Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Rodrigo Amaro An unusual work in Wolfgang Petersen's filmography, "Die Konsequenz" ("The Consequence") is a heartbreaking and unconventional love story, a movie that makes us look at Petersen in a different way, far from the optic we used to know from the director of blockbusters such as "Air Force One" and "In the Line of Fire". Without the speed and the colors of his notorious films, he has plenty of time to develop his story and create a brilliant piece that echoes life, giving his most natural and realistic work along with "Das Boot". His posterior enterprises might have stronger energies, action and bigger castings but doesn't have the patience and beautiful elements this has.A saddening tale on the recklessness of youth in its pursuit for love, "The Consequence" deals on the obstacles two lovers have to face while trying to be together. Not the ordinary love story, quite the opposite. This one involves Martin (Jürgen Prochnow, in his best performance) an actor imprisoned for seducing a minor, and the young Thomas Manzoni (Ernst Hannawald), son of the prison's warden. Both were approached due to a play performed in the jail - unimaginable setting for such encounter to happen but believable in certain contexts. They share some good moments, always in secrecy, but the challenge comes after Martin's release. They meet again, already sure that what they shared was love and they're ready to live with each other, but Thomas parents are against their relation and even more opponent to their son's homosexuality, and these new facts causes the role changes in the story: this time the younger one will be arrested - in a juvenile facility though, after some arrangements made by his father - while the other will try anything to be near his lover or to release him if possible. Not the cup of tea of many viewers out there who can't handle sad stories but the moral and warnings we get from this tale are truly valuable, very honest to us. It's cruel but it has a point. More than just a love story, it's a painful piece on the consequences of immaturity, right in that drastic point between youth and adulthood, already showing that choices have ultimate and heavy consequences that'll affect everyone's lives in one way or another. Thomas apparent brave act of showing to his family that he loves Martin and he wants to live with him only proves to be disastrous to himself. Their union faces bumps after bumps, and a great part of those happen because of the younger guy, not smart or not experienced to know the ways of life. If only he kept this a secret, just run away with his partner, things would might turn out to be OK for him and Martin. Enthusiastic admirers of great acting will be delighted with the magnificent performances of the main stars. Prochnow, usually best suited in villain roles, is amazing in this sort of heroic role, not a perfect guy but a committed, passionate and kind, completely caught off guard and head over heels for this boy and always making his best to help him, even when he realizes that it's no longer possible. He express plenty with just few words. Hannawald's angelical face little by little becoming the face of sadness and misery is certainly the most unforgettable in the movie along with some of his lines ("I think it's really rotten of them to lock you up like this for making love to a boy" innocently referring on Martin's condemnation. He gives the performance of a lifetime in here.Times are different, there's more openness and acceptance when it comes to sexuality issues but things aren't so bright and positive, which makes this film even more relevant today than like it was in the 1970's. Desperately needs more audience. 10/10

Tim W This movie was superb! I truly believe that any gay or even possibly straight individual for that matter could find some enjoyment in this movie. I am touched though by the frankness of real love that could be felt all throughout this movie by the 2 leading characters. It was such a sigh of relief to finally see a movie like this one that is soooo in your face, The English subtitles are also some of the worst that I've ever seen as well, so be prepared to see that during the film. I am however, very saddened by the outcome of the film. i still though highly recommend this film as above most of the many other gay romance movies to date! Overall, this movie was a sigh of relief in all of its candidness. There was no doubting throughout this movie, that it truly felt like the love that Thomas and Martin shared between the two of each other (the 2 main characters in the film.Very moving film indeed. Definitely a classic epic worth watching and commenting on!!!!

tedg It should never be the case that after watching a film, you sit in the awakening theater and wonder why the thing was made. What did the filmmaker think was the value of the experience, that we would let him borrow our souls for a time?I did ask that at the end of this. Its done well enough I think, at least so far as its bits. Its a story about a love, actually a simple story, about a love thwarted by a society. The reason is that we have two men, and we are supposed to (I guess) take it as a character study of a tortured existence — an injustice whose consequence we see grind these two to bits.Judging from the comments here, there is an audience of gay men for whom this matters. But I think that is less that the film has something worthwhile, than it portrays an injustice they personally know, so they simply welcome the acknowledgment. But this thing has problems. There are matters of prison: two in fact, one for each man. This is so artificial — even by movie terms — that it lets us off the hook emotionally. When we are fed something that doesn't seem situated in our world, we lose it.Also, it isn't just a love between two men, but a man and a boy. The man has a history of exploiting underage boys, and we learn that the boy has a profoundly damaged parental environment. These dynamics are written away.Petersen is a quirky guy. "das Boot" was conceived from a place of genius as a study of space. All else is ordinary and there merely to serve the goal of limited containment. Since then, in Hollywwod, he has turned into a hack. Before "das Boot" we have this, which I think we could see as a similar but failed study in containment/confinement. If so, it is worth existing, but not worth watching, not like, for example "Equus."Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

nick_pizey I saw this film at the Gate Cinema near Bayswater, over twenty years ago. It was searingly good, in story content, composition and style. I was left feeling such a strong sense of anger at the way the two principal characters were hounded, anger at the bigotry and hypocrisy of those in authority, and desperately saddened by the outcome. This reflected my own feeling of dejection, rejection and utter desolation. From time to time over the past twenty or so years, I have thought of this film, especially the scene at a railway station where the two, almost against the odds, meet up and reaffirm their love for each other. It seems as if all will now be okay and that they might make away from their 'prison' but this moment of hope is destroyed so unexpectedly, and ruthlessly, that it would have been better if they had never met again. I hunted the film database to find this film, just so that I may at last tell someone else something about it, and to urge you to view it if you can get hold of a copy.