Review of John Rabe (2009) by Fernando C — 26 Sep 2010

"John Rabe" is a biopic following the story of a German living in China who decides to save as many civilians as possible during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War. It is not a great movie but it is interesting enough.

Florian Gallenberger directs his third full length feature. It has been 5 years since his last work, "Shadow of Time", was released. "John Rabe" is based on actual events and follows the title character in China during the beginning of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War, in the eve of World War II. John Rabe is a German engineer employed by Siemens who is responsible for the company factory in Nanjing, China. John Rabe is living in the country for almost three decades and all of a sudden the company due to the politic changes in Germany decides to close down the factory that provided electricity to the Chinese people and demands John to return to Germany. Only when Rabe is getting ready to leave Japan invades China and starts to bombard Nanjing. After experiencing first hand the possible fate of Nanjing habitants, including and above all his employees, John pressured by other foreign in the region decides to stay, seeing is wife departure, to create a safety zone for civilians.

The interesting thing about Gallenberger's film is the humanity of Rabe character. Gallenberger doesn´t hide Rabes interior conflit. Rabe cannot believe atrocities like this can be known by his own Furher (little does he know of what is to come...). Rabe is a German educated man, strict and responsible and he has that bit of German superiority characteristic but above all he is an integer man. Even though the movie does not reach levels of excellence, it unfolds assured. Only in the last part the movie becomes a little monotonous.

Ulrich Tuckur gives a good and strong performance in the role of John Rabe. Steve Buscemi, as Dr. Wilson, an American doctor, gives a nice performance, but we have seen him better. The rest of the cast doesn´t detune.

In summation, "John Rabe" is a biopic with an interesting story to tell, there´s nothing new, it doesn't reach levels of excellence but it is watchable. **(2,25/5).