Sentimental and naive but undeniably affecting, emotional man-helping-man plea, in this case personified as German and French miners forced to be closed off from each other after the Great War thanks to a new border, leading to disillusionment on the German side, as the French are the bosses. But when a fire begins on the French side, the common decency of the German men lead to assistance, safety and even friendship. This was a plea that would fall on deaf ears within the decade, as a certain man from Pabst's own side would break that piece and turn the Great War into merely a prelude. But it is obvious to me that Pabst really believes or at least wants to hope for this kind of fundamental humanism, as this film radiates with this optimism whereas his more flippant, cynical adaptation of The Threepenny Opera lacked the bite needed to make that work work. Also furthering his honest belief are the fact that the characters here are not simplistic mouthpieces for positions, but real people, with real families whose home lives we are privy to as well. These are ordinary, working-class men who just happen to believe in the worth of caring and treating right your fellow man, and in this day of individualist opportunism, I'll take a little thinning in my plot to get a positive message that represents a point of view that I think we can all aspire to.
(Note: Apparently the ending is cut on most prints, where the French rebuild the mining gate, closing off the men once again. This is a brutal turn of events, and may have made the film a better overall film, but I would have lamented it souring the positives vibes of the final sequence, so in short, I'm glad it was clipped.) {Grade: 8/10 (B) / #7 (of 11) of 1931}
(Note: Apparently the ending is cut on most prints, where the French rebuild the mining gate, closing off the men once again. This is a brutal turn of events, and may have made the film a better overall film, but I would have lamented it souring the positives vibes of the final sequence, so in short, I'm glad it was clipped.) {Grade: 8/10 (B) / #7 (of 11) of 1931}