My Honor Was Loyalty (2016) User Reviews

Good action despite low budget, but poor excuse-making for the SS

[wysoft · 5/10 · 3 July 2017]

I enjoyed this movie overall, with some big issues to mention.

As a vehicle for some good re-enactment and action scenes, despite the low budget, it delivered. Good depiction of German small unit tactics at the time, and a surprising amount of authentic gear, vehicles, etc. The battles are for the most part not very large, but representative of small squad to platoon-sized engagements that were common throughout the war.

There were some very noticeable low-budget CGI firing effects for most weapons, but the quality of the sound design made up for it - actually some of the best sound design I've seen in a low budget war flick. Effects for specific types of weapons are very realistic, well- mixed, and sound exactly as they would sound in an open field, small clearing, or a thick wooded forest at the base of a mountain valley

To top it off, the filming does take place in several picturesque locations.

There wasn't much character development for all but a handful of the SS soldiers, and not surprisingly the writers chose to focus on an individual soldier who was not the most gung-ho Nazi to begin with, Herckel.

Despite his obvious dislike for Jews and a belief that they were primarily responsible for Germany's problems, over the course of the war Herckel loses faith in the strength and capability of the German war machine, as his unit faces repeated defeats at the hands of the Soviets. As time goes on, he slowly learns the truth about what the Germans were doing to the Jews, and begins to struggle with the SS' treatment of POWs, and internal battles with his conscience over what he is really fighting for.

Ultimately Herckel finds that the only thing he has left to fight for (as the title implies) is his loyalty to his country and his fellow soldiers.

The narrated diatribes at the beginning and closing of the film were really unnecessary, and as others have mentioned, the narration at the film's closing seems to attempt to whitewash the atrocities of the SS and the Nazi regime, and to compare the Holocaust to allied killings of POWs (which were already primarily in retribution for the SS' no prisoner policy) and the use of atomic weapons against Japan.

Without the closing narration, it could have been a solid low-budget WWII film. With them, it borders on neo-Nazi apologetics, and one has to wonder about the political leanings of the writers and producers at that point.

Don't bother watching the English dubbing, it's terrible.

Watchable

[allanradman · 5/10 · 30 June 2017]

Despite other, accurate reviews on this board, I found the film watchable until the very end when I was to believe that a group of SS soldiers were just there to defend their homeland from being invaded by others. Really? If the average SS was only their to protect their homeland from the hordes, then they should have stayed home from 1933 on-wards. The Great Depression of 1929 was bad for everyone, not just the Germans. The German economy was built from the backs of slave labor and stolen lands and wealth from other neighbors of Europe. They took no pity on the Russian civilian nor his village or city. Nor did they have a micro-gram of mercy on many of their own people. And the SS more or less got away with it because of the cold war that followed. We know that most Germans were peaceful people and were led by the devil at that time. And that the victors do write the history. However, the German soldier, particularly the sadistic SS, took a personal oath to the devil himself. And if one did not recognize that after all the murdering then he should suffer the consequences. At the very end, the gull of the writer to have his female "victim" move to the United States after laying all the war guilt on others made me want to puke. Someone should slap the writer(s).

I give the film a 5/10 because it is somewhat watchable despite the valid criticisms of others. I did not expect Saving Private Ryan and really had no expectations before watching this on Netflix.

Italian Ultra-low Budget WW II, Successful as Hobby/FanFic, Not as Theatrical Film

[davidvandekerk · 4/10 · 29 September 2018]

I have to give the directory credit where credit is due. All information says this is a 12,000 euros (maybe $15,000 USD) movie. Come on, you can't sneeze for that much. It's below the budget of a good Star Trek FanFic movie. Yet, if you don't look too closely it really looks like this is a movie. Amazing.

We have people running around with pretty much correct guns and uniforms doing pretty much correct World War II things. We have sound effects and music and even some CGI airplanes blended in.

