Le sang et l'or

In the dying days of the Second World War, Heinrich, a Landser in the German army is sentenced to death by a sadistic SS leader. His crime? Desertion, wanting to escape an unwinnable war and find his way home to the daughter he barely knows. The rope is placed around his neck and his tormentors drive off laughing. But just before they leave the unfortunate soldier to his fate, the Sergeant cruelly twists the noose so that his death will be more drawn out and painful. Mistake.

From this starting point, Blood & Gold rapidly turns into a solidly entertaining war flick that emulates the exploitation movies of the seventies. Come And See this is not, it's one hundred minutes of Nazis getting brutally slaughtered with axes, machine guns and pitchforks.

It seems to have turned up at the right time too. The hype machine for the similarly-themed Sisu is in overdrive at the minute, so Blood & Gold is perfect for anyone that wants to see a Nazi bloodbath but can't make it to the cinema. It's not a complicated film, but if you like your Nazi leaders scarred, fanatically unhinged and destined to meet a gruesome end, this'll be right up your street. It's a grimy, unpleasant movie and the kind of thing Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious could have been inspired by. Some of it is remarkably cruel and it doesn't shy away from killing likeable supporting characters, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't entertained. How can you not grin when a Nazi rapist gets scolding hot coffee thrown into his crotch?

"Sisu" this is not. And that's very ok. Here, it's not one man against the Nazi; it's ordinary Germans against the Nazi - an army deserter, a woman, her brother, and some villagers. Oh, and there's gold.

Our protagonist, Private Heinrich, is just an ordinary soldier. Our other protagonist, Elsa, is just an ordinary farmer. And then the Nazis came to their village looking for gold.

The Good: People in this movie get hurt, they make mistakes. The action scenes are not too over the top. Some of the townspeople are bad, some are good. And the Nazis are all bad.

The Bad: There really isn't much that is bad with this movie. It knows what it is. It gives us the story and nothing more. The title tells us everything we need to know. Nearly perfect.

It's a good homage to Tarantino with it's own style, humor and slapstick mixed with splatter. The pace is good and the story swings between a serious WWII drama and turns back to the funnily absurd story. I like this back and forth, and it gives good twists. Of course, all cliches are delivered and you know who is good and bad right away. However, it doesn't hurt the film nor the fun.

I think this is one of the better Netflix movies and it's great to see that Netflix takes such a genre and movie style into account. Hopefully we see more films like this.

The CGI could sometimes be a bit more realistic, but I'm complaining on a high level...

There's a ring of authenticity in this German-made war film. The action and the gore are realistic which make the storytelling so entertaining.

The plot line is predictable yet the viewer is glued to his seat waiting for the next gory scene to unfold.

Acting is superb. Ergo, all the actors particularly the lead characters dished out memorable performances. Because of them there's not a dull moment from the first few frames until the end. Take a bow Robert Maaser, Marie Hacke, Alexander Scheer and Roy McCrerey. Likewise, Director Peter Thorwarth deserves recognition for a gritty, sensible film.

It's observed that the film has a "Tarantino-esque feel. This is true. Which makes one wonder that this kind of film that hews closely to the Tarantino brand of filmmaking is possible outside of Hollywood.

BLOOD & GOLD is a blackily comic action adventure about Nazis invading a small German village in a hunt for Jewish gold. It's unusual to see the Germans handling a subject matter they used to avoid like the plague, and I wasn't sure of the outcome, but rest assured this has the same kind of very European humour as many recent Scandi flicks. The Nazis are presented as dastardly comic book villains and much fun comes from seeing the various ways in which they're destroyed by our heroes. The film occasionally subverts tropes and keeps viewers on their toes, and the Down's Syndrome character is a great addition to the cast. A shame physical deformity is presented as monstrous (as per usual), but aside from that this is a pleasant surprise.