Napola / Before the Fall (2004)
The film was heavily marketed to the gay community with advertising in Advocate and Out magazines. The cover art has a shirtless guy right next to another guy in uniform — a suggestive juxtaposition. The distributor, Picture This! , does actually carry mostly gay interest films. However, this film, Before the Fall, has practically no gay content — it is _not_ a gay interest film. I see why some reviews say disappointing and predictable. On the other hand, the film has a couple things going for it: one pretty boy actor playing the lead who goes naked in one scene (the bed-wetter minor character actor was a knockout, too) and a slighty interesting plot. The story shows the protagonist struggling against the brutality and inhumanity of the Nazi war machine in 1942 while at an elite high school age Nazi military training academy. I guess it’s best to lower one’s expectations greatly before seeing this film.
And here is yet another esoteric foreign film which garners interest and money through gay marketing. If it didn’t have that hook probably no one would have seen this amateurish production. I hereby put Picture This! on notice: you are skating on thin ice folks. I won’t be tricked again by your misleading marketing.
– updated 10/15
A far better gay-interest film with a very slightly related story line is Europa, Europa.
