Horst in Translation ([email protected])
Max Schmeling is certainly a candidate for such a description. Then there is also the likes of Beckenbauer, Nowitzki, Schumacher, Becker and maybe a handful more. So many will probably not be too amused to hear that Uwe Boll is the director who made this film. However, I have to say I was very positively surprised by the outcome. The fact that Henry Maske (one of Germany's greatest boxers of all time himself) played Schmeling did not hurt the film at all, even if Maske had no real acting experience. A brave choice and a successful one. Maske was up to 15 years older than Schmeling when he played him in the film, but also this is not a problem at all. Also all the other boxers in the film with ring action are played by professional boxers such as Artur Abraham.As it is been so long since Schmeling's peak, people today know hardly nothing about him. A shame. And this film educates us on an athlete who does not deserve to be forgotten. For example that his name as a fighter was Black Uhlan of the Rhine. The film plays at wartime, but it's really much more about Schmeling's career than about politics, although we, of course, find out about Schmeling's attitude towards the Nazis who glorified him after he bet the Negro Louis and forgot him after he lost to Louis. It's interesting to watch Schmeling's struggles as he still was not fully accepted as a champion due to the way he won his first big fight (an illegal punch by his opponent). Only knockouts or really long fights counted as worthy back in the day. Another big part of the film is about Schmeling's long-lasting relationship with actress Anny Ondra.The most interesting way to watch this film is obviously if you don't know anything about the way Schmeling's big fights ended, especially those against Louis, but it's equally a great watch for those with an interest in the world of boxing. Certainly recommended. I have not seen too much from Boll, but this is certainly a pretty good movie, possibly his best.
paul david
I found this to be a very enjoyable movie indeed and in sharp contrast to the stinging comments made about the movie generally. Yes it is essentially a Boxing movie with a Nazi War theme but there is no blood, minimal violence, no bad language, no offending sex scenes and everything in the film, given the nature of the storyline to do with Nazis, is done in very good taste.True, it is not a great film and I do not think the director ever intended it. He may have intended a personal message with the film and expressed a love of boxing and also of a German Boxing icon.Max Schmeling was a respected fighter both before and after the War. Whether he was a Nazi or not is a concern or issue for the film and there are no scenes I recall in the film which show Schmeling in direct contact with anyone acting as Adolf Hitler. His respect for Joe Louis is humbling.He lived a long life and was successful in business. He has stood the test of life in ways that modern boxing icons such as Bruno, Bugner, Tyson and even Mohammed Ali have not.Max Schmeling had a Jewish manager and married a Czech woman. There is nothing about the film which could possibly give offence to a German or anybody else unless they were looking to be offended.Yes the storyline is simplistic enough, there is no dwelling on Max Schmelings involvement in the war or on the exact nature of how he suffered injury and near death in the war. Enough to vaguely refer to it and not wonder more.Remember the film is for entertainment and is not a documentary. If the latter then some of the films other comments will be more relevant.
abeinc75
If only someone could have stopped him earlier.Max Schmeling was a hero and an icon in every sense of the word. He straddled the ethical and moral line as best any German citizen could have during a time of almost unimaginable social and political chaos. In the midst of a dark cloud surrounding Nazi Germany, Schmeling was the last, best hope for a moderate, admiring view of the eastern European nation.Given his status and continuing popularity among Germans and boxing fans worldwide, one has to wonder how it came to pass that "director" (and this term is used quite loosely) Uwe Bolle (as executive producer) managed to foist his latest fiasco on audiences in the guise of a movie about the life and times of one of the world's premiere athletes. "Mak Schmeling, Fist of the Reich" can best be described as "Max Schmeling: F_sting the Reich." Not since Uncle Adolph himself has one man done so much to offend so many.Low on plot points, completely lacking in style and pace and heavy on pretentiousness, "Max Schmeling" is the logical follow-up to Bolle's "Blubberella" as an homage to out-takes strung together in the guise of a movie. "Star" Henry Maske's debut as the iconic heavyweight champion should mark the fastest decent into disaster since the Hindenberg. He is wooden and talentless in the lead role of Schmelling, and speaks most eloquently when saying absolutely nothing. There is little positive to say about this movie; I won't bore you with the less than stellar specifics.
