Into the White Movie Review

Into the White

                                              

Into the White is a World War 2 based drama movie released in 2012. This movie was also titled as ‘Comrade’ and ‘Cross of Honour’. This film is written by Ole Meldgaard, Dave Mango and Petter Næss and directed by Petter Næss. Into the White has a very limited set of characters for almost the full movie, which are played by David Kross, Stig Henrik Hoff, Florian Lukas, Rupert Grint and Lachlan Nieboer. This movie is based on true events.

Into the White tells us about a true event when some British and German soldiers had to share a cabin in a rough weather during World War 2 and after staying there for sometime, how their humanity, friendship and brotherhood grows more than the differences between the two teams.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

Plot:

In an aircraft battle at the sky of Norway, a German and a British plane get shot by each other. Both of them have to crash land in a snowy mountain area.  The German plane had four soldiers in it, where one of them dies at the time of crash landing and another of them gets badly hurt in one hand. A heavy storm is approaching, so they search nearby and find an empty wooden cabin. They take shelter in that cottage just before the storm hits.

Soon after that, two surviving British soldiers of the British plane also come to the cottage. The British soldiers have no firearms with them. Considering their situation and the weather outside, the Germans let them come inside the cabin and takes them as prisoners. The German leader gives two beds to two of British soldiers and also marks their place to stay inside. According to the Geneva Convention, the British soldiers demand food and the Germans provide them that. The British soldiers also demand for respect and the German leader finally agrees to that.

From the beginning, none of them behaves in any violent or attacking manner to their opposition soldiers. Both of the teams know that, in such a situation, they need each other’s cooperation to stay alive. Both of the teams have to put the rules of warfare aside and cannot pick an enemy inside the cabin. The British feel sympathy for the wounded German soldier and give tips to the German leader to ease his pain. And also the German soldiers, in spite of holding the British at gunpoint, give them respect. The British soldiers’ target is to make the Germans angry, so that, being furious, they attack the British and make a mistake. But the cool headed German leader never falls on that trap even though the others are provoked.

The storm is running continuously and the soldiers inside the cabin are running out of foods to eat and woods to burn. They start to break the woods inside the cabin to burn. Meanwhile, the condition of the wounded German soldier is getting worse. He is also paranoid by the British. But with time, both of the teams get trust on each other, start to get friendly and the distance between the captors and the prisoners keeps on getting smaller. But at one time, when they take woods from one of the columns of the cabin and the cabin starts to fall, the German leader was trying to hold the cabin and the British leader uses this opportunity to take the gun from him. From that moment, the Germans become the prisoners of the British. He starts to treat the Germans with respect equally of what he has received. But the Germans manage to retrieve their gun and again, make the British prisoners.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

But the weather (the snow storm) was not getting any better and finally both of the teams lose any interest over the guns. They start to live there in a friendly manner. Suddenly they discover a small stock of food and drinks under the cabin’s floor and start enjoying them. They get to know each other better over the drinks. But the wounded German soldier gets gangrene on his wounds. The only way to save him is to cut off his hand. Putting the guns aside, they do it together, but finally, fail to save his life. They bury him outside the cabin.

At last, in one fine day, the storm stops and the sun comes out. They all get ready to go outside and find the nearest way. Meanwhile, in a nearby Norwegian army camp, they send out scout teams to look for the wreckage of the crashed planes. One German and one British soldier goes out together to find ways down from this mountain and meets the Norwegian scout teams. Then the unexpected happens.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

My review about Into the White:

First of all, I liked Into the White very much. And according to my guess, everyone else will.

Although the plot of Into the White is set in World War 2 and is about two groups of conflicting soldiers, but Into the White is not, at all, a typical war movie with the fighting, the shootings and the killings, like the movie The Flowers of War. It tells the story of survival, cooperation, brotherhood and humanity.

The plot of Into the White is very good and innovative, although it will not seem that innovative when you know it is based on true events. But in a beautiful movie like this, I was expecting a happy ending, which didn’t happen. At the very end, Into the White gives you more facts from the real events after the end of this particular plot, which feels very interesting and will leave you wanting for more.

The director and the screenwriter have done a beautiful job here in Into the White. The location, the screenplay and the dialogues match perfectly with the plot. The psychology of the soldiers inside the cabin seemed very realistic. Another important point about Into the White is, even though it is a Hollywood movie, it does not portraits the Germans as ‘evils’, which I’ve found as a rare case. The effects of the storm and the set inside the cabin was very good.

The acting of all the characters felt natural and flawless. Although, I think, the best acting in Into the White was performed by the German leader, but the character of Rupert Grint was the most amusing of all. Even in a serious movie like this, the dialogues of his character will make you laugh. This famous kid actor has also done an awesome job of acting here as a soldier. But as I’ve said, the acting of all others in Into the White were also impressive. The dialogues are very well chosen and the makeups were good  too.

Into the White is completely safe to watch with kids.

After you’ve finished watching Into the White  you should look for the facts about it in wiki (the link is given below) which is obviously worthy a look.

We can also see some stunning scenic views in Into the White near the end of the movie.

So, overall, Into the White was a beautiful movie and I really enjoyed my time watching this one. I’ll definitely recommend Into the White to all movie lovers as a must see.

How did you like Into the White? Feel free to comment.

If you are looking for more info:

IMDB link: Into the White IMDB

Wikipedia Link: Into the White Wiki

To buy or rent this beautiful movie from Amazon, you can find the best deal on it here:  Into the White Movie