shinsrevenge Even though it takes place between the snowy mountains of austria, this western style movie is a tribute to all the old ones and so it goes just the same way. Hero rides into a village to avenge his family, kills all the bad guys, frees the village and rides of. There's very little dialogue the movie and the story is somewhat straightforward and predictable, offering barely any surprise or tension.Worst thing were the accents for me. I watched the movie in "German", but their accent was often so strong and they swallowed whole letters, which made it hard to understand at times. I actually had to activate subtitles for this.The scenery is okay and it sure is impressive enough that such a movie is an austrian-German cooperation project. But besides that there's nothing special here. Average stuff, no less, no more.

whalleypx The favourable reviews here have already highlighted the cinematography, the gratifyingly minimal dialogue, (I think I've seen and heard so much clichéd dialogue in recent cinema that the dialogue in this film is a blessed relief from that), and the beautiful setting of a high alpine village in winter. The story itself is no great shakes, but what is made of it is. Best film I've seen on Amazon for the longest time. The central characters don't need to be fully fleshed out because neither the story nor the genre demands it. I thought the whole thing was written around a repeating rifle, but I'm probably wrong.

Lothar Gerber Such great preconditions: a fantastic novel, a promising cast. So how did this movie end up being so mediocre? 1. and most important: They changed the story. They should not have. That's the biggest mistake of all. They should have just adhered to the novel. Nothing would have gone wrong. But they did and subsequently ruined all the atmosphere of the novel. The plot moves way too fast.2. Pop music as background music? Terrible decision. Not fitting at all. Why not traditional Austrian folk tunes? Why not a zither or a dulcimer? Too obvious? Maybe. But it would have been much more appropriate. 3. The big shoot-out at the end is poorly directed.4. Why the occasional slow motion? It probably is supposed to make the movie more intense, but it's nothing more than an atmosphere killer. As mentioned earlier under those preconditions "Das finstere Tal" is a decent movie, but anyone who read the novel will be disappointed.

westsideschl Pleasantly surprised to find an authentic Western rivaling Dances with Wolves and Eastwood in quality and ambiance. And, shockingly, it's a German production filmed in the Italian/Austrian Alps. The character presentations, props, sets, landscape, costuming, background sound effects and music were created, or reworked from existing structures, such that I could feel those rain drenched muddy roads on my feet as I watched. Bonus - action, suspense, storyline twists and emotional intensity. Landscape/scenery looked very much like the Rockies to me and I've traveled the Rockies from Canada nearly to Mexico. My only negative is, like many movies, the director did not have enough real world dirt and tatteredness in the costuming and props.