BEFORE THE FALL ('NAPOLA') is a brilliantly made film that addresses the blind hopes of youth in becoming a success as a man, a factor that allowed and allows dictators to entice young men into the realm of warriors under the guise of applauded bravery and the golden promise of achieving glory for a great cause. This story just happens to be about Hitler and his 40 Napola (training camps for the elite German youths in 1942) and the young boys and men who trained in these National Political societies. It could be found in many places and in many times...

Friedrich Weimer (handsome and talented young Max Riemelt) comes from the lower class in Germany (his father is aiming him toward factory work) and is a fine young boxer. His talents are noted by some representatives from the Nazi party and he is asked to report for enrollment in a Napola, an important means of education and training that Friedrich sees as being his way to become something special, someone important. His father is anti-Nazi and refuses to let Friedrich go, but Friedrich is determined and runs into the night to join the Napola. Once there he is admitted, groomed as a boxer for the Napola, and introduced to the Hitler's youth movement. His fellow classmates vary from the very wealthy to other fine Arian lads. They are trained, observed, and brainwashed as to the glory of the Thousand Year Reich. Problems begin to arise when Friedrich gets to know his fellow classmates: Siegfried (Martin Goeres) is a bed wetter and is humiliated publicly for his problem; Albrecht (Tom Schilling) is a poet and writer whose father is one of the governors of the Napola and Albrecht is anti-war; other lads seem on the surface to be obedient yet most have hidden reservations about what they are doing.

Being 1942 some changes are occurring in the Nazi dream and the Senior class is sent out on a mission to fight the enemy. And one night Friedrich's class is called out of bed and sent into the woods to find Russian soldiers who are 'threatening' their security. The boys open fire on the Russians only to find that they have killed a number of unarmed Russian boys. This profoundly disturbs them all, but Albrecht in particular. Friedrich continues to observe the manner in which he and the other boys are used and slowly his best friends find ways to martyr themselves and ultimately Friedrich does the same in his only way - by changing the way he approaches the Napola expectations of his boxing.

Max Riemelt as Friedrich is outstanding: not only does he have the solid extraordinary good looks but he also can act, satisfying every nuance of this challenging role. The remainder of the cast - both young boys and the adults running the Napola - are superb. The cinematography is subtly beautiful, ranging from the tough interiors inside to the vistas of a Germany before it was destroyed by the not too distant fall. Director Dennis Gansel, who co-wrote the script with Maggie Peren, is a young man (the featurette with the DVD has an enlightening conversation between Gansel and Riemelt) knows exactly how to capture both the wide-eyed innocence of youth and the slowly crumbled ideals of young men. This is an outstanding film to see and experience. Its lessons are terrifying and intense. In German with English subtitles. Grady Harp

Contains slight spoilers.

This is one of a new breed of German films (like 'The Downfall') that takes a new look at the Nazi period. It is not afraid to show how attractive Nazism actually seemed to most Germans at the time and to show 'nice' characters happily giving the Hitler salute. Not that the film is in any way pro-Nazi -- quite the reverse.

Here we have a story about an élite school for future Nazi leaders. A working-class boy who is good at boxing is given a place there, where he makes friends with the sensitive son of the local Nazi leader. The brutality of the system eventually pushes both of them to become outsiders. Two suicides tellingly punctuate the story.

The acting is outstanding throughout, especially by the young stars of the film. Max Riemelt is particularly good as the boxer. The character is meant to be a doer rather than a thinker, unlike his friend, but Riemelt manages the transition from easy-going and rather empty-headed Hitler youth to someone who is prepared to stand against the inhumanity of Nazism.

The plot contains some powerful dramatic set pieces, such as the scene with the hand grenades and the one where the students dive under a frozen lake. These are brilliantly handled by the director and screenwriter, Dennis Gansel. He manages to bring out the full drama of them without overdoing it or lurching into melodrama or pathos.

I'm not generally a great fan of German films, many of which tend to be either self-consciously arty or trashily commercial. This is the best one I've seen since Das Boot.

This is every bit as disturbing a film as "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and one that should give every viewer pause regarding it's theme of man's capacity for inhumanity in the name of country and it's misguided leaders. This idea is chillingly represented by various scenes throughout the movie, but in case you don't get it, it's effectively reinforced by the Commandant of the Napola School who instructs his youthful audience that their bodies belong to Germany and The Fuhrer. With an indoctrination like that, it's not too difficult to understand how most young men selected for these Nazi elite schools would find it convenient to go along and get along with the prevailing ideology.

For those who bear some personal responsibility for their actions, life under these extreme conditions becomes impossible. The suicides of Siegfried Gladen (Martin Goeres) and Albrecht Stein (Tom Schilling) underscore their personal torment and impossibility of escaping the physical and mental torture prevalent in their day to day existence. One is forced to consider - were these young men simply weak or were they instead the ones showing true courage and bravery in the face of unrelenting fascism.

There's one particular scene that embodies the horror of the Nazi machine. When Friedrich's (Max Riemelt) junior class is called upon to track down escaped Russian prisoners of war, we come to find out that they were mere children, gunned down in the darkness by the Napola elite. As the critically wounded boy tended by Albrecht begins to die, a single snowflake drifts peacefully into his eye, melting in harmony with the boy's spirit which mercifully drifts away.

There's one event in the picture I'm still thinking about and wondering why it wasn't addressed. During the session with the grenades, when the scared student fails to throw his weapon, the terrified trainer runs away. How is it he escaped reprimand for not living up to the ideals of Nazi ideology by sacrificing himself for his students? His action best illustrates how tyrants truly behave when faced with their own mortality, ideology be damned.