Kameradschaft (1931)
Probably the best movie I've seen in a long time. I'm going to call this film a small masterpiece of cinematic history!
The story of German miners who put national animosities aside (since tensions are still raw after WWI) to go rescue French miners on the other side of the border after a mine explosion & cave in.
The movie is
very realistic. You won't find any cardboard-looking sets here. Everything from costumes to equipment looks real - even a 1931 mechanical artificial respirator keeping an injured man alive!
The special effects are limited, but extremely well done for the time. The film captures a feeling of claustrophobia inside the mines and the filmography of the mine scenes is visually very dark. I don't know if this was due to the 1930's camera technology or was done on purpose. Either way, it adds to the atmosphere inside the shafts. Despite the darkness, you rarely feel as if you don't know what's going on (unlike a lot of modern movies that forego clarity for atmosphere or special effects).
On one hand this is a disaster movie made long before Irwin Allen made the genre popular. On the other, it's an allegory about peace, cooperation and humanity.
The truly heartbreaking thing about watching this film is not about the plot, but knowing the historical context that would follow in real life. In the film, truckloads of Germans enter France to save French miners. In real life, less than a decade later, truckloads of Germans would enter France to take the country by force. Apparently the beautiful message of this film (its title means "Comradeship") was lost upon the architects of the Third Reich.
5 Popcorn Boxes!
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