justbusinessthebook Another DVD movie that a friend suggested I watch, it is a movie that I would buy for its message. What is disappointing about a movie that I would otherwise rate nearer 10 for the acting, intrigue and drama is that this is yet another movie 'from Hollywood' that really twists the truth to sell a movie.One need only look up the history of one real character, Fritz Vincken. Vincken is portrayed as a young German boy who witnesses a surreal event that is sponsored by his German mother on Christmas Eve, 1944. Persuading American soldiers to make her temporary home a place of neutral refuge on Christmas Eve, she risks execution for treason. The truth is that a German patrol then arrives at the same isolated cabin, agrees to a night of no guns, and actually sups with and helps a wounded American soldier. Both factions then go off in opposite directions to resume the fighting while leaving the boy and mother to survive an incredibly stupid war.The 'based on facts' portrayal in this movie immediately falls apart IF we understand that neither the mother nor the boy understood English. One American soldier spoke French. The German mother also did. This helped in the real situation in the end. Frantic arm waving changed into some words of understanding.Knowing this base fact and the fact that the 'Hollywood' version goes to great extravagance to dramatize the situation may diminish the value of this movie as a record of history. Its value is in the dialogue and emotion. Once again, we have another movie that portrays why our world stumbles along in vast international murder because we have lost all common sense to what our moral duty to each other is.This movie is good in that it does not sell 'Jesus Christ' and Christmas as 'the reason for the season'. It simply illustrates what the bravery of one lady, without a gun, can do to end the senseless killing we seem bent on repeating despite these lessons from our human history.That small fact makes this not-so-fact-based movie still worth watching. I am not so certain that the surviving German son's 1997 interview (by a Honolulu high school student) as to what really happened would make a 'block buster movie'. Still, I will buy this DVD in the end for the compelling messages in the movie.We need to start to heed messages from movies like this to make this world a better place for generations to come.

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.

Razalia_Queen While movies made solely for television generally have a stereotype for being mediocre, this outstanding movie breaks records easily. It covers a true story, of a boy during WWII with his not so traditional mother. It tells the story of how soldiers of both sides come to share a Christmas with them.One of my favorite aspects of this film was that it did not have the excess violence, gore, profanity, etc. It seemed to me that it was just an honest, down-to-earth type. It is not made up of thousands of dollars worth of special effects or an hour and a half of cars being blown up. The characters are not overly evil, good, or perfect. They acted as if they were the actual people that the events had happened to. Wonderful acting, I think.The storyline is filled with twists and turns, heart-breaking moments and even a little humor. It is a perfect film for any family, especially during the holidays. I am sure if someone got real nitpicky there are a few errors, but to me, everything is pretty darn close to being perfect. I sincerely recommend it to someone looking for a truly good film.**I suggest that you google "Fritz Vincken" after watching the movie. There are numerous interviews with him about the real events and his life after the war ended. I find them very inspiring.

joed1667 I found this movie while flipping through the channels early one morning in December/2005. I had missed the first 10 minutes and just had to buy the DVD. Although it plays loosely with the facts, something the film industry has a hard time adhering to, it nevertheless is an wonderful movie made for TV for the Hallmark Channel.It is based on the short story "Truce in the Forrest" and "The Night God Came for Dinner" by Fritz Vicken. Unlike the movie, communication was done between Fritz's mother Elisabeth, who spoke some French and one of the American soldiers who also spoke a little French. Only one of the Germans spoke some English.Both the movie and real life incident showed that these people could put their differences aside and found they were much alike in many ways. Unlike the conflict between the Germans and Russians, there wasn't that level of hatred unless they were dealing with the SS. I've found many stories where soldiers put their differences aside to help each other out, from a German officer stopping an American jeep at a checkpoint that was carrying a wounded GI, then directing them to the American lines, to the pilot of an ME-109 who came upon a crippled B-17 and rather than shooting it out of the sky, escorted it to the English Channel and made sure it was going to make it safely back before peeling away. Ironically, the pilots of those 2 warplanes found each other in the later years and became close friends. That's what this movie does it to show the human side of our "enemy" and leaves you hoping they made it out of the war OK but it does leave you wondering what ever happened to them.Fritz Vicken was able to locate Sgt. Ralph Blank in a Maryland nursing home after years of searching for the soldiers, thanks to "Unsolved Mysteries". Sadly, Fritz Vicken died the year this movie was released. What is ironic is that Fritz immigrated to this country after the war, like so many German soldiers and civilians. Our former enemies were now productive Americans. Fritz owned a bakery in Honolulu for many years.I've added this movie to my Christmas holiday collection.