Rächer, Retter und Rapiere

Thi miniseries does not deserve the "B" picture like title: "Avengers, Saviors and Rapiers" Whoever decided to change the title of this series to the current one, did not watch nor understood what this movie is about. This movie actually depicts the historical event of the most bloodiest conflict in Europe: the 30 Years war(1618-1648). Civilians had to suffer the most by the armies of all sides. As the war went on, the civilians were forced to chance loyalties sometimes twice a year, because the front lines where not static. In order to survive this destructive madness, a young farmer decides not to be victim anymore. With the help of a traveling medicine graduate from wuertemberg university and intellectual rebel, the stage for insurrection has been set. What evolves is the German version of a Robin Hood, but with more complexity. The director of this miniseries spent a lot of emphasis on historical detail and background, the buildings, costumes and weaponry are fairly accurate depicted, considering the budged. The story is suspenseful and engaging right from the start. I highly recommend this series for historical movie lovers

A short summary: The 30 years war(1618-1648) is raging through Germany. A famous German writer once stated: It started as a religious war of catholic against protestants, later a war between Sweden, Germany and spain and towards the last act, a war between France and the dynasty of the German Habsburgs. The Catholic french allied under Cardinal Richelieu with the protestant calvinistic swedes. But the people fighting and suffering it, did not really know, what it was all about. In the end, nobody really had any idea, why they where fighting at all. When the war was over, a devastated Germany emerged with broken people and broken biographies. More than half of the German population of 45 million vanished in those 30 years of unrelenting war. In those 30 years, the frontlines crossed Germany several times, each time the loyalties of the population where questioned, in the latter part the soldateska did not even ask anymore, they just pillaged the countryside for forage and fortunes, leaving death and devastation in their path. Now in the Vogtland, there was a peasant that united the farmers and taught them to be victims no more. From now on they tried to protect their livestocks and stopped paying ruining war taxes and closing the doors to army recruiters. The earl(Landgraf) of Reichenfels, ruler of the vogtland, did not like the modern ideas of the peasant uprising, reacted doublefaced to the events. A skillfull survivor adjusting

to the tides of war, often at the cost of his own people. The story is keeping the viewer in suspense, often tragic and sad. This keeps the story close to historical events and makes it realistic. But the story is not without humor, but in a very different style ,than of comparable corny Hollywood productions. A lot of effort was spent to recapture the 17th century in detail. The costumes, buildings and weapons are fairly depicted, considering the TV budged to manage with. In all a history fans feast, and not only history fans are gonna enjoy this film. I rated this movie 8 out of 10 stars. It deserves a DVD release, and not the current shroud of forgotteness, just because it was a "GDR-DEFA" production.