t_atzmueller
Would this be the first "real" film that Uwe Boll has made? His first work that critics will take serious and that will bestow upon him the glory and acclaim that he, as Boll keeps saying, deserves? Perhaps even his first good movie? Well no, miracles don't come so quick or cheap. Making film is like any other sport: you can only learn to the limit of your potential. Eventually you have to acknowledge that you'll never make it into the big league, that you "don't have it in you" and will spend your boxing days in the amateur league. Pardon my French, but there's just no way to turn manure into gold. But let's not loose too many words on the "German Ed Wood"; enough bile and vitriol has run down that creek already.Max Schmeling is the Mohammed Ali of German boxing, a sporting legend and often fingered as one of the few German celebrities that stayed "decent" in the times of Adolf Hitler and the NS-Regime (he refused to rat out neither against his Jewish manager nor his "non-Aryan" wife and retained a friendship with the colored boxer Joe Louis). He was a heavy weight world champion, used as an icon, was eventually discarded by the propaganda machine, sent to the front as gun fodder when he outgrew his use and remained a popular figure in the German media until his death in 2005, at the respectable age of 99.We may never find out why Uwe Boll saw himself the man to make a movie about this iconic figure – we can only speculate that it was because he once was a semi-professional boxer himself and used to beat his critics to a pulp in boxing matches. Nor will we ever find out why nobody prevented him from doing so; then again, that's Germany for you. The American reader may imagine that the makers of "Epic Movie", undeniably the un-funniest spoof-film in history, having a go at a Cassius Clay / Mohammed Ali biopic and than imagine the public outrage among movie-fans and boxing-aficionados. Unfortunately there was no such outrage among the complaisant German citizens and nobody stopped Boll from producing this film.It's really not so different from any other Uwe Boll movie: it's shoddily produced, sweats incompetence from every pore – yes, it's like gleefully watching a duo of drunks performing the Wilhelm Tell routine. Where other directors may try out new angles or approaches, Boll shoots straight as an arrow, telling the story from A to Z; like a 3rd Grader writing an essay on "how I spent my summer".Let's talk about the acting. Well, there is preciously little. Protagonist Henry Maske (himself a former champion turned socialite) is neither a trained actor nor does he have much natural talent. Seeing a wounded Schmeling / Maske lying in a sickbay, asking for a glass of water in his broad Saxony accent (his first line) is enough to animate the audience to some mischievous giggle. A block of wood has more charisma and skill and so we have to watch Maske stumble from scene to scene, always on the lookout for the camera, as if asking for aid from the director which never came. To his credit, Boll was clever enough never to let his star recite more than three or four sentences in one go. Just imagine a young Arnold Schwarzenegger – no, not the Shakespearean presentation of "Conan the Barbarian" or "Terminator" but rather "Hercules in New York and the "Streets of San Francisco", episode "Dead Lift".To give credit where credit is due: Heino Ferch, best known for playing Albert Speer in 2002s "Downfall – Der Untergang", gives a solid performance, playing Schmelings trainer Max Machon. The rest of the cast: the people playing the fighters, Joe Louis and Richard Vogt, are all real-life boxers who have as much skill and talent as Maske – I'm talking acting, not boxing. The other actors have been assembled from German television and generally, if they were working in Hollywood, would qualify for non-speaking roles only (or perhaps a Quentin Tarantino film).As an ex-boxer and working with ex-boxing champions, one could have hoped that at least the fight-scenes would catch a glimpse of magic. They are invariably ruined by the director's general inability. Take a look at the boxing matches in films like "Rocky" or "Raging Bull" – they are everything that the fights in "Schmeling" aren't. To give due credit, the fights are choreographed decently but the energy and drama isn't half of what Boll must have 'envisioned'.Boll has one trait that is considered very typical German: no matter what he does, he does it with the utter seriousness. Every scene, every edit, every nuance is a desperate cry for being taken serious as a film-maker. The cries generally remain unanswered.For anybody interested in the story of Max Schmeling and Joe Louis, I recommend the 2002 film "Joe and Max", which is – despite featuring Till Schweiger (the acting equivalent to director Boll) – the infinitely better film.I'll give it three stars out of ten: one for Heino Ferch, one for the memory of Max Schmeling and one out of pity.
