I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is one of the funniest Swiss made films ever made. It is a wonderful and subtle parody to the general point of view how the gorgeous Swiss Confederation was founded. That it is anachronistic at some points (as criticised above) does only help to uncover the sometimes irrational relationship many Swiss have towards their history. If you have some knowledge about the origin of the story Tell, you understand why these persons are part of the movie.I might agree that some knowledge about Swiss culture and history is useful to understand all nuances in this movie.The scenery has not the class (and special effects) as most present films, but this gives the movie on the other hand some originality.

Comedies about a nation's hero always risk to be a tricky business, and the Swiss still tend to be a bit touchy about William Tell. The fact that there has been no public controversy about this film is unfortunately less due to historical insight by viewers than to the inability of its creators to tap into the satirical potential of the story. The Tell of this movie is an Austrian lured by the promise of a Swiss passport, i. e. citizenship, to sabotage the building of an Austrian castle. Anachronisms like the German poet Schiller (author of the play "Wilhelm Tell") as a tourist and characters from the Heidi-stories are mixed into this without adding to the plot. Some crude allusions to zoophily as well as some jokes that have longer beards than the unfortunate women duped by Tell made me cringe, especially as they made no sense to the plot. And for it to be a farce there are to few funny moments. Only at the very end we get a glimpse at what a satire this could have been when the European stars surround the map of Switzerland. So, unless you have made a vow to view every Swiss film there is, you may skip this one without second thoughts, and if you watch it by accident, you will not want to repeat the experience.