denis888 This is a very fine film, with excellent Otto Hasse as Admiral Canaris, the very German Abwehr Head who was, as we know, one of the anti-Hitler Resistance leaders, as well as impeccable and surgically neat and excellent Wolfgang Preiss as his aid, Colonel Hollem. There are other great German actors taking part in this period drama, with Martin Held as a chilling cold-blooded Nazi General Heydrich. The film is far from being flawless, as two hours aren't enough to cover life of this highly tragic man, who happened to live in Hitler's times, and who chose to fight, not run. There are weaker parts when the movie slides into a typical 50's schmaltzy detective flick, or when very important events are mentioned just as a faint glimpse. Still, in general, this is a very decent anti-war film with slightly skint but still powerful message that often it takes much courage to say No when all scream Yes. The film proves to show this, and manages to depict great decisions and sturdy assureness. Recommended.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Canaris" is a West German movie from 1954, so this one is already over 60 years old. It is in black-and-white and was directed by Alfred Weidenmann and written by Erich Ebermayer and Herbert Reinecker. The movie was a big winner at the German Film Awards that year and that may have had to do with the contemporary impact the film made back in the day. It is another attempt of Germany's filmmakers in the 1950s to depict and elaborate on what happened in Germany back between 1933 and 1945, a topic that has been worked on on so so many occasions. And with huge quantity, there also comes huge forgettable stuff. Sadly, this film is not among the best the country had to offer in terms of war-themed film. It is not really lead actor O.E. Hasse's fault as he does a convincing job with the lead character. I personally however felt that the film was way too long for its own good. At almost two hours, it lacked focus on many occasions and I felt there were many scenes that could have been left out because they added little to none to the overall picture. In terms of the story, many people may not have heard about Canaris, who really existed, but his story is a bit of a mix between Stauffenberg and Rommel, so you know the general direction this film is taking. It is about resistance against Hitler in the broadest sense. If this subject interests you, then you can check it out. You just should not be expecting too much.