Blood & Gold – Netflix Review (3/5)

BLOOD & GOLD on Netflix is a new WW2 action thriller from Germany. It has a touch of dark comedy and a Western vibe – a solid hybrid, but a tad too slow at times. Read our Blood & Gold movie review here!

BLOOD & GOLD is a new Netflix action thriller set in the final days of World War II. It’s from Germany and covers both the horrors of war and the despicable actions of Nazi soldiers while showing what ordinary German citizens were subjected to.

Okay, that might make it sound like a dark drama, but it also has moments of that. Overall, however, it’s very much an action thriller with a few touches of dark comedy to make it all bearable. And the title doesn’t lie; it is very bloody (and gory).

The runtime of 100 minutes is a bit too long for me as it could’ve been told tighter.

Continue reading our Blood & Gold movie review below. Find it on Netflix from May 26, 2023.

A simple story driven by intriguing characters

Not unlike Saving Private Ryan, the plot of this WW2 movie is very simple. What makes it work are the intriguing characters and the all-too-real and honest depictions of war-torn countries. And, in particular, the citizens forced to endure it all.

The story in Blood & Gold plays out in the Spring of 1945. In other words, the final days of the Second World War. But it isn’t over yet!

We get a first-hand account of this through the story of the German deserter Heinrich (Robert Maaser). He never wanted to go to war – like most other Germans – and after six years he’s done. Also, even the German soldiers are starting to sense that this won’t end well for the Nazis.

The young, brave, and very courageous farmer Elsa (Marie Hacke) tries to help him as he’s fleeing the Nazis wanting to punish him as a deserter. With a brutal SS troop on their heels, they all end up in a small village, where the SS troop was heading all along.

They know that a Jewish treasure is hidden there—one of gold (hence the title). The action-packed hunt for the gold by the Nazis, and a battle to survive for everyone else, culminates in a bloody showdown. Even the village church nor the priest is safe in this Netflix movie.

Inglourious Basterds meets All Quiet on the Western Front 

Netflix describes this WWII action thriller as Inglourious Basterds meets All Quiet on the Western Front. This description is surprisingly accurate. However, I would both argue and insist that Blood & Gold doesn’t use humor as much as Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

The horrors of war from All Quiet on the Western Front are quite definitely in the same vein.

And yet, it also has a distinct touch of that Western edge used in the Finnish WW2 movie Sisu. With Blood & Gold, it is very apparent via both the score and the credit font. The actual overall style, however, is very different between the two.

Sisu was more of a Spaghetti-Western while Blood & Gold is very much a classic Western of a newer kind. None of the pretty cowboy outfits, but rather the dark and gritty realism of it all.

Watch Blood & Gold on Netflix now!

Peter Thorwarth is the director of Blood & Gold while the screenplay comes from writer Stefan Barth. The previous movie from Peter Thorwarth was the Netflix movie Blood Red Sky (2021), so he clearly has a thing for “blood”-titles. The two are nothing alike though.

DO CHECK OUT

The previous Netflix movie from Blood & Gold director which we reviewed here >

If Blood & Gold had been just ten minutes shorter, then it would definitely have been stronger for it. It does lose some momentum along the way, which Sisu (yes, despite being a very different movie in style) managed to avoid.

Having said that, I still very much recommend checking out this latest WW2 movie as well.

Fun fact: If you’re a fan of the German Netflix series Dark, then you’ll probably recognize the fierce village woman, Sonja. She’s portrayed by Jördis Triebel who portrayed Katharine Nielsen in Dark.

Blood & Gold is on Netflix worldwide from May 26, 2023.

Details

Director: Peter Thorwarth
Writer: Stefan Barth
Stars: Robert Maaser, Marie Hacke, Alexander Scheer, Florian Schmidtke, Jördis Triebel, Stephan Grossmann