Sadly Over-hyped

Don't Believe the Hype

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

It is clear from some of the more glowing reviews that this film tends to be judged by its value as a true story, and I will take the same approach.Zero stars. Anyone who knows anything about the Greece of the 40s can recognise Gage's book about his mother for the cynical money spinner that it is. The film dishes up the same claptrap.The much-maligned ELAS was the only effective resistance organisation in Greece. It was loved and supported by the majority of Greeks, due to its commitment to the fight against fascism, its strict discipline and its respect for the rights and needs of the Greek people. Its founder Ares Velouchiotis became a legend in his own time, a byword for military genius, toughness and fairness, with numerous songs composed about him even before his death. After the British handed Greece over to the collaborators, the criminal classes and the pusillanimous, civil war was inevitable. Eventually Greek children were moved across the border to escape the napalm that was being dropped on them by America, but with parental approval. As Gage concedes, Eleni was executed by ELAS for treachery, and her name is still hated in her village today.

Folks, please ignore the silly left-wingers who have decided to post their hateful remarks about this great film.Speaking as a Greek-American, who's father was a partisan in WWII, the story as shown in the film was exactly as it happened. Yes, there was a terrible civil war following WWII but it was an attempt by the Soviet Union to extend its' power into the southern Balkans. The Soviets backed communists in Greece and the Allies backed non-communists. After a long and bloody conflict, that also resulted in thousands of Greek children being stolen from their parents and shipped to Eastern Bloc countries, the war ended with the non-communists as victors.Now, be sure that like in every bloody civil war, there were atrocities committed on both sides. But fighting against the communists was the right course of action since they did not favor free elections, would have instituted a tyrannical govt., and would have dragged Greece into the Eastern Bloc for 50 years.As for the kidnapping of the children, the blow to Greece's manpower was tragic. It would be the equivalent if millions of children were taken from American parents. Truly a nightmare. But a nightmare that could have been averted if the filthy communist scumbags had been stopped early on. It was Churchill that wanted to land troops in Greece for just such a reason during WWII but the Soviet dominated alliance nixed such an idea, leaving Greece wide open for chaos and an atmosphere for civil war.Anyway, the film was truly accurate in its' portrayal of the political climate of the time, the brutality of the communists, and the end result of this horrendous period. I highly recommend it as a lesson in what many countries of that, and later periods, encountered with communist insurrections. I also highly recommend it as a powerful testament of a mothers' love to protect her children from the ensuing chaos of war and tragedy.

This film seems to have unjustly attracted a lot of nonsensical comments, mostly from left of center commentators; and it's sadly revealing how the facts cited by other viewers are not even addressed, but simply ignored by the left-ist commentators. Those who accuse the film of being anti-communist propaganda mostly use ad hominem arguments, and insult and invective. But ask yourself: what good is a political view which assumes itself (because it is self-described as "revolutionary") to be above ordinary moral or political criticism? If that were true, then there could never be any way to judge the value of the actions performed in its name. In short, this is a reasonably good film, with a fine performance by Kate Nelligan, and much less good work by other members of the cast. The direction is not inspired, and the flashback structure of the film seeks to maximize the emotional effects without stopping to consider just how powerful those effects are all by themselves, that is, the use of that structure betrays the fear of the film-makers that the story might not have the impact they wanted it to have. The original book is stronger, but it too is flawed by Nicholas Gage's failure to ask himself about how it was that the communists picked on his mother, even though he presents some of the evidence that answers the question. It's clear from the book that some members of his family -- I think his grandfather, but it's been a long time since I read the book -- had serious disputes with other people in the village in the 20s and 30s and perhaps even earlier, and that there may even have been a murder involved; naturally, Gage is not all that clear on the point. The communists, men, most of them, couldn't go after the grandfather, so, brave souls that they were, went after the most vulnerable: the Gage womenfolk. Despicable, but that is often the tenor of village and peasant life. And to me, this was the message of the book, that the politics of revolution were, in many cases, simply another weapon in the never-ending village war between its own members. The problem with the film is that it never really clarifies this central aspect of the drama, and so the power of Nelligan's performance is marooned. It affects, but it's almost in a vacuum, and Malkovich's portrayal of Gage, which I thought quite good, is similarly detached; but the flaw lay in the original book, which ducks important questions because Gage, North American that he is, simply doesn't understand the deeper currents of village life. Worth a look, no matter its flaws. No work of art is ever perfect, and this one gets high marks for trying.

This movie vilified,mostly by Communists, because it exposes the Truth of how they were pensioned for their War Crimes, is also a deeply moving TRUE story about a mothers love and sacrifice, and a Son seeking Justice. It depicts the true collaboration of Communists, in the region, to take over Greece at the close of World War 2, rather than the propaganda that they fought the Nazis. In brutal detail New York Times writer Nicholas Cage exposes the 'good' life granted to these War Criminals, by the then 'Socialist' Government Years later when it came to power. He searches for the murderers, and when he finds them, his decision not to stoop to their level is powerful. Great Performances by John Malkovich as Nicholas Cage, and Kate Nelligan as Eleni.