Inspired by a true story, "Walking with the Enemy" relates the horror of the deaths of 500,000 Jews in Hungary in the final year of World War II. The film's focus is on the attempt made by Pinchas Rosenbaum and a close friend to impersonate Nazi officers in order to save Hungarian Jews from certain death.

In the film, Rosenbaum's character is the fictionalized Elek Cohen, whose daring raids while in disguise as a Nazi officer rescued Hungarian Jews in the process of deportation to the death camps. While the film was earnest in the depiction of the brutal killings and mass deportations, the scenes of impersonation were not very credible, especially when Elek would simply show up on the scene and assume command of other Nazi officers.

Another shortcoming of the film was in the depiction of Regent Milos Horthy, on whose watch hundreds of thousands of Jews perished. As played by the actor Ben Kingsley, the filmmakers made Horthy a one-dimensional character, assigning the decision-making process more completely to Ferenc Szalasi, the chairman of the Arrow Cross party.

The historical Milos Horthy required a much more nuanced approach. After Horthy caved in to pressure from the Germans and a puppet government was installed in Hungary, the Germans moved with lightning-fast speed to round up and deport nearly 300,000 Hungarian Jews in less than three months in the spring of 1944. When Horthy finally ordered the deportations to cease one month later, 437,402 Hungarian Jews had been transported to the gas chambers. This sequence of events was radically compressed and far too vague, as depicted in the film.

One of the most interesting characters in the film was that of the Swiss envoy Carl Lutz, who made the courageous attempt to rescue Jews by giving them false Swiss visas. The efforts of Lutz and Rosenbaum were indeed heroic and were well-presented in the film. But the epilogue that moved the action forward to New York in the year 1980 seemed too tidy and romanticized in contrast to the visceral content of the film. "Walking with the Enemy" was nonetheless successful in dramatizing an important yet often untold story of the World War II and the Holocaust.

It's not that often there is a victorious movie about resistance in the Holocaust so it's quite a change to watch this well made and clearly written exciting true story. Just when you think there were no more interesting movies to be made about the Holocaust. The story is sometimes so hard to believe it has to be true. A Hungarian Jew disguises himself as a Nazi officer to help save Jews. His story from student to labor camp escapee to undercover fighter who saves many people is an engrossing tale of heroism and audacity.

The story of Hungary in World War II isn't that often shown on screen so it's interesting to see how they went from one side to the other. Ben Kingsley plays the Regent of Hungary at the time and is portrayed sympathetically as being caught between a rock and a hard place. The movie clearly shows the role of the pivotal bad Germans and Hungarians and their fates.

The cast apart from Ben Kingsley isn't that well known which makes them all the more convincing and they are all quite good. Unlike Defiance where there was James Bond acting as a partisan - the actors here look right for their roles. The production values are high and the locations and battles look quite good especially considering it wasn't a very big budget movie.

This is an exciting action WW2 movie based on real events, some of which feel too unbelievable to be have happened. A Jewish Hungarian escapes a labour camp and wears a dead Nazi uniform to rescue many Jews. The action is gripping without being too over the top. The actors are all very suited to their parts and act well. The production isn't cheap either.

Interesting look at what happened to Hungary during the last year of the war.