Simply A Masterpiece

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This film is very original. The cast is convincing and inspiring, the story is original and emotional. The action scenes are inventive and original. The music is great ant inventive . The film is inspiring and original. Go and watch because it is totally worth your money.

And what you need even more is a definite interest in football (and history). "Das Wunder von Bern" or "The Miracle of Bern" is a German film from over 10 years ago that runs for almost 120 minutes and was really a big thing back then if I remember correctly. Director and writer Sönke Wortmann is still a name today to everybody with an interest in German movies. However, with regard to the film's popularity, the cast is relatively unknown. Peter Lohmeyer is the only actor who is above-average in terms of how famous they are, maybe Wackernagel as well. Anyway, this was already the second or third time I watched this film and it is still a pretty solid watch. You can probably categorize this film into 3 sequences. The first would be everything about the family, the second would be the football teams and games and the third would be the reporter and his wife.The latter is easily the weakest. Wackernagel and Gregorowicz were sometimes embarrassingly bad and this story also added nothing of value in terms of the entire movie. No idea why they included it. The runtime also was in a dimension where they could have done completely without it I believe. The story with the boy who admired one of the players was decent, the father who returned from war added a nice historic impact to the film, even if they certainly could have elaborated more on him. No idea why Johanna Gastdorf received a German Film award nomination, she really wasn't that convincing. The other son's comments about the GDR were actually comedy gold looking at how that country turned out. The best part, however, was the football reference. Bern 1954 is still a special event for every German who knows a bit about football. Of course, the significance of the triumph has also to do with what happened in the 20 years before that.I don't think this was a particularly convincing film in terms of writing and acting. There were a couple very bad scenes unfortunately, for example when Wackernagel's character starts screaming in the audience. That was definitely embarrassing. Overall, I remembered liking this film more the last time I saw it. Still, it's a pretty decent watch thanks to the references to this great day in German history and it's also a decent summary overall of the World Cup 1954 from German perspective. Thumbs up.

Historically, few movies have been made about football (or soccer, for those in the United States). I believe this is due for two reasons: 1) Hollywood wasn't familiar and care little for the sport for many years, and 2) European directors, who one would have expected to be more disposed to made such a film, have generally been dismissive of football. You see, in their mind, I think they see it as the opiate of the people (the working class in Western Europe would rather go and see a match on Sunday than start a revolution to overthrow capitalism). Only recently there have been a number of movies that deal with the world's most popular sport. This is in my opinion the best of them, dealing with the surprise victory of Germany in the 1954 World Cup over the highly favored team of Hungary. This victory was of historical significance for the Germans, according to some people, since it was the first victory of any kind Germany have 9 years after the end of the war, and it meant the start of a new era of increased self-confidence for the country. OK, maybe this is an exaggeration, but this movie, which mixes real characters (the players, coach Herberger) with invented ones (the journalist and his newly married wife, the kid from the Ruhr region who has a bad relationship with his former POW father and wants to go to Switzerland to see the final match) is thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end.

As a football fan, this movie appeals to me indeed. It is true-to-history, honestly depicted, filled with genuine and sophisticated acting performances and based on a historical background. The entire plot centers around the boy, Matthias, and tells the story of the 1954 World Cup through his eyes mainly. He makes this movie special and revives the era of the 50s in Germany, a time when this nation was just recovering from the devastation and the scars of WWII. The story is solid and very sincere. The acting is wonderful and the depiction of the contemporary setting is superbly staged. I can just recommend this movie to all football fans and anyone who enjoys pervasive stories that provide first class entertainment.