Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

so disappointing. I'm a fan of war and spy movies and i was so anxious to see this one. I bought it and after 30 minutes of watching i shook my head and said....what a disaster. The acting is bad and all cast seem to throw out their lines to get get home as quick as possible. James Stewart is bland and margaret sullivan acts like a puppet on a string. the story line could have been interesting but was going all directions we see Granville for 5 minutes.......M organ doesn't come back...YET we see endless close up of fake skiing...and that seems to last for an eternity. Gave it a 2...for Frank Morgan....and beautiful mountains. WHAT a simply poor waste of time.

This is a surprisingly modern and almost shockingly valid film still today after 75 years, since all the arguments are as important today as in 1940 and perhaps even more so than ever. It's about the transience from a democracy to an autocracy, how it changes the very core of society and plunges people into an entirely different mentality turning many of them into aliens and forcing them into exile, if they want to escape the brainwash. It's an upsetting story extremely efficiently told with marvellous photography, especially in the final scenes way up in the Alps, and it's a joy to see James Stewart so young and fresh and completely himself in total honesty. Margaret Sullavan has done better in other films, especially "Three Comrades" two years earlier, another German story on a novel by Remarque, but no one is falling short of perfect. Frank Borzage's direction celebrates perhaps its greatest triumphs in this vitally important film so much ahead of its time, since it clearly sees through all what Germany actually was about long before America entered the war. This is actually a timelessly important film unmasking the very essence of autocracy as a very efficient warning against it for all times - it could be about any autocracy. Perhaps it's a little dramatized and exaggerated, it all happens in 1933 while it's still winter, while it really depicts the whole development in Germany up till 1939, but that's a minor detail, and the film would have been less efficient without the exaggerations - the message is the important thing, and it remains a vitally important one for all ages.

This very political look at Pre-World War 2 Europe is a solid multi-faceted drama about a family being torn apart by the Nazis. While the film does not mention Germany by name, it has plenty of swastika's and does feature a ski escape sequence to Austria. Jimmy Stewart leads a fine cast with a great role by Frank Morgan as the ailing father of the family and Margaret O'Brien. Robert Young plays a Nazi officer who is a big departure from Father Knows Best which came much later. Young is convincing in his role.The most powerful and disturbing line to me is when the son quotes what he is being taught in school. The line goes like "We must all sacrifice our personal lives and beliefs in order to further the cause of our government." While I might not have the quote exactly right, the idea behind it is that we are supposed to follow our government like some bunch of blind and mindless robots. This idea reminds me very much of some issues in our government and society today.The reason this is not the perfect movie is it does suffer from the time the movie was made. The ski escape sequence particularly suffers from the crude technology of the times. It is hard to imagine all those actors out in the cold mountains skiing without being dressed warmly. This stuff is very obviously staged in a studio and crudely done.That does not take away from a well written script, a terrific cast and a timeless drama.

Let's mention the weaknesses first - just to get them out of the way and then concentrate on what makes this great. The settings seemed less than authentic at times and - although everyone in the cast was great - it was somewhat disconcerting and therefore difficult to see Robert Young playing a Nazi and James Stewart as even an anti-Nazi German. Having made those two minor criticisms, though, the significant point here is that this is a marvellous movie.It opens on January 30, 1933 in a small town in southern Germany. Martin Roth - a renowned professor of physiology (played very well by Frank Morgan, who's better known as The Wizard of Oz) - is celebrating his 60th birthday. There's a happy scene at home of family and friends, and a celebration at the university as his students and colleagues honour him. But January 30, 1933 was another birthday as well. In the midst of the celebrations, word arrives - Adolf Hitler has been appointed Chancellor of Germany; the Third Reich has been born. The family and friends divides into pro and anti Nazi factions even at the dinner table, the division being between Martin (Stewart) - who opposes the Nazis - and Fritz (Young) - who supports them. Martin and Fritz are also competing for the affections of Roth's daughter Freye (Margaret Sullivan) which adds to the tension.Eventually Roth is fired from his position for refusing to agree to the Nazi theories of Aryan superiority (I assume Roth was Jewish, although it was only explicitly stated that he was non-Aryan) and is sent to a concentration camp, where he eventually dies. Meanwhile, Freye rejects Fritz because of his involvement with the Party and seeks to escape from Germany with Martin's help. The film does a brilliant job of depicting the descent of Germany into Nazi madness after Hitler's rise to power, as family members and friends turn against each other, and those seen as unsympathetic to the new order are beaten up on the streets. Fear strikes every heart, with the proud exceptions of Dr. Roth, Martin and Freye, and - in a very moving performance - Martin's elderly mother Hilda (played perfectly by Maria Oustenskaya). These four - who refuse to compromise their principles - are the heroes of the movie. Others either succumb to various tactics of intimidation, meekly succumb to pressure or enthusiastically follow the crowd into madness.The movie is a warning that's still relevant today of how easy it is to get swept up in hysteria, and of the dangers involved in allowing that to happen. It's truly superb.