I rated this a 5, average, because that's what it is.
The movie looks good, and does a fine job of showing how East Germany rolled from Hitler's National Socialist Workers Party into the Communism of Stalin. The artist is lucky enough to leave before the Iron Curtain comes down. The heartlessness of the German eugenics is well portrayed, and the shots of what Dresden must have been like before the bombing are well done.
Now I don't mind spending over three hours watching a movie, but I demand a satisfactory ending. I'm left with questions, which doesn't seem fair considering the length of the film. Does the bad guy get his punishment? Does the artist ever find out about his connection to his fate? Maybe the bad guy heads for South America, maybe he is found out, who knows?
Other questions are why bother sterilizing people if they will be disposed of? How is the bad guy not known to have participated in the atrocities by local people? He has a reaction to seeing himself in the artwork, but obviously everyone already knows who he is. He doesn't even change his name. The Russian getting rid of paperwork helps, but surely others are aware of his job. Going after war criminals and former SS was pretty hot after the war, so most of them took a lot more precautions than this guy. But we never see what happens, which is the mistake of this long movie.
Now I don't mind spending over three hours watching a movie, but I demand a satisfactory ending. I'm left with questions, which doesn't seem fair considering the length of the film. Does the bad guy get his punishment? Does the artist ever find out about his connection to his fate? Maybe the bad guy heads for South America, maybe he is found out, who knows?
Other questions are why bother sterilizing people if they will be disposed of? How is the bad guy not known to have participated in the atrocities by local people? He has a reaction to seeing himself in the artwork, but obviously everyone already knows who he is. He doesn't even change his name. The Russian getting rid of paperwork helps, but surely others are aware of his job. Going after war criminals and former SS was pretty hot after the war, so most of them took a lot more precautions than this guy. But we never see what happens, which is the mistake of this long movie.