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

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

lord woodburry Contrary to other reviewers I found The Day of The Siege to be an excellent film well grounded in history. The Mouslem Turks in 1683 advanced from Constantinople to Vienna for a second attempt at unlocking the door to Western Europe. The push on Vienna led a century earlier by the intrepid Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent had been repulsed.The Mouslem general The Vizier Mustafa leads a mighty horde of Turks and their allies and invests the City. True to Mouslem principles, Mustafa offers the inhabitants an opportunity to surrender peacefully. Though abandoned by the Emperor, the scratch force making up the garrison agrees to fight on.It is at this juncture that Mustafa makes the critical mistake. An ally suggests a cover force to protect the besieging forces from an attack from the North. Convinced that the terrain is too difficult, Mustafa ignores the recommendation and concentrates his forces on the siege with a great deal of initial success: The Turks break the wall. Fatefully Mustafa hesitates. Historians speculate that he wanted to swallow the city whole so that marauding Jannisaries didn't loot and destroy an important commercial center and base of operations for a further push into Germany badly divided by civil war between Christian factions.Mustafa's delay gives the Polish King Jan III just enough time to drag his canon through hostile terrain to attack the Turks and relieve the outnumbered garrison.I think the film was an excellent portrayal of Mustafa as an honorable warrior who made two strategic blunders, of Jan III who appreciated the first rule of strategy: attack where the enemy never expects to find you and of the Holy Roman Emperor who prefigured The Bush's flight on a different 9-11 when he abandoned his wife, his capital and his country to run away.

waldenbergerm As a student of history, I absolutely love historical films and The Day of Siege is one to love. The movie was uplifting and one for our times as we see history trying to repeat itself once again with militant Islamic terrorists in the form of ISIS and other groups such as the Taliban trying to gain as much territory as they can in the name of their version of Islam in order to create a world wide caliphate, one need only replace the various factions with the Ottoman Empire and you have the same story from antiquity again posing a threat not only to Europe but the whole world. While some may disagree with that assessment, the truth is there if you are but willing to open your eyes and see that this dark desire is again sweeping across town after town in the Middle East as these barbaric hordes threaten people with conversion or death. The problem is that many of us, too many of us, have forgotten our history and how had it not been for Jan Sobieski and the forces of the Polish Crown made up of Poles, Lithuanians and others and the forces of the Holy Roman Empire from Germany, Vienna may have fallen. This is a movie for our times. With a President in the United States who seems unable or unwilling to confront the enemy and committing the historical blunder of not seeing it as a serious threat, ISIS is claiming city after city and costing more lives to retake those cities in a strategy of blood letting and slowly depleting those forces in the region who oppose them while their losses are replaced by new converts and conscripts every day. We need a Jan Sobieski today who sees the threat as it really is and is not afraid to take the fight to the enemy in order to stop their advances and end their ambitions and goals. If you are a student of history, you will understand what I am speaking of and how this movie brings to the screen a bit of history that has been forgotten in our schools and isn't remembered much except in those places in Europe where its effects, the sacrifices of those who fought in the battle and its effect on the ambitions of Ottoman Empire to stop incursions further into Europe are still talked of today. The relief force that came to the aid of Vienna overcame what were for the time impossible obstacles including marching men, cavalry and artillery up to the top of the Kahlenberg where they had the high ground and a command of the heights above the battlefield. The story of their efforts in defense of all Christendom should inspire us today to remember who it is we fight and those who stood before to stop similar ambitions and save Europe. While some may say the movie did not portray enough of what happened, what it did portray was enough. One can overlook certain aspects of film making when the story is there and the emotions are stirred. I found that to be the case for myself in watching this movie. There is an implied message in this movie that most who are not paying attention to the dangerous world in which we live today might miss. That message is that freedom is precious and if not defended and preserved, can easily be lost to those who seek to take it from you. Such was the design of the Ottoman Empire in its invasion to take Vienna. But though the enemy host seemed daunting and the task impossible, individuals arose who inspired people to do more than they themselves thought they were capable of and overcame tremendous obstacles to achieve victory and preserve not only the Holy Church in Rome but also life and liberty and freedom for those throughout Europe.

pbsoko-56481 Good storyline and a historical representation of events that shaped Europe. Most of the actors are excellent in their acting. However, the CGI effects are not on par with a multi-million dollar flick. You need to remember, this was a very low budget movie that actually engages you with a proper story. This movie, for acting and storyline alone, deserves at minimum a 6 rating. It should be seen to allow all to understand the mindset of what the middle east has in store for the rest of the current world. Centuries ago Poland stood up, will it take invasion to open the eyes to the rest of the world? "Misunderstanding of the present grows fatally from the ignorance of the past." Marc Bloch

Onur Aksaray I had seen the trailer for the 2012 Turkish movie 1453 Fetih(Conquest) already,and after seeing it I did not even find it worthy of seeing.But after having heard of the title of this one,I was curious to see it.What I just started to see from the very beginning of the movie though,were the same things I did on that trailer of the Turkish production,amateurish computerized animations thrown in here and there,so apparently visible to the eye that they start being annoying after a while.I was patient however,to get into the developing stages of the plot where the real action was going to happen.All my waits in vain. There are already comments here that mentioned it,so I don't want to repeat the same points over and over but I completely agree with the poor delivery of acting here.Even Murray Abraham,who will always stay in my memory with his unforgettable moments casting for Cuban gangster Omar Suarez in Scarface could not save himself in this misery.(Well,given the horrible plot,there wasn't much he could do) First of all,I won't agree with those who say that not all the things have to be historically accurate as they should have been,if you claim a title depicting an historic event(and as important as this one) I am sorry but there can't be any excuses.Yes there might be of course deviations from the accuracy of the real events at some point,but the plot here so much falls apart that there is not much left throughout the whole picture that actually gives a single idea to spectators what the movie is all about. The characters though are somewhat real except ermm...Abul ? A completely fictitious character,a close friend of Marco D'Aviano and a lover of a young deaf woman,and along with Marco and Kara Mustafa Pasha of Merzifon(yeah this is a Pasha that we are talking about,the Ottoman Grand Vizier) their lives all at some point come across with another ridiculous series of coincidences just made up in this movie.The 11 September message of course is subliminally given to the spectator trying to set the connection with the events of 2001,like it has anything to do with it,blatantly making fun of his/her lack of knowledge on the historical events because the Siege started on 14th July and ended on 12th September. The fictitious Abul's one absurd line while speaking with her lover:''We are Muslims,we are not Westerners,we can't listen to our heart and faith at the same time'' and those lines at the imaginary meeting between Marco and Kara Mustafa,were so out of context and nauseous that a spectator here would completely lose the point of what's going on.I just don't understand that even in 2010s,so pointless and ridiculous vilifying images of another faith,another religious group can be so impudently delivered in cinema.On the final scene where Kara Mustafa is strangled to death for his failure in Belgrade and the executors having his son to watch his execution(the latter I think also never happened) I called it quits but it was already the end of the movie.Is that the expression a kid of his age shows when watching his own father killed for God's sake ? No emotion,no grieving or suffering,shaking,nothing ! Are you kidding me ?If you are interested in the Ottoman conflicts in East and Central Europe of those times,I advise you to find the 1989 Serbian movie Battle of Kosovo and Romanian productions Vlad The Impaler(1979) and Michael The Brave(1971) with English subtitles if you can.Those too at times deviate from the historical script,but they are way way better in characterizing the incidents and keep you in the main story.At least they do not demean their titles unlike this movie.