The Miracle of Bern (2003)

To me, this movie is perfection.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This film is very original. The cast is convincing and inspiring, the story is original and emotional. The action scenes are inventive and original. The music is great ant inventive . The film is inspiring and original. Go and watch because it is totally worth your money.

In a very moving and unsentimental Drama, Sönke Wortmann brings us the amazing story of the German National Soccer Team, who unexpectedly defeated the Hungarians in the final of the World Cup 1954 in Switzerland. After being a prisoner of war for 9 years, Richard Lubanski comes home to his family, only to find himself in a world, strange and unknown to him. His oldest son Bruno is a communist, who plays Jazz music for a living, his daughter Ingrid helps her mother at the family's bar, and his youngest son Matthias is a soccer fan and a good friend of Helmut Rahn, a player of the German national team. Richard in his embitterment and desperation drives his family apart, and for a long time fails to realize that he's the one responsible for it. In the second plot line, the journalist Paul Ackermann gets the honorable assignment of reporting for the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" in Switzerland during the World Cup, news not to well received by his wife Annette, who was already planning their honeymoon. She insists on coming with him and during her stay in Switzerland she learns quite a bit about soccer and in the end knows more about it than her husband. The German National team, under Coach Sepp Herberger, is confronted with very difficult opponents and after an embarrassing defeat against the Hungarians, many Germans already see the team's chances gone of entering the next round. Rahn, who got drunk after the loss against Hungary, but learned from his mistakes, and Fritz Walter, the captain of the team, though, both very ambitious players, try to motivate the whole team and eventually they play in the final, once again against the Hungarians. Whether you are a soccer fan or not is of little importance when watching this movie, as it is more about family, friendship and teamwork than about the sport itself. At times moving, at others funny, "Das Wunder von Bern" is a wonderful portrait of Germany after World War II, a desperate nation in desire of a miracle. The young Louis Klamroth gives an extremely good performance, as do Peter Franke, Sascha Göpel and especially Peter Lohmeyer as Richard Lubanski. All in all, an excellent piece of German history. (9.5/10)

I have no doubt that the 1954 World Cup win for Germany was important to a nation trying to move out of the shadow of Nazism and the deserved defeat they suffered in World War II. This movie does a fairly good job of conveying that emotion, and of depicting life in a poor town less than a decade after Hitler. I also liked the music, which was supportive without being overly dramatic or emotional. Much of the acting was also good.I can't say the same for the script or plot, which were predictable (I don't mean the historic truth of the World Cup, of course, but the fictional family developments), highly sentimental, and annoyingly manipulative. The father was a cardboard character whose actions I didn't believe for a second, and what he did to provide a dinner for his wife was totally implausible. If the movie was aimed at eight-year-olds who need something completely lacking in subtlety, so that every plot point is as obvious as a road sign, then it succeeded. Adults, though, will find it as thin as onionskin.The trip by father and son to Bern for the final match cheated by having them drive through gorgeous Alpine scenery, when a real trip would not have been anything like so beautiful. If filmmakers will cheat on something like that to get an easy reaction from the audience, they'll cheat on everything.

This movie is clearly en par with "Die Feuerzangenbowle" or "Der blaue Engel"In the background it describes the post war Germany, the desperation, the aggression, the losses, the private and public devastation. Fantastic the scene when the train arrives in Essen and all the women anxiously hope that their husband or son will be on that train (many many of them were actually disappointed). Amazing how Soenke shows the game against Austria where he lets children play the actual game scenes on some muddy grass pitch, with the original radio comment running.In the foreground it tells the story about those 90 minutes which many consider as the turning point for Germany in the 20th century. I was not existent yet but my mother and many others that I know of her generation can still tell what they did during these 90 minutes in 1954. The movie is brilliantly made, with real soccer players as actors (that shows at times, see "The school of rock"). The goals in the final actually happened the way they are shown in the movie. The American movie goers may not understand many of the little details (all the Herberger Phrases are there, Helmut Rahn actually had a severe alcohol problem later in life). They also may not realize the importance of soccer in all the rest of the world ;) which cannot be overestimated.