Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Leofwine_draca THE BLOCKHOUSE should, by all rights, be a very effective bit of cinema. It tells the true story is seven men trapped in a cellar at the tail-end of WW2 and who end up surviving below ground for the next six years. The story has something of the drama and urgency of the recent Chilean miner saga but this '70s film is anything but interesting. Instead it's overlong and poorly filmed, and suffers from really bad sound quality which sees people either whispering or shouting with nothing in between. Various notable actors are present but there's little characterisation, just people getting drunk and going crazy repetitively. I found it all rather nauseating before long.

verbusen I just watched the DVD version of this film which one would hope is the uncut version, but I don't know. This story of 7 men trapped alive and forgotten in a blockhouse during D Day is utterly depressing. It reminded me of men trapped in a submarine and the moments they would endure until their air would run out, except here there is plenty of air (God knows how fresh it would be), and food and water. The movie really glorifies an utterly depressing concept and even so it couldn't raise it to any kind of joyful ending for me as it does not show the eventual liberation of the survivors just a shocking credit saying they were freed after 6 years (and 4 without any light). The movie takes you through only their first year and these guys are using thousands of candles to light a raceway for a bicycle track. It doesn't go far past that point and into the the maddening darkness period. The movie, while it may be a true story, I'm not sure merited making a movie of. I think it was picked more to show what 7 men do when they are alone in the world and less a tale of escape from doom, thus homosexual elements are introduced in the film. It's a world war 2 story told through an artsy prism. I thought after viewing it that it was a very strange subject to have been picked to be filmed and also very, very depressing. 5 stars.

kulaboy This is an amazing film. Listen for the movie soundtrack... yes, what soundtrack? There is a little music at start and end, and then... the silence becomes the tomb that these men are trapped in. It's based on a book, and I don't know if it's a true story or not, but I'd love to find out. This isn't a flashy movie and it's darkly lit and the sound (on my video anyway) is poor. But wow! Men trapped in a tomb with no hope of escaping for SIX YEARS. What a story. There is enough food, water, liquor and candles to last them for most of the movie.. the only thing is, being trapped near the ocean without any hope of escape, the men face boredom. Interesting relationships bloom and ways of passing the time, such as games, are the men's only escape. When a bicycle is discovered, the men go crazy with delight.This is a tough film to watch. It's scary to imagine it happening. And there are good, good performances by the crew involved. I saw it because of Peter Sellers- I came away realizing this movie is stolen by the whole cast and I wish it would be seen more and appreciated. This is a film I think Alec Guinness would have appreciated.

dver17 Clive Rees has made a wonderful "dark" film based on Jean-Paul Clebert's book which describes a WWII story that one can hardly believe, yet true! The film was ahead of its time and the production suffered from financial problems and lack of faith in the film. This caused in cutting down scenes, and finally in never releasing the film, despite the great stars involved in it (Peter Sellers, Jeremy Kemp, Peter Vaughan, Charles Aznavour and others)! Since then, the film has appeared a handful of times in festivals & retrospectives and was released as a VHS in USA (1984). Yet, the VHS version is a vulgarly abridged one where entire scenes are missing... I was happy to help the film be part of a Peter Sellers retrospective in the annual Athens International Film festival (September 2000), held by Sinema magazine. Clive Rees attended the screenings and brought with him the directors' cut version of the film, which runs about 15 more minutes. The result is a totally different film, a poetic creation, a really great drama, with wonderful performances of the participating actors! The audience gave 95,3% positive votes for the film and gave a long, spontaneous applause, which I think was, at last some reward to Clive Rees' unlucky film. If only had the film been released nowadays, I am pretty sure it would have had a completely different chance. Now, at least it deserves a great DVD version and I hope it soon will (but of course it would have to be the director's cut and hopefully a making of documentary). Does anyone listen???