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Amen [DVD]
 
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Amen [DVD]

DVD ~ Ulrich Tukur
3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
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Frequently Bought Together

Amen [DVD] + The Grey Zone [DVD] [2002] + Auschwitz - The Nazis And The Final Solution [DVD]
Total RRP: £51.97
Price For All Three: £15.94

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Amen [DVD]
62% buy the item featured on this page:
Amen [DVD] 3.8 out of 5 stars (5)
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The Grey Zone [DVD] [2002] 4.2 out of 5 stars (9)
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Auschwitz - The Nazis And The Final Solution [DVD]
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Product details

  • Actors: Ulrich Tukur, Mathieu Kassovitz, Ulrich Muhe, Michel Duchaussoy, Marcel Iures
  • Directors: Constantin Costa-Gavras
  • Format: PAL
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: PG
  • Studio: Pathe Distribution
  • DVD Release Date: 26 Sep 2005
  • Run Time: 126 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000AQQHV0
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 15,801 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Synopsis
Filmmaker Costa-Gavras ('Mad City', 'Music Box', and 'Missing') has a reputation for controversial political cinema, and he does not fail to raise eyebrows with 'Amen'. Focusing on the Vatican's unwillingness to oppose the Holocaust, and two men who tried to change the system from within, 'Amen' is adapted from the play 'The Representative' by Rolf Hochhuth. It is based on a true story about officer Kurt Gerstein (Ulrich Tukur), a Nazi soldier who moved up the SS ranks by devising a chemical method to purify soldiers' drinking water. Gerstein is unaware of the horrors of the concentration camps until he is recruited by The Doctor (Ulrich Muhe) to adapt the same chemical for use in the gas chambers. Though Gerstein is overwhelmed by the reality of the impending massacre, he does not turn a blind eye. He informs the Swedes, the German Protestant Church, and even the Vatican. But he is sent away, dismissed, and otherwise silenced by all but the tenacious Father Riccardo Fontana (Mathieu Kassovitz), a fictitious character based on a number of priests who fought against the Holocaust. Father Riccardo takes life-threatening risks in a fruitless effort to convince the cardinal (Michel Duchaussoy) and the Pope (Marcel Iures) to rise above their fears of Nazi retribution.

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5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The would-be whistleblower of the Holocaust, 22 Feb 2006
By Trevor Willsmer (London, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
Amen. got an indifferent response from critics and box-office alike, but its easily Costa-Gavras' best film in a couple of decades. While it doesn't have is the rough and raw anger of his early classics, or the emotional weight of Missing, it's a compelling tale well told. Based on the true story of a German chemist and devout Catholic promoted to the SS who, on finding out what use the chemicals he inspected are really put to, tried to make the existence of the Nazi extermination policy known in the hopes of stopping it (not without precedent: as the film shows, the Catholic Church and public outrage did prevent the earlier extermination program for the mentally ill). Unfortunately for the would-be whistleblower, no-one wanted to know: they either didn't care or didn't believe the sheer enormity of the numbers of victims.

Ulrich Tukur is impressive in the lead, portraying the moral outrage and frustrated urgency without resorting to theatrics, though Matthieu Kassovitz's priest (a composite of several characters) is less convincing despite his best efforts. The most interesting character, however, is Ulrich Muhe's 'Doctor,' a fellow SS officer unconvinced by the Nazi rhetoric but more than morally ambivalent and pragmatic enough to go along with his 'unsophisticated' colleagues. He's a constantly unnerving presence because of his honesty and his playfulness: you're never quite sure what his position is, although you never doubt his own certainty in himself.

Much was made at the time of release at the finger pointed at the Catholic Church for their complicity by silence in the Holocaust, but the film doesn't limit its frustration to the Church - the Allies are equally culpable of pragmatic neglect. The script is an impressively constructed, with early scenes flowing effortlessly into each other as they demolish the concept that ordinary Germans were powerless to resist, establishing a moral framework for the drama that follows. The resolution of Kassovitz's character veers into cliche nd the enormity of the main character's loss of faith is slightly taken for granted at the end (his final action is a total rejection of the fundamental principles of Catholicism that fuel his doomed efforts), but it's nonetheless a powerful movie that deserves to be better known.

Unlike the other international releases of the film, the only extra is the trailer, while the film only has an English language option (the film was, however, shot in English).
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9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A great movie on a grave topic, 22 Jul 2006
By P. Toche - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This movie explores the theme of collective guilt in the Holocaust by focusing on two individuals who stand out of their collectivity, SS officer Kurt Gerstein (Ulrich Tukur) and Catholic priest Riccardo Fontana (Mathieu Kassovitz).

A chemist by profession, Gerstein supplies zyklon B gas for the gas chambers of the death camps, but tries to alert the allies of the horror in which he is a willing participant. Hard to believe, but allegedly based on fact. A priest by vocation, Fontana tries to use his family contacts to alert the Pope.

Neither the SS officer nor the Catholic priest succeed. The Allies ignore the nazi. The Pope ignores the priest. The cowardly officer kills himself. The brave priest martyrs himself by boarding an Aushwitz-bound train.

Based on the movie's reconstruction, SS officer Gerstein was a coward and guilty through and through of high-level complicity in a Genocide. He would no doubt have received a heavy sentence after the war, and deservedly so.

This SS officer deserves no sympathy. The authors have therefore thrown in a few Faustian baits for those who need the idea of the good nazi.

The success of Schindler's Ark/List demonstrates the existence of a need for a belief in the good nazi. Here we have a would-be good nazi. He would like to be good, but he is so cowardly that he fails in his attempt to do good through the courage of others. In this sense, SS Gerstein is more interesting, dramatically speaking, than Schindler. He is a total loser and, in this, immensely dramatic. By Hollywood standard, not quite the ticket.

Catholic priest Fontana was a good guy who martyred himself in total despair. He is a modern version of Jesus, who died to expiate humanity's guilt. Fontana is a composite of several real-life catholic martyrs. The list of Catholic victims under the nazis is a long one, especially among the Poles. Not quite as long as the list of Jewish victims though. The complicit silence of the Catholic Church is well documented, but unfortunately not well publicized and occasionally denied.

If I dared to be controversial, I might write that Amen does to the Catholic community what Shindler's List did to the nazi community.

The greatest merit of a movie like Amen is to publicize Pope Pius 12's guilty silence while not, perhaps, alienating the entire Catholic community.

I also wish to add that Mathieu Kassovitz does an outstanding job as the Catholic priest. Another reader suggested otherwise. I have seen young Catholic priests in the flesh, and I believe Mathieu Kassovitz is perfect, a wonderful actor.

Great actors. True story. Great movie.
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4 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Just awful, 23 Mar 2007
By L. Heaney "lh14" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Turly how this poorly acted, poorly scripted, poorly directed film was even made in the first place is a mystery. Fine its a partial true story and all that, which just about compells viewing, but genuinely it is just a pointless and dull piece of bile.

Avoid at all costs...

PS maybe watch if you want to see one of the worst films ever made.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars very thought provoking
An all action film this certainly is not ! But if you are interested in the subject material, you will find this addictive viewing. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Red Rose

5.0 out of 5 stars AMEN REVIEW
This was a good insight into the different stances between the Church and The Gestapo and was thought provoking. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mrs. D. Swinbourne

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