I had to watch this movie (it's really a play) in my 12th grade German class. Our teacher praised the actors and told us it was one of the best movies ever made. Well, I didn't really feel the same way. And here is why:
1. It is ridiculously long! 814 minutes. That's almost 14 hours. You gotta at least be a monk to be determined enough to sit through that. 2. The acting is horrible! I know that a lot of people praise the performance of Bruno Ganz, but really, he's just halfheartedly reciting poems that he learned by heart. And since he has to do it for 13 straight hours, he gets more and more tired and his voice modulation becomes the same for every verse he recites. But I guess I have to give him credit for one thing: out of all the bad actors who worked on this, he's the best. 3. It's exactly like the book. Instead of watching it, you could just as well read the whole thing and have a real literary experience. That's probably the most important reason why this movie is so unnecessary. After this, I really can't think of any reason whatsoever to watch this. 4. The stage looks boring and uninspired at all times. So they blew the only thing that could have made it worth watching. Trust me, you are better of reading the book and imagining everything rather than having this movie put dull places in your head.
Having said all that, I am a real fan of the book and even though it was a class assignment, I had fun reading it and I enjoyed most of it! The language is wonderful and so many proverbs and sayings used today in the German language originated with this great piece of literature. So read it! 14 hours should be plenty of time...
