# NeutrogenaPartner The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is upon us and my skin is definitely showing the stress of it all! Inspired by true events, Land Of Mine exposes the untold story about the young men who faced overwhelming odds in a post-war world. Denmark's so-called biggest war crime forms the historical backdrop of this nerve-jangling bomb-disposal drama. Sign up here. Its task is simplified somewhat by the fact that the Nazi Reich has been reduced to smoldering rubble by the time the story begins, and the Germans we see are scared, skinny kids drafted into the army near the war’s end—most look in the 15-to-17-year-old range. Granted, there are large and very obvious reasons why Nazis have been portrayed as the most brutal of human monsters in the popular mythology of the movies. With its muted colors and naturalistic lighting the film aptly captures the beauty of seaside locales that frame the human struggle at the story’s heart. Only a few hands go up. A beautiful study on the contradictory nature of resentment and the importance of forgiveness. Land of Mine uses an oft-forgotten chapter from the aftermath of World War II to tell a hard-hitting story whose period setting belies its timeless observations about bloodshed and forgiveness. While the dazed man lies on the ground, Rasmussen continues pounding him with his fists, till there’s blood all over his face, the ground and the flag. Seriously? In his review A.O. 31 people found this helpful. |, August 4, 2017 | Rating: 5/5 He even laughs when one of the soldiers, in a very movie star quality performance by Louis Hofmann, fakes him out with a bomb noise, which seems wildly inappropriate, but #gallowshumor, right? Land of Mine. All rights reserved. An M14 mine, showing a cutaway view. Rated R In others, the sergeant acts very tenderly towards his charges. Driving by a column of bedraggled German soldiers, Rasmussen spots one carrying a crumpled Danish flag. “Land of Mine,” the excellent Danish entry for the foreign language Oscar, is set in the immediate aftermath of World War II, when the wounds of that war are still very much open. They won't be able to see your review if you only submit your rating. In the days following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, a group of young German prisoners of war were handed over to the Danish authorities and subsequently sent out to the West Coast, where they were ordered to remove the more than two million mines that the Germans had placed in the sand along the coast. We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future. According to Zandvliet, it has never been dealt with adequately in Danish histories or public discussions of the period. Detailed to supervise a group of teenage German POWs in clearing some of the two million landmines left on the west coast … This film shows the dangers of landmines and how costly war can be. Summaries. | Fresh (97) LAND OF MINE is an amazingly thought-provoking look at other consequences of war. But it was always a simplification that invited correction. Those who don't cringe a little at its well-meaning contrivances should find it sad and moving as well. Land Of Mine Review. Don't have an account? LAND OF MINE, however, hedges its bets by wanting us to forget about such vengeful feelings and hope that acts of kindness lay the groundwork for a better future. Please reference “Error Code 2121” when contacting customer service. Concise, poignant, and captivating, Land of Mine offers a novel yet intuitive glimpse of a war we see quite often on film. |, May 4, 2020 Godfrey Cheshire is a film critic, journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. The percentage of users who rated this 3.5 stars or higher. |. I understand how under Hitler's dictatorship, the citizens had to follow orders, but his ascendancy came from a groundswell of public sentiment. Forgot your password? The film is gripping and tense enough to compensate for the main character's problems in characterization - especially his abrupt change in behavior towards the German boys, which comes off as forced and heavy-handed -, and it also benefits from a strong ending. And, if the method of clearing the mines was the forced labour of the enemy, in the form of half-starved, sick, scared and degraded teenagers, what guarantee is there even now that the beaches and the other minefields of Europe are safe? These shifts of attitude on Rasmussen’s part can feel a little too abrupt and formulaic in enforcing the dramatic pivots of a standard three-act structure. . This good film could have achieved greatness had it given us that extra layer of painting one or two of its prisoners as Nazi sympathizers. Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2017. After invading Denmark, the Germans planted hundreds of thousands of mines along the Danish coast in anticipation of an Allied invasion that never took place. It plays around moral boundaries, injecting sympathies in least expected places and values the price of love in a war torn landscape jeweled with mines. Rather curiously, the film itself doesn’t say what its press notes spell out: under the international treaties of day as well as the 1949 Geneva Convention, this action—which was ordered by the British but carried out by the Danes—was a war crime. 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