Lack of good storyline.

A lot of fun.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

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

I've had the print for a while it's strange that the beginning title cards didn't mention the name of the stars. It also didn't mention the that it was shot in Agfa. This print isn't bad but it isn't a perfect restoration, Like Women of my dream", and Women make better diplomats. It looks like the way the Marika Rokk film looked before it was restored. Some of the color become unstable and in some scenes the contrast becomes a bit dark. Well it's obvious that may be due to limited budget ,on restoration, plus the fact that Germany first color film feature was enhanced , Kolberg wasn't history international films had probably decided since the color was still intact to leave the scratches on and not to enhance it. So it's a good print but not excellent.Even though this picture is not banned in the German free market escapist type German classics are more popular up there rather than classic propaganda films. Here in the USA the ones with no propaganda in it arn't popular except for the one's that are sold in specialty video vendor's.Oh yes

There are some mistakes in the other reviews, which I would like to correct. "Kolberg" is by no means the last film of the Third Reich. The film production kept on going until April 23 in Berlin-Babelsberg, and as long as the early days of May in Prag, the last major colour film shot being "Shiva und die Galgenblume". Until that time there were about 90 films being either completed or shot in the Prag studios. If you want to find out the really "last" film, perhaps you should check out Käutner's absolutely beautiful "Under the Bridges", which didn't pass censorship in March 1945. But I'm not sure even that was the last completed film. Amazon.de sells about 6 different films on DVD which are marked as completed in 1945 (Frech und Verliebt, Monte Miracolo, Peter Voss - Millionendieb, Fledermaus etc.) Plus there are several, which were completed in 1945, but released only after the war.Then, Kolberg hadn't fallen when this film premiered in Berlin and La Rochelle (which, perhaps inspired by the film, capitulated only two days after Germany had fallen). Kolberg was finally abandoned on March, 18.There is a beautiful restored print sold by the International Historic Films. It has beautiful colours and a good soundtrack, plus some extras. This film can be watched - and indeed enjoyed - as a work of art, unless you absolutely want to read propaganda into it. Sure, it was made as an ultimate propaganda vehicle, but as a viewer I am permitted to distance myself from the politics and see this film as a cinematic near masterpiece. We know, that it was radically edited in January 1945, since Dr Goebbels found it to be too bloody, "nearly pacifistic". Every trace of human suffering (aside from the lame love intrigue) was removed, and that's probably what makes this film uneven and jumpy at times. What the director's cut could have looked like, we can only guess. Politics and propaganda are as important today as they were back then. It's important to remember the atrocities of war and the crimes of Nazist regime. But a film starts living its own life since the moment it's completed, and we are stupid if we fail to recognize its merits merely because we know, that we are supposed to be blind to them.

Kolberg is one of those more timeless tales, of a small town besieged by a vast, greedy enemy. It is a story of the small people holding to their honour and duty, and ultimately triumphing over the mighty. The movie is set in the Napoleonic Wars, but the message is for the people of Germany just as they are being invaded by the Red Army and the American and British armies.Goebbels film studios managed to film and distribute this movie just as the final battles of World War II were being fought. Its message of defiant defense in the face of hopeless odds was meant to rally the severely demoralised Germans as their homes were being threatened by the enemy. The songs and vivid colours were meant to entertain and raise morale as life became darker and darker. Technically, its a masterpiece, and makes use of all kinds of modern shots, angles, and special effects. Its colours were terrible, though, but I trust it was the copy I saw. Of course, it might have been a result of the war constraints.Seen in this context, this film is even more interesting than the entertaining story it presents.Jurched

Apparently, this propaganda film (funded by none other than Goebbels, with the aim of strengthening the idea of a "Volksfront") had the largest budget and took the longest to complete of any German wartime film. The producers mention that the events portrayed are rooted in historical events. Sorry. "Kolberg" is loosely based on the exploits of Ferdinand von Schill's Freikorps in the Hanseatic City of Stralsund. In the film, the citizenry, their patriotic passions aroused by the dashing Schill, successfully vanquishes the French troops. In reality (1809), the French routed Schill's Freikorps, decapitated him posthumously, and sent his severed head in a bottle to King Jerome of Westphalia (Napoleon's brother-in-law). Hmmm. I have to say that I prefer my Nazi propaganda straight, without the anachronistic melodrama. In short, this film can only be stomached by academics and true psychos.