Guernica (2016)

Good movie but grossly overrated

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

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film is a fictionalized drama of a true story, based on the events that took place April 26, 1937 in Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The movie follows the life of famed American reporter Henry Howe (James D'Arcy) as he attempts to get out stories while being censored. He is embedded with the rebels in Basque country, aided by Russian communists. The rebels are fighting for a Democratic Spain against Franco, supported by Germany and Italy. A new war technique is going to be used on that said day as the film starts a week earlier, giving us enough time to develop a love story.This is a film on the Spanish Civil War that doesn't involve Hemingway, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, or a labyrinth...although Hemingway was mentioned. Like a Hemingway novel on the Spanish Civil War, the film is a bit laborious to get through and there is a bell that tolls. This is not a documentary it is a historical novel and does not involve zombies.The film is done in multiple languages, English, Spanish, German, Russian, and maybe Basque, French, and Italian. You might want to make sure you get something with subtitles. It is mostly a drama with a protagonist that wasn't that likable and sees the war through his hip flask. Not for everyone.Guide: No swearing (In English anyway). Brief nudity (María Valverde).

The film is a love story set amidst the Spanish Civil War just before the bombing of the Spanish city of Guernica. In 1937 German airplanes bombed the city; killings over 1,600 and reducing the city to ashes. The bombing was immortalizing that same year in Picasso's famous painting.The film suffers from poor direction, wooden performances, and a script which is both confusing and unfocused; featuring an implausible love story that's tacked on to make the "historical" part of the film more personal.The film is pure fascist propaganda; produced to vilify the democratically-elected Republican government. The film attempts to blame the causalities of the bombing on the Republic's news censorship; Shifting the blame away from the Germans. In essence blaming the victims. However, the Spanish government had no prior knowledge that the Germans planned to raze the city of Guernica to the ground. The Nazis didn't advertise their war plans. German Nazi soldiers are depicted as ordinary men just carrying out orders; while the democratically-elected Republican government officials are shown as evil, devious men beholden to the Soviet Union setting up innocent people for incarceration and torture.The Republic needed every man and woman it could use to fight the Fascists. The barbarians were literally at the gates. It had no time or interest incarcerating innocent people when real enemies of the state existed; paid mercenaries known as 5th columnists trying to take down the country from the inside. Many young men throughout the world volunteered to serve in Spain; fighting to save the world from Fascism, such as the Abraham Lincoln brigades from the US. This film is an affront, not only to the democratically-elected government of the Republic in Spain, but to the thousands who fought and the thousands who died fighting against Fascism. Long live the memory of the Spanish Republic!

The fates of Henry - a cynical American correspondent who has lost his soul - and Teresa, one of the Republic's censors and in charge of overseeing the news that journalists can send abroad, cross in Gernika. Although this movie talks about romance in a time of war there is no heart at all, the acting is so so and the whole movie is a big bubble from another based on true events film and in this case drama, war and romance doesn't work that great and some of the characters were pretty retarded this isn't a film to recommend to see or even buy just skip it and go watch a much better war film for example Fury or something that has good direction, actors and script. Guernica gets an 3 out of 10 by me.

Guernica could have been one of my all time favorites but unfortunately, as it happens too often these days, the culmination was badly executed. The first act is wonderful, a perfect setup for the upcoming events in the movie, with breathtaking cinematography, decent script and superb acting. The sets and the costumes were top notch, whoever could pull this off with 5 million deserves utmost respect. The first 30 minutes really feel like you're watching one of those great classics and I was pretty convinced that this movie is going to be ten star material. Unfortunately, as the movie progresses past the second act, it starts to lose its charms. The focus turns on the love story, which somehow manages to be underdeveloped, despite the huge screen time that it has. From there on, we have a cascading chain of blatant clichés which, combined with a final act that feels disjointed, really ruin the whole experience. Now if you pay attention, you'll notice that the final act is where we lose the German perspective. A scene on a bomber, a pilot reaction or even the German colonel watching the ongoing bombardment from a far would've kept this perspective alive and could've added some needed dramatic effect. Instead, the focus falls entirely on the events occurring in Guernica, which wouldn't be so bad if the whole act wasn't filled with severely overused clichés. All in all, this is a pretty decent war drama, which could've been something really special, had the writers come up with more original ideas.