What we lack is a coherent plot, decent actors and decent cinematography. But hey, for 12,000 euros you can't get everything in life. We also have a film that was oddly sympathetic to the Waffen SS. Personally I wonder if this is related to the increasing trend towards seeing another foreign religion enemy that is destroying everything in those same countries.

Terrible Movie - Avoid

[james-203-429510 · 1/10 · 8 March 2017]

I am sorry, but this was rubbish. The opening narrative pretty much sums up this discursive, poorly written, sloppy movie. It is, however, reenactor porn. It is the kind of poorly made movie amateurs post on Youtube, akin to fan films. Morally, it is bankrupt: it gives tacit endorsement for the actions of the SS and tries to argue it away as simply the tumult of war. Battle scenes look ridiculous because they plainly could not afford blank rounds... the explosions that did seem real seem to be more like fireworks than actual explosive devices. Netflix is currently playing it... I've got no idea why. It's terrible. Straight out.

Poorly acted, filmed, and conceived propagandist turkey

[t-dooley-69-386916 · 2/10 · 7 March 2016]

First off any comparisons to this and the HBO made 'Band of Brothers' is about as accurate as comparing the work of Debussy to Weird Al Jankovic . It is about Untersharführer Ludwig Herckel (Leone Frisa) who leads the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Whilst doing so he bonds with some of the men in his charge. We see them on various battle fronts.

They 'fight' with some men dressed as Russians and later on some Americans. That is about it – and we have an unbelievable bit about a Jewish woman. The film is shot mostly using the shaky camera bit – we all know this is done in a vain attempt to make the on screen 'action' look better than it is. However, something does have to actually happen on screen for any maintenance of the pretence of action to be even in the foothills of believable. The uniforms are mostly OK, and some of the weapons looked good. The acting is pitiful in places and when people die they have to have watered down tomato ketchup spread across their mouths.

The 'battles' are a bit am dram and clearly done be re enactors but despite putting up the names of different locations on the screen it is a bit obvious that they are fighting in the same field with the same armour etc. Also CGI planes that fly impossibly low, muzzle flashes and smoke that are photo shopped on – the list is quite long.

Then to add insult to injury it gets all preachy about both sides being guilty of crimes at the end but the Nazis are only blamed because we had the temerity to win – to the victor the spoils etc. The film starts out by saying it is non political and then goes out of its way to be apologist propaganda for Hitler fans. I should have known that this was a turkey when the film starts with a quote from an undoubted 'wise philosopher' who I could not quite place in the pantheon of 'the great thinkers'. It was Alessandro Pepe who wrote, directed and edited this lame piece of cinematic garbage. Anyone who tries to justify the Holocaust really should be taken to task – I feel dirty having watched it.

The clumsy red line

[Ladiloque · 2/10 · 21 March 2017]

In recent times while most movies include various "points" to be made, nearly all of them are produced to "entertain" a target audience and make money. Reviews are meant to give potential viewers some hints on what to expect.

Very few films are instead produced with the prime objective of stating a position: being it an artistic or ethical-socio-political POV. Our opinion that - demos and educational content aside - a movie isn't the best medium for such "statements" is generally ignored and, as such, irrelevant: symbolic engagement is still more effective than reasoning and thus a well designed movie is more persuasive than a logic text. Regarding these films - as far as we are concerned - reviews are someway as interesting as watching the film itself because serious reviews virtually become part of a discussion. And some discussions easily heat-up...

Here we have such a film; one - unfortunately - where the author naively uses complex concepts like truth, reality, history, nature (just to name a few) and aims at being a-political while dealing with the most influential event of our world: 2nd world war.

The result? Talking about Malick's "The thin red line" isn't casual: the parallel is obvious, deliberate and merciless. While Malick let soldiers share with few words their relationship with life, love, war, etc... here we have a lot of preachy-poetic voice-overs from the protagonist (a supposedly simple-minded soldier) and even an out-of-context female lecturing us with "godly wisdom". The outcome is that while in Malick's film I could feel moved by the soldiers' perspectives and engaged by their aesthetic-philosophic value, here I feel like someone is trying to sell me a not-so-subtle brainwashing into Pepe's simplistic world-view.

