WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

edorado-256-207672 If you saw the movie you know why it is labelled as propaganda.OBSERVATION: Out of last three Germans two were clearly caught alive. Later in the movie the authorities say that the lieutenant is the last German alive. That means Allies were not respecting international laws for POW.GOOFS: 1)Germany is blamed for starting the war. They say Germany invaded Poland. Actually Russians did exactly the same, and Russians = Allies. So in reality the Allies and Germans were equally guilty for the crimes of war. 2)In the movie it is the Germans who despise Eskimo not Canadians. The movie "Germans" are also saying something about black people who were subject of U.S. racism.I would also like to notice the comparison between Germans and some primitive tribes. They could say nothing wrong about Germans. The only "bad" thing is the primitive tribes, since they were subject of racism in U.S. and Canada.The authors of this movie should publicly apologies to the families of European soldiers who did their duty and were deferred to political tribunals and murdered after war.

Polaris_DiB Earlier Powell and Pressburger (pre-Archers?...?) skit about a bunch of crashed Germans in Canada during WWII, right before the US enters the war. The Germans want to make it to the US border where they'll have political asylum, but first they must get through the vast landscape and 11 million population of not-quite-so-wary Canadians--adversaries that are more happy to listen to their German philosophy with a cock-headed grin and a justifiable democratic argument against their politics than they are trying to stop or kill the group in particular. Yet somehow the group of six Germans quickly falls to five, then four, then three, then two...As a bit of WWII propaganda it has its fallacies. As a survival in enemy territory narrative, it's interesting because you want to see how far they'll go (everyone loves the underdog), but you also want them to get stopped. The Archers mix those contrary conceits very well. And as a character-based war drama, it's a bit too caricaturistic to take too seriously. Everyone has extreme accents, and the lead German has the faint trace of a lisp. Powell and Pressburger do the best when contrasting their hyper-diagonal marching against the curved countryside, and they take a particularly "democratic" stance here--one so democratic, at points it lingers near communism, which the Germans are appropriately appalled at but not all that believably considering their close proximity to this little country called the USSR (perhaps you've heard of it).It's fun seeing these two auteurs get a handle on the type of characters they like and the type of filming they want to do, but later they were to go on to create much more sophisticated, gorgeous, and well-told works that stand out greater in the annals of cinematic history. They would keep such things as the caricatures (the Yank in A Canterbury Tale, the entire figure of Colonel Blimp), international drama (Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death), and love of the countryside (A Canterbury Tale, A Matter of Life or Death) in much more solid and spectacular narratives. This movie is an early work, and feels it, but it's not quite so bad as their somewhat regrettable I Know Where I'm Going.--PolarisDiB

wes-connors One of the more interesting World War II propaganda films, due to outstanding writing (by Emeric Pressburger), direction (by Michael Powell), and performances. The opening credits and sequences may be confusing. The story involves six Nazis making their way from Hudson Bay (in northeastern Canada) to cross the "49th Parallel" (the United States/Canadian border), after their U-boat (submarine warship) is damaged. At the time the film was made, the U.S. would have been a "safe" (neutral) country. Also, the film does not "star" Leslie Howard and Lawrence Olivier - rather, the lead actor is Eric Portman (as Hirth).Mr. Portman and crew do very well in their roles. The most interesting aspect of the film is that the Germans are written to include a sympathetic Nazi, who wavers in his support for the Fuehrer. The most satisfying of the film's loosely threaded stories involves the sympathetic Nazi bonding with a Canadian immigrant settlement, led by Anton Walbrook (as Peter). This, and the segment with Raymond Massey (as Andy Brock), is where you'll find the filmmakers delivering their most palpable (and eloquent) sermonettes. The film is too episodic for its own good - one story, with more focus on Portman's crew, would have sufficed.****** 49th Parallel (10/8/41) Michael Powell ~ Eric Portman, Leslie Howard, Laurence Olivier

ackstasis You'd be tempted to think that there's no way '49th Parallel (1941)' could have turned out anything less than excellent. Not only do Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger perform their famous double-act, but there's also the equally-enviable partnership of David Lean (here working as editor) and cinematographer Freddie Young. But we must remember that in the realm of WWII propaganda there lie dangerous waters, and only the most talented filmmakers (so far, I count Hitchcock, Wilder, Renoir, Curtiz and Reed) can navigate their war-themed picture towards any degree of lasting respectability. We can certainly add Michael Powell to that list of famous names. '49th Parallel' is different from most of its contemporaries because it presents the film solely from the German point-of-view. The portrayal is not favourable, of course, and at least their commander reeks of pure evil, but the German characters are nonetheless humanised to no small extent. These aren't cold, immoral monsters, but ordinary people, swept up in euphoric Nazi ideology and pining for the simpler life they can barely remember.When a German submarine is destroyed in Hudson Bay, Canada, the surviving Nazi soldiers – led by the fiercely patriotic Kommandant Bernsdorff (Richard George) – must navigate their way across the country into the then-neutral United States of America. The native citizens they meet along the way are largely jovial and laid-back, many hardly aware of the war raging across the Atlantic, and the Germans haughtily deem them foes unworthy of the Fuhrer's might. But these Canadians, as placid as they first seem, can surely recognise fascism when they see it, and each of the soldiers is picked off one by one, like the characters from a war-themed version of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." Among the unwitting local patriots is French-Canadian trapper Laurence Olivier – a caricature but an entertaining one – anthropologist/author Leslie Howard, and grinning deserter Raymond Massey, each of whom shows the Nazis that they're dealing with an enemy whose sheer spirit overshadows all of Hitler's armies combined.The film was apparently intended as a tribute to Canada's involvement in the war, and perhaps – as was Hitchcock's 'Foreign Correspondent (1940)' – a call-to-arms for the then-isolationist United States, who would hold back until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941. Many of the film's characters remark upon the sheer remoteness of the war relative to their own lives, unaware that it is actually standing before them; this idea was almost certainly aimed at American audiences. After the brilliantly suspenseful first act at Hudson Bay, I initially felt that the film was going off track by continuing to follow the Germans after their aerial departure from the remote village. However, as time wore on, I began to appreciate what the film was aiming for. Though the snow-swept slopes around Hudson Bay may seem leagues away from the Canadian/American border, Kommandant Bernsdorff and his ever-dwindling band gradually progress their way south, until, not only does he reach the border, but he physically crosses into the United States. The War had never been closer.