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In SCHINDLER'S LIST, NUREMBERG and even APT PUPIL, we are constantly shown the "dark side" (is there any other side?) to German Nazis - they are depicted (and rightly so) as sadistic barely-humans, existing to kill and to protect the "Fatherland" and the Arian race at all costs. In the 1989 Australian film FATHER, we are given a different perspective of the situation: a happily married-with-two-kids woman (Julia Blake) must deal with an ageing Lithuanian World War II survivor who is claiming that Blake's German father (expertly played by Max von Sydow) was a Nazi, who enjoyed the thrill of killing innocent women and children. The film's opening sequence unfortunately loses some of its impact after Speilberg's SCHINDLER'S LIST, but it's still horrific enough. The story then meanders for a while before the pivotal court case scene, after which the entire film lifts a notch and becomes a very well-produced effort. The performances of Sydow and co suggest that, had this film been made ten years later, it would have had four stars written all over it. Potential viewers bewarned, though: it's doing the rounds on Foxtel's ENCORE channel at present with a "G" rating - the opening scene (in which a 12-year-old girl, bloody from a bullet shot to the head, regains consciousness in a pit full of hundreds of naked, murdered bodies), together with a few choice words here and there and some pretty strong themes, suggest that it should have been given an "M" classification. Oh, and watch for a young Kate Langbroek as a TV reporter. Rating: 7/10
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