Let's not even dig about the technical proficiency: sub par is the first word coming to our mind.

In the end the bravery required to commit into a project like this (which would like to go way further than any WW2 tale of good VS evil) should be paired with a deeper understanding of what you're doing. Mr Pepe, if you want to change people's perspective or at least enlarge it, being a preachy commercial marketer doesn't work anymore. Get a serious culture (Malick studied his whole life, you have likely just taken a semester of contemporary history) and write a serious book. Otherwise, humbly, forget about "Art" and Malick and just seek to entertain.

decent

[Kirpianuscus · 9 June 2020]

You feel, scene by scene, than it deserves be better. Better dialogue, better story, better acting. But it is a decent film of war. Low budget and good intentions are enough for a reasonable portrait of life in war time, duty and choices. So, a good try And a different perspective, maybe, against your expectations.

a non gifted apprentice

[garciamd-17986 · 1/10 · 22 May 2017]

This director "Pepe" made just this movie, and that's enough to ask him to stop making films. the is no story at all, actors perform very bad, war scenes are cheesy, infantile, and the starting speech is just ridiculous (who wrote? Coelho?) rigid language, bored dialogues. in the pre WWII era Rifensthal made "triumph of the will" this a lean imitation, the work of a mediocre apprentice.

Just incomprehensibly bad, in every respect

[rancor1 · 1/10 · 12 May 2017]

The script is awful, a hodge podge of every war movie you've seen, interminable, cribbing the awful, self indulgent cap from thin red line, badly.

Worse the voice actors dubbing it are reading it like they have never read the text before and honestly, aren't very proficient readers. I kept trying to figure out who this Yevon was they were talking about, when it dawns on me, the actors don't know the word Ivan. Sigh. Awful.

Pepe is peepee. Zero stars, avoid.

After reading these reviews..

[dwightet · 7/10 · 2 January 2020]

I was not expecting much. However, I was surprised that it was a pretty good film, considering the paucity of its budget. Generally the acting was good, particularity the lead, Leone Frisa. The low budget aspects (Russian becomes Normandy as the same location is used for both) are distracting but the story is compelling. It is a bit slow but stick with it and you may be surprised.

Watched the first 10 minutes and just couldn't take any more...

[finn-64486 · 1/10 · 29 April 2017]

Watched the first 10 minutes and just couldn't take any more, and had to stop. The movie started out with the worst "fight scene" that I have ever experienced. Acting is horrible and so are the sound tracks (tried them in both German and English). My guess is that this is the project of a first year student in a film school - at least this would explain it...

A soldiers story. So treat it as such

[ian-corner · 10/10 · 10 March 2018]

Obvious this film does not have the budget of the Hollywood blockbusters but then that is not what you should watch this film for. It is amaturish but l feel that added somehow to the story. If you cannot take amature movies do not watch it,

It is about a soldier in the Waffen SS and his story but with a twist at the end. If you can become the soldier and feel the story, then the movie is a good watch. It does leave you thinking. Hard to say more without a spoiler.

Lastly, the voice overs could have been a lot better also but just grin and use your imagination. If you have no imagination and need everything fed to you, then watch Saving Private Ryan or something similar...

Not for everybody, but those with a broad knowledge of WW2 will appreciate it.

[wolfghostninja · 7/10 · 24 March 2020]

This is a low budget film, but the script is powerful and film is important in its own right.

As a fluent German speaker, I found it curious that the audio was dubbed, the criticisms of other reviewers are valid, the film is not a technical masterpiece, and some of the CGI is shabby, but the film is very honest and that is its strength.

If you are a WW2 buff, this film will leave an impression on you. It does not glamourize violence, of fetishize death as so many other war films do. There os no bombastic score, nor scenes of violent catharsis, instead it is an honest self assesment of a soldiers self-worth in the grand scheme of a World War, and the consequences of defeat.

