Colditz (2005)

Continuing with my Tom Hardy movie marathon (that has been on for a few weeks now) I decided to attempt to review a film in a genre that always makes me cry. Somewhat not looking forward to it.

I saw the film in one sitting as a 3-hour movie, so I will review it as such, even though it’s a 2-part miniseries.

In WWII, three friends – Nick (Damian Lewis), Tom (Laurence Fox) and Jack (Tom Hardy) – escape a work-camp and make a run for it to the Swiss border. Only Nick makes it. The other two get captured and sent to Colditz castle, in Saxony, to wait out the remainder of the war. Before Jack is taken, though, he asks Nick to visit the girl he loves, Lizzie (Sophia Myles), and tell her that he loves her and will do whatever it takes to get back to her. From here on in, the film can be seen as two stories: the one with Nick and Lizzie, and the one with Tom and Jack.
(+) The castle Tom and Jack are brought to is meant simply as a prison, and is claimed to be completely impossible to escape from. It houses the most notorious French, American and English escapists from various camps, and the guards seem to make it a hobby to watch them try to escape and drag them back in again. From the moment Tom and Jack get in, they make plans to bust out. To cut a 3-hour movie shorter, they try and fail 4 times. After the forth, Jack gives up trying.
(+) As soon as Nick gets to Switzerland he is sent back to England, where he is greeted as a hero and assigned a position in MI-9, helping to get other English prisoners out of camps. He keeps his word to Jack and seeks out Lizzie, and as soon as he sees her falls in love. Lizzie accepts his attention but is still waiting for Jack in her heart, so Nick does the only thing he thinks will work: he kills Jack on paper and record.
(+) When Jack hears of this (this is some months later, from a friend who had escaped the castle successfully on Jack and Tom’s second attempt) he steals an escape idea from Tom and makes it out.
(+) Upon hearing that Jack had escaped, Nick panics and does everything in his power to have Lizzie leave with him.

The film is really well made. Obviously, it being a war film and escape/revenge movie, it has aspects that other movies have done (such as the styles of escapes themselves, the idea of a girl falling for another boy due to feelings cooling, someone dying on paper and not in reality…) but it’s a well-paced film with genuine emotion and a brilliant cast. I can’t watch war movies usually because I cry buckets. War movies and movies about animals usually have me in tears clinging to my pillow. Ironically enough, war is one of my favourite genres to watch and read about, add to that my complete and utter obsession with Tom Hardy lately and it was a film I just couldn’t miss.

Although this is a war film, it reminded me more of Schindler’s List-meets-The Shawshank Redemption than Pearl Harbour. The only part of actual war that you see on screen, are the effects of it felt in London, where Lizzie and Nick are; inside Colditz, the only reason you remember that there is a war is because there are soldiers patrolling the castle day and night. So, if you’re not into the war genre because of the violence and death, then you can safely watch this film.

Like Atonement, it is mostly about the relationships and friendships of people within that film rather than the actual fighting, which is one of the reasons that I was prepared to cry when I saw the summary. This film is filled with relationships, none of which are simple. There’s Lizzie’s love for Jack that is slowly fading due to time and having known him for only 3 weeks before he left, the reverse of that where Jack’s only reason for living and trying is the possibility of seeing Lizzie again, there’s Lizzie’s love for Nick, who is there and real and alive, and the other side of that relationship, where Nick loves Lizzie and knows in the back of his mind that he did Jack wrong, but finding it easy to keep that knowledge hidden, Tom and Jack’s friendship steadily breaks as their escapes fail and their spirit gets broken, Jack’s friendship with Sawyer (the man who escapes and later writes him a letter about Nick and Lizzie) is one of survival and give and take… I could go on but there are far too many people to write about in a paragraph.

This is a war film that could fall under many genres including escape film, revenge film, romance and drama. I would recommend it to people who are fans of the genre or any of the actors in it. Girls would like it for the love-factor and guys won’t be bored because it’s a war movie. So really, anyone can watch it. There is violence (obviously) but it’s not gratuitous. Like many war films it IS a long movie, even in 2 parts it ends up being a 3 hours feature. I would give it a 7/10 and definitely watch it again.

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