seeing this, must be shaking their heads in utter disbelief.The closing credits included a statement that the production was based in part on recent documentaries. I suggest the producers etc. should study them a little closer and talk to survivors, instead of resorting to uninspired artistic licence. I also suggest they should read the many books and websites on the subject. It's not difficult to find the truth if the time is taken to look for ithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airey_Neavehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz_Castle