This film is about defeat, patriotism, betrayal, and the loss of hope. I found it unique and intellectually satisfying.

First year film student project

[cheesycheesebourne-230-794005 · 2/10 · 20 April 2017]

It seems like a first year film student had access to a re-enactment club and combined this with a juvenile script and inexperienced, (perhaps no experience), acting. To start with the story attempting to convey that 'the winners write history' and the SS were not a bad bunch of chaps is moronic bordering on dangerous; at a minimum naive. Perhaps through the war there were examples of individual soldiers, perhaps conscripts, that questioned their actions, however the SS at it's fundamentals was an ideologically aligned organization that believed their race was superior to other sub-human races, and treated them accordingly. There is no argument about this in Nazi ideology, from either side German or otherwise. Hitler outlined this himself in his own book Mein Kampf, and the SS were the engine behind Hitler's vision. Attempting to whitewash this at the level this film does is irresponsible. Anyway, after seeing the level of acting it is not too surprising that the script, acting, and film-making reach about the same level of maturity and depth.

The tale of good SS- mann

[przemster · 18 March 2017]

You could easily call that. If I take my knowledge about history from that movie I would think the only ones who commit war crimes was Russians and mostly - Americans. Movie completely skipped fact that 1st SS division has certain history of killing unarmed captured soldiers - at one time 4000 Russian prisoners was killed by them on place, on other occasion 80 British prisoners ( of course not in the movie). Every SS unit carried out multiple executions on civilians, when You watch this German propaganda view how SS mans from 1st Adolf Hitler division was brave and kind , just remember 6 millions of people was killed in just six year in Poland , mostly by SS. Not counting Russian casulties. Its worth watching only when You remember what SS did , and that this is totally one sided try of picturing all sides as equal. While 17 millions of Germans supported Hitler's NSDAP, 9 millions had NSDAP membership.And that their war crimes and mass murders in Death Camps - where also brave SS- mans served - was second to nothing in history of that planet.

This Movie is Dangerous Propaganda

[platypus-59662 · 1/10 · 18 March 2017]

Yes- all sides commit terrible crimes during war. This is no reason to glorify or try to justify the actions of the SS during World War II. This movie glorifies the SS and justifies their actions with the "everybody did it" mentality. All sides committed atrocities but the SS involvement and perpetration of the holocaust cannot be justified. The actions of the SS were far from a-political as this movie would have you believe. I agree that a movie portraying the (actual) viewpoint of an SS soldier during World War II would be interesting however this movie uses a fictitious SS soldier to further an agenda that absolves SS units of their heinous crimes. This viewer will not forgive or forget. This movie ignores historical reality and I feel dirty for having watched this filth.

Apologist crap!

[bushforprez · 1/10 · 17 April 2017]

God awful. Loyalty to a National cause that believes in the gassing of innocent civilians, the bashing baby skulls against a wall, rape and murder of another countries females, is the O P P O S I T E of honorable.

The both sides did it crap makes one feel dirty just listening to it. There is good and bad in the world. Good is crossing an ocean to fight against a enemy and country that was gassing to death Jews, Gypsies, POW's on an industrial scale. Good is fighting to liberate your own country from the same murderous atrocities being committed by an enemy army. Evil is the soldier who defends those murderous atrocities, either directly, or by allowing the regime to survive.

One of the last lines was a trite comment about how there was no difference between Hiroshima, and what the Nazi's did. Einstien asked FDR to develop the "bomb" because he knew what the Nazi's would do. We can all thank God that the Nazi's never developed the Atomic bomb. And it's too bad that it was not developed in time to drop on Berlin and wipe out Hitler and his pals. Think of how many millions of people would have been saved from the Holocaust if we had had the chance to nuke those evil MFers.

Want to see this movie? Grab a mobile phone and you can make your own!

