Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I must admit I was looking forward to see this dramatization of the sinking of MS Gustloff, and the film is well done in most aspects, but what's worse is that there are too much drama, just like with Titanic. This is a problem since this of course this is a true story, which is told up quite closely. However, this just seems overloaded, to that extent that vi stop believing. like with Titanic.It's simply too much. The drama is out of control completely overblown and so is the happy ending. There is really no happy ending when 9000 people die in the worst ship catastrophe in the world, but still there are some amazing survival stories here, which are just amazing in them selves.A good tip: You'll enjoy this 3 hour long film more if you watch the documentary which is following the DVD before you see the actual film. Then you'll understand that much if this REALLY is true, and only some minor changes in the connection with the people are made as a dramatization. If you do that, you will have a much bigger appreciation for the film, which otherwise really is almost too unbelievable.But production value is good, and so is the film craftsmanship. The manuscript and the many plots and persons in this is what's killing of what could have been a good movie. It ends up bing mediocre.A 5 out of 10 only when you see th film. A 7 out of 10 if you watch the documentary on the DVD before the actual film!

Just as sinking of 'Wilhelm Gustloff' out-do the sinking of better known 'Titanic' in the sheer size of catastrophe, the TV-made "Gustloff" beats Cameron's movie in almost every field. The film starts with life on German east and presents a wide array of characters each facing a dark perspectives flowing from inevitable Reich defeat. The chaos and fear that dominated the eastern Prussian provinces in 1945 is very faithful with historical truth. The film then goes on to showing Gustloff's voyage and chain of events that led German heroes to final fall. Each of characters is memorable: from comic Nazi official who cares only for the evacuation of fuhrer's portrait from sinking ship to stern and cold-blooded commander Harald responsible for navy intel. The romance story is interwoven carefully, without interfering with the main intrigue, and not so naive and pretentious as in 'Titanic', just as mysterious spy plot.

Diane and I watched this fascinating insight into a little known WWII tragedy several nights ago and the horror of what we watched unfold will long remain with us. I had only read references to the sinking of the Gustloff and it being history's worst naval disaster but seeing the unfolding of the events of that disaster was truly harrowing. The inevitability of the outcome was like the unfolding of a terrible Greek tragedy, the end of which was already known.Diane and I both were impressed by the acting of the large cast and the ability of the director to manage this large group of people as effectively as was seen in the film. We were also impressed by the myriad of subplots that peppered the script: the subplot of the captains, some military and others not; the Russian spy; the girlfriend of the captain; the young boy trying to avoid discovery and inevitable induction into the army; the U-boat group forced to leave their school and overall, like some dark cloud, Hitler's continuing refusal to admit eventual defeat. All of this constitutes an extremely heady broth and one that will certainly provide an excellent evening's entertainment even though the fatal nature of this broth will probably be known by any person taking the time to view this film.

The Wilhelm Gustloff was the Third Reich's classiest passenger liner when she was pressed into service evacuating German civilians from Poland as the Soviets advanced in the waning days of WWII. Loaded with 10,000 passengers (crammed into every public space available), the Wilhelm Gustloff departed from Gdansk (Danzig) sailing for the German port of Kiel. During the night she was torpedoed by a Russian submarine and sank in 45 minutes, taking 9,000 souls with her (some say closer to 6,000). It remains the worst loss of life from a single sinking in maritime history. There has been controversy with some on the German side alleging a war crime, in that refugee non-combatants were killed in large numbers. The captain of the submarine (Marinesko) lived under this cloud until his death in the 60's. His commanders recommended he not be given the highest honors because his alcoholism and history of being AWOL made him unsuitable to be a hero.