Hindenburg [DVD]

This was a made for TV movie and is a German American co production, though why anyone would want to claim ownership is beyond me. It stars mainly German actors but has thrown a few well known faces into the mix for the US audience, we have Greta Scaachi, Stacey Keach and Lauren Lee Smith.

It is set in 1937 when the Hindenburg was on its way to America and actually opens with the recreation of the disaster, and that is the best part of the film, but sort of tells you what is going to happen - if you really did not know that is.

It is in English, but the entire film is dubbed and done in a very amateurish 1970's way that went from irritating to laughable, then really annoying very quickly. The music is also a bit weird all electro synth stuff and an apparent rip off, of `Wake Up' by Arcade Fire which left me bemused. So to the 'plot', rich kid Jennifer Van Zandt is going home on the Hindenburg with mumsy, to be with her millionaire daddy who sells fuel gas, but is having a spot of bother; this is due to the embargo the US has imposed on Nazi Germany.

So he hatches a plot to plant a bomb on the air ship to prove his gas is safer (I think). This is signposted right at the beginning of the film. The actual real story would have been more compelling than this made up conspiracy guff, but never mind. The plot holes actually have plot holes within them, the acting is so wooden it is painful and the direction is bad film school calibre (Philipp Kadelbach is responsible) you will soon tire of the over the shoulder look of amazement shots. The best thing about this `film' is the CGI airship, but dragging that out for 106 minutes is just not possible.

The love interest is shoe horned into the increasingly unbelievable script as is the token Jew escapee family and the stereo typical nasty Nazis. The violence is unexpected, contrived and unnecessary. But the good news is they all seem to heal rather quickly - no haemophiliacs here.

The whole thing is totally unengaging and soon becomes tiresome, there is a pointless sub plot too and the music gets ever more desperate at trying to inject some tension into this severely lame duck of a film. It was originally three hours, so this edited version is at least mercifully shorter. The full version was shown in America and in IMDB it gets one star from two reviewers. This really is not a good film the 1975 version is way better yet still factually wrong, it only gets the two stars for the good CGI - and I am being generous.

I know this film has been getting bad reviews, sadly I cannot give a honest review as its not all there. The page states this is the 180 min long version, however it is actually a extreemly cut down 106 min version of the feature. If I had known this in advance I would not have purchased it. Very dissapointed. 74 mins missing, thats false advertising in my book. ho hum.

It makes a change to have a film to watch instead of documentrys all the time. I enjoyed it just like the george c scott film

wayne