Walking with the Enemy

source: Walking with the Enemy

Early in the film, resistance fighter Cohen (Jonas Armstrong) and one of his friends have the opportunity to steal a German officer's uniform to enable Cohen to infiltrate areas that he would not normally be able to go. It's actually a concentration camp guard uniform, because it has the insignia of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (Death's Head Units - the administrators of the concentration camps), which ALL German WWII officers wore according to many film and TV producers. The film itself has the feeling of a made-for-TV-movie, but IMDb doesn't give any indication of that being the case. There are places with clear demarcation between acts, as if to enable commercials to be inserted for television. Additionally, I'm used to watching Jonas Armstrong in the BBC series "Robin Hood". Armstrong maintains two to four days of beard growth throughout the film, including when he is wearing the SS uniform, even though the SS were required to be clean-shaven daily, and maintained a high standard of grooming and appearance. I'm guessing that the filmmakers are counting on the vast majority of people not knowing that so Armstrong can use his "rugged good looks" to help win us over, in case we weren't already on his side as the film's hero and Nazi fighter. That's probably also why his hair was longer than the SS would have allowed. The film is based on the true story of Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum. The film's producers must have felt that a name like Elek Cohen would be a little easier for us goyim to handle than Pinchas Rosenbaum. It's a well-produced film, other than Armstrong's grooming, and an important World War II story about resistance to the Germans. I recommend it.

Based on true story, 'Walking with the Enemy' is a gripping tale of WW II Hungary. However, a couple of characterisations seem awry. In the first place, Otto Skorzeny is turned into a nasty Adolf Eichmann type character, when he was in fact a combat commando who was acquitted of war crimes charges. Also, Ben Kingsley's portrayal of Regent Horthy is probably too noble - Horthy may have been basically decent, but he was also opportunistic, particularly in the earlier stages of the war. .

I really like movies about WW2 Europe because I am fascinated by lack compassion the Nazis had... that they couldn't see the Jews as people. That having been said, the story line is great... Ben Kingsley is in it... it would have to be a good movie, right? Nope. Ben isn't in it too much and a lot of the acting seemed over the top to me. It isn't always clear what is going on... the accents are thick and at least for me, hard to understand. Also, everyone looks a bit too clean... I mean, none of it is in a concentration camp, but they still look a little too pulled together. It wasn't a horrible movie... just not great. I almost paid $4 to watch it on Amazon, but I thought to check to see if my library had it, and they did, so I saw it for free. If I'd had to pay for it, I would have given it a much lower rating.