This movie sucked MORE THAN THIS APP which makes it impossible to write a comment without losing it if you touch a wrong key on a phone.

Basically it's almost impossible until the very end to determine whether Rossalini is trying to condemn the Nazis or applaud them. He seems to try to make it focus on the general German populace, yet laughably.

A German woman gets ripped off by a vagrant German teenager. She has enough for 40 DM for soap. Yet it implies that was ridiculous pricing, but it also implies some of the German populace was still doing fine while avoiding explaining why.

It focused on the young boy, but names the teacher in the opening credits as a main character. So this relationship is supposed to be important enough for the character to be in the credits while plenty of the speaking roles are not.

Focusing on that alone we have a Nazi, worried about being busted, who the little boy turned his own father in to for not wanting his son to be added to the Hitler Youth. The older son also was "stolen" as the father laments constantly, like a weak, whiny, worthless man. It seems to be showing at that point the strength of the Nazi v. the anti-Nazi, but it's unclear. Are we to blame the Nazi who would manipulate someone's own child turning them in or the weak minded man who got turned in and didn't seem to suffer because the Nazi teacher didn't turn him in? It's nauseatingly appearing to be almost overly sympathetic to the teacher at that point. I was extremely disgusted.

But then the teacher suggests in a rage because it appears he's some kind of predatory pedophile from the start the boy should kill his father. When the boy does it, are we supposed to assume this was the Hitler Youth training? The power of the Nazi teacher who taught the Nazi teachings of eliminating the weak? It leaves it all open to even blame the kid.

Which is how it ends, with the kid killing himself. Are we to presume he is yet another Nazi victim? Blame his father for being a weak man? Even absolve the Nazi? Or at that moment feel bad that this is supposedly what many in Germany were reduced to?

I am positive Rossalini could've found a better way to make this sympathetic for the average German populace, but I suspect he was going for the victimization of everyone involved while still being mindful the Nazis might take over again. I feel like he was being cautious to tell the story as not to offend the Allies, but also making sure as to not offend the Nazis in case they came back into power. A beautiful example of you can't have it both ways in every situation no matter how you try to straddle the fence

This sucked. Cowardly and makes Chaplin's Great Dictator look like one of the best movies ever made. I gave it a 3 only for the scenes of Berlin showing the actual damage and devastation. Otherwise total propaganda junk that was too afraid or purposefully avoiding to look like it was picking a side.