Before the Fall
Picture This! Entertainment | Release Date: October 7, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
89
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
Every movie about the Holocaust should be this good, but few are. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A potent and well-executed drama. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Commands attention from its very first frame and never lets up right through the fade-out. It is a splendid example of classic screen storytelling with no false steps, and Gansel's understated approach pays off with resounding emotional effect and meaning. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Gansel based the film on the memories of one of his grandfathers. The acting is believable; the photography, atmospheric; and the moral, unmistakable. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
All the paraphernalia so important to the image of the Reich, particularly the uniforms, are painstakingly rendered, bringing a heightened sense of realism to what might otherwise have been a romantic coming-of-age tale. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Like its singular central character, Before the Fall stands out from the pack. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterRichard James Havis
This well-made World War II film from Germany is both a coming-of-age story and a critique of National Socialist ideology. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
When movie clichés are presented with rigor and feeling, they can pack a fresh punch. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
It's an emotionally chilly movie with a blank, inexpressive protagonist, but it gains cumulative force en route to a viscerally moving climax. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
If Before the Fall feels a tad overdetermined, it also feels emotionally honest. Calmly and carefully, Mr. Gansel makes large points with small scenes. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJoshua Katzman
The hero (played with the right amount of adolescent insouciance by Max Riemelt) is a working-class boy admitted to one of the academies for his formidable boxing skills, and through him director Dennis Gansel captures the ordinariness of Hitler's supporters. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeJanice Page
Unusually compelling, even if it's treacly enough to be "The Chorus" in goose step. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The homoerotic relationship between Friedrich and Albrecht is stopped short by tragedy, but the point is made - to Friedrich and the audience - that fascism has no room for humanity. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Surely played better on the page than on the screen. What's left is the same old drill driven by brutal master race fervor. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The film is a competent but callow work dealing with a monstrous subject that automatically rejects callowness. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger Moore
Before the Fall has the germ of a great idea, one that will get the film noticed and some festival play. But the promise of “Pride” is, in this case, not fully kept. It lacks the wit and the light touch to come off. Read full review
50
VarietyEddie Cockrell
An intermittently gripping story about an idealistic young boxer who becomes disillusioned with the Third Reich during his elite training, Napola is finally KO'd by an overdose of Nazi fetishism. Read full review
40
Village VoiceR. Emmet Sweeney
The movie is too middlebrow to show us the superman-type sexual heroics they must've engaged in, or even allow the illicit subtext to float to the surface (as Sokurov does in Father and Son)--instead we get tepid moralizing on dehumanization in the military. Read full review
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