kimfoto For producing this quality little gem. I've grown pretty tired lately of the poorly-written fluff that passes as "holiday entertainment" this time of year. I'm a WWII buff as well, so I was happy to see this theme so appropriately and meaningfully depicted in this special television event. There are only three other Christmas classics in my collection-- "Scrooge" starring Alistair Sim ( the only true 'Scrooge' in my opinion, everyone else is just trying to keep step)-- Willy Wilder's "Ben Hur" (containing the greatest single action sequence in history, Heston's chariot race), and another wonderful surprise for me, Jim Carrey doing a star turn in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (like Mr. Sim, no one else in Hollywood possessed the necessary skills to do these roles justice). But, I'm happy to say, "Silent Night" has taken it's rightful place of honor in my sadly minescule collection. I was most surprised with Linda Hamilton's effective German accent in the telling, and the forceful performance and singular power of Martin Neufeld playing the over-zealous German Lieutenant as a dramatic counterpoint. I'm only surprised that apparently none of the cast outside of Hamilton ever achieved much bigger screen success as a result. Welcome to Hollywood.

dragadraga borabora as a soldier myself, in duty of the swiss army, the first thing that seemed strange to me was the inaccuracy of the soldiers behaviour. e.g. only one guy checks out the house and so on. but that concerns me with every war movie since my service :-)it's not really what bothers me the most. could it be, that such a high-rated movie could not afford actors who are actually capable of speaking German properly?? actually, they should all be real German actors. it seemed rather awkward to me, hearing those "German" soldiers speaking an odd dialect or even a broken version of German which i've never heard before. clearly, they're Americans trying to speak German. I'm aware that it may not be recognized by English people who watch it. however, it really started to annoy me and i'm sure i'm not the only one who feels that way.good story though.

p_a_talbot-1 For many years, I had heard this story, I mean, since I was a child. Who first told it to me, I don't remember. I had thought that it was one of those stories that had to be made up. Every now and then, I would hear it again. Kind of like just often enough to just not be allowed to forget it.This little German woman and her son are in a house in the mountains, and it's almost Christmas. The Americans find the house from one direction. The Germans find the house from the other direction. And they spend Christmas Day together.How this woman's strength of character and respect for the season come together in this little house, with this unlikely combination of people is amazing. Just thinking about this story has my eyes welling up! This is a movie that you will regret missing!!

cloudyskye I rather liked this, having bought the DVD just based on these recommendations, although I agree with some of the reviewers in that I find it a little too sweet and naïve in some places. But then, apparently it is based on a true story, and I don't really mind swallowing a little sugariness sometimes. There is just the language issue that made me cringe throughout the film. As a native speaker of German (perhaps the only one here?) I can't agree with the reviewers who praised the actors' accents. Maybe they could impress foreigners with their very fake sounding English-with-a-strong-German-accent, but no German would ever be fooled. The only exception is Cassian Bopp, playing young Heinrich. All the others speak their German lines in a very stiff and wooden way, betraying their origins all the time. And please, is there a German who can read "Moby Dick" and "Huckleberry Finn" in the original and yet forgets to say "and" instead of "und" when speaking English? I think not. Still, I tend to be forgiving because obviously they tried their best. I'll certainly give it another chance – because sometimes a good story covers many sins.