Paul Leni is a German director who is today best-known for the classic Conrad Veidt film "The Man Who Laughs" (1928). But that was towards the end of Leni's career: the director died quite young. He started his directorial career amidst WW1, and "Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hart" (The Diary of Dr. Hart, 1918) is, depending on the source, his first, second, or third film. It is a contemporary account of World War One, with a clearly propagandist endgame.
Dr. Robert Hart (Heinrich Schroth) is the quintessential German ideal, a man, whom everybody loves. Everybody except Count Bronislaw (Ernst Hoffmann) that is. He has his eye on the same woman, but they don't have the time to solve it, since the war breaks out. Bronislaw goes to serve the Russian armed forces, while Hart enlists as a field medic for the German side. Russian cossacks are destroying the Polish countryside, terrorizing the people and poisoning their wells. So the German heroes must save Poland by occupying it. Poland becomes independent, and Hart and Bronislaw becomes friends, just as their two nations should. Friends forever.
It is a curious historical product, to say the least. The propagandist tendencies are hammered in so hard, that it becomes impossible to enjoy the film as a drama. That is not to say that Leni is doing a bad job, director-wise. He manages to cram in some very nice shots, like the one of Dr. Hart nursing a wounded soldier on the roadside, as the faceless soldiers in the background march to battle. There is also explosions and some action sequences, which are directed fairly well. Character-wise this does not work, because the characters lack genuine personalities. They are just supposed to be "German", or "Polish", or "Woman".
The film tries to honor the important service provided by field medics, or at least the German ones. This goal gets a little bit lost, I feel, when the film starts to ponder the relationship between the nations. The depiction is very one-sided. Russians are shown as savages, and Germans as heroes. Poland owes its very existence to Germany, it appears. The film does not hold up, but it's interesting nevertheless.
Dr. Robert Hart (Heinrich Schroth) is the quintessential German ideal, a man, whom everybody loves. Everybody except Count Bronislaw (Ernst Hoffmann) that is. He has his eye on the same woman, but they don't have the time to solve it, since the war breaks out. Bronislaw goes to serve the Russian armed forces, while Hart enlists as a field medic for the German side. Russian cossacks are destroying the Polish countryside, terrorizing the people and poisoning their wells. So the German heroes must save Poland by occupying it. Poland becomes independent, and Hart and Bronislaw becomes friends, just as their two nations should. Friends forever.
It is a curious historical product, to say the least. The propagandist tendencies are hammered in so hard, that it becomes impossible to enjoy the film as a drama. That is not to say that Leni is doing a bad job, director-wise. He manages to cram in some very nice shots, like the one of Dr. Hart nursing a wounded soldier on the roadside, as the faceless soldiers in the background march to battle. There is also explosions and some action sequences, which are directed fairly well. Character-wise this does not work, because the characters lack genuine personalities. They are just supposed to be "German", or "Polish", or "Woman".
The film tries to honor the important service provided by field medics, or at least the German ones. This goal gets a little bit lost, I feel, when the film starts to ponder the relationship between the nations. The depiction is very one-sided. Russians are shown as savages, and Germans as heroes. Poland owes its very existence to Germany, it appears. The film does not hold up, but it's interesting nevertheless.