SHOULD I READ IT? As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me (2001)

                “As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me” is a German movie produced, directed, and co-written by Hardy Martins.  It is based on the eponymous book by novelist Josef Martin Bauer.  Bauer was telling the supposed adventures of Cornelius Rost (who changed his name to Clemens Forell to avoid KGB retribution). 

                Forrell (Bernard Betterman) is in the German army when he is taken prisoner by the Soviets near the end of the war.  He is taken in a freezing boxcar with no food or water to a Siberian gulag.  The prison has no fences or watch towers because escape into the wilderness would be suicidal (like in “Bridge on the River Kwai”).  Also, like that movie (and virtually every other prisoner of war movie), there is a sadistic camp commandant named Kamenev (Anatoly Kotenyov).  The men are forced to work in a coal mine.  Forell manages to escape, but it will be years for him to get back home.  The odyssey puts him through a variety of episodes and he meets a variety of colorful characters.  Kamenev is on his trail throughout.

                “As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me” is not really a war movie.  It is part prisoner of war movie and part chase film.  It is entertaining and can be heart-tugging.  There are flash-backs to his family life.  The scenery is beautiful.  If you love snowy scenes, this is your movie.  The score propels the movie well.  The acting is fine.  The problem with the film is it seems it perpetuates a lie.  Subsequent probings after Bauer’s book came out have cast severe doubts about Rost’s story.  For instance, records show that Rost was released two years before the escape depicted in the movie.  If you watch it, keep in mind that much of it is bullshit.

GRADE  =  C+