[hughesjack-17373 · 1/10 · 13 April 2017]

Several mistakes such as the Hetzer 38t which wasn't in service till 44. Looks like it was filimed with a mobile while the person filming on their phone was being pelted with stones by the "Evan" not "Ivan" soldiers. In other news, it has been discovered recently that American re-enacters accidentally used live ammunition. Several people were executed by mistake. Oh well?

dangerous revisionist claptrap

[craigalexander-31250 · 1/10 · 3 April 2017]

To make a waffen SS soldier conflicted about treatment of Jews is pure fantasy. Volunteers to Hitlers special division were dedicated fanatics who believed in Hitler to the extreme. Adolf spewed hate for over a decade and mobilized a fan base of willing participants in mass murder. That's it. Pure and simple. Maybe some regular wehrmacht soldiers had some misgivings and personal doubts. Not these guys. These were evil murderous jackboot thugs.

This hate crime author of this shoddy film has no grasp on historical reality which is demonstrated by putting Normandy battle in 1943. But the real danger is diminishing the shocking atrocity that was the massive German killing machine. The piles of corpses stacked at the death camps can not be refuted. But let's rewrite history with an SS soldier with a heart. The SS were the worst of the worst. The most extreme of the extremists, and committed war crimes more than any part of the German war machine. They were also highly effective because they were fanatics. That's not a good thing. Showing Americans murder prisoners is just inaccurate. A prisoner is worth something. They can be interrogated, and have value. After the Malmady massacre at Battle of Bulge SS soldiers may have been given no quarter, but that would have been a reaction to just another of the latest in a long line of crimes perpetrated by the diabolical SS. The final act of SS survivors was to shed their uniforms and blend in. They knew they were guilty. Too bad the filmmaker does not in this sickening revisionist apology.

Bad in every way

[sadak7599 · 2/10 · 30 June 2017]

This movie is poor. Poor acting, awful special effects, wrong in every way. Maybe contains the worst combat scenes of modern cinema. Looks like the project of an amateur and his friends for YouTube (and not the best one) The movie is so bad that doesn't worth to add anymore. Just avoid it.

Very good for such a small budget !

[emailvinz · 7/10 · 13 March 2021]

Considering this movie was made with only 15 000 Euros, the work is as good as it is possible to do with such a small budget.

This is the story of a simple waffen ss soldier, fighting in a war that he doesn't really understand the stake. Centered on the humanity of the protagonists, I'm glad I've seen this movie, it was worthwhile.

Garbage

[jeremylinville · 1/10 · 27 April 2017]

Nazi apologist trash. Pretty rich to say they were fighting for their country while standing in France or Stalingrad. There is no portrayal of the Nazi death camps, or any real hint of the ethnic cleansing going on in Eastern Europe. I'm glad this movie is out there to remind me that there are still people who think like this and need to be fought against.

The winners write the hitory

[bern456 · 10/10 · 26 October 2019]

The film tell about a handfull of Waffen SS combat group, not about the organization. In the same way that we can't compare the the US Army men with the acts of William Calley or Napalm/defoliant in the Viet Nam war.or the British army men with the starving civilians in the concentration camps in the Boer Wars

Regular...

[RosanaBotafogo · 7/10 · 13 February 2021]

The criticism was very heavy, butchered and discredited, more because of the technical quality, but considering the low budget, and the historical involvement, even if fiction based on a fateful and sad event, I liked the whole context, I cling less to production and more to the emotional trigger that inflicts us, and I managed to pity those boys, young people full of life and fear, victims of war and Hittler's executioners, at the same time, contradictorily...

Unmitigated rot.

[wubbs-52324 · 2/10 · 28 July 2017]

What a joke of a movie. Poor production, the most apologist German thing I've ever seen. I am a student of WWII. The atrocities committed by the Germans in Russia are glossed over in the guise of one man losing his faith in ultimate victory. Its all patriotic nonsense when the principles knew they were losing, and they knew why. Highlights are American atrocities when their group is transferred to the west. A few of those certainly happened, but comical compared to German activity in the east. There's just nothing good to say about this film.