The Damned

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The Damned

R

Released Oct 14, 1969

2h 33m

Drama

LGBTQ+

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Popcornmeter

84%

Tomatometer

19 Reviews

81%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

A steel-magnate baroness (Ingrid Thulin), her lover (Dirk Bogarde) and her son (Helmut Berger) embody Nazi depravity.

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

A magnificent failure, an example of a great director working at the peak of his ability and somehow creating almost nothing at all. Surely no one else could have made this film; surely no one at all should have.

Rated: 1/4

Jul 2, 2018

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Eric Henderson

Slant Magazine

By the end of the opening sequence, the film has already indulged in pan-sexuality, corporate backstabbing, anti-reactionary suppression, pedophilia, and murder plots.

Rated: 3/4

Feb 17, 2004

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Vincent Canby

New York Times

A spectacle of such greedy passion, such uncompromising sensation, and such obscene shock that it makes you realize how small and safe and ordinary most movies are.

Rated: 5/5

May 20, 2003

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Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

Vogue

It is a curious film, intense and murky, and, to this reviewer, a failure.

Jun 20, 2023

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Brian Susbielles

InSession Film

A shocking, depraved, and sadistic tale of family dynamics with the wealthy von Essenbeck family.

Feb 28, 2023

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David Harris

Spectrum Culture

Tracing the downfall of the von Essenbecks, a family of steel magnates now manufacturing and selling weapons to the Nazis, director Luchino Visconti uses The Damned to document the profligacy and debauchery that set the stage for Hitler’s rise.

Aug 2, 2022

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Jeremy W

A pedantic, ill-researched pseudo literary Gothic collection of nonsequiturs aiming to portray nazism, military capitalist power and sordid, I mean truly sordid, family politics and greed. And a bloated, boring failure of a movie that pitches it's pretence of deep significance with screeching, shallow melodrama.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/18/25

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David B

As cold and sterile as a brand new walk-in freezer. Even the nude bodies are as sexless and lifeless as raw fillets that have just had the silver skin peeled off them.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

09/22/23

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Tamara K

You know you're watching a film with no quality control when Nazis are smoking filter tipped cigarettes when they were invented until the 1950s.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

09/24/23

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kliff h

12/10-22 (rewatch) Criterion 2K. A long dark and gritty section of Viscontis visions of the Nazi rise to power. Its hard to not think of movies in the same genre like, Salo, Mephisto, The Night Porter etc. So much suffering and hardship in the 30-40s, endless disgust and countless lives taken for no good reason. Yet Visconti himself, as openly gay at the time and beyond, makes this into a crusade for his proclaiming sexuality, protraiting the nazis as very overrepresentive gay, as to faulter them even more. So were parts are manageable realistic it turns to a orgy fest, without any real grip of reality. He paints the dangers though lack to emphasise it.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

I thought it was boring . I love Italian cinema but of the 3 Visconti films I've watched only Ludwig grabbed my attention. Lots of overacting and quite a lot of dull moments. What is the point of all this .

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/18/22

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Audience Member

I'd forgotten just how sick and twisted a film The Dammed is. Probably the best account of the moral corruption of Nazism. Seen through a family tearing itself apart. Essential cinema.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

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Luchino Visconti

Director

Dirk Bogarde

Frederick Bruckmann

Ingrid Thulin

Sophie Von Essenbeck

Helmut Berger

Martin Von Essenbeck

Helmut Griem

Aschenbach

Charlotte Rampling

Elisabeth Thallman

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Synopsis

A steel-magnate baroness (Ingrid Thulin), her lover (Dirk Bogarde) and her son (Helmut Berger) embody Nazi depravity.

Director: Luchino Visconti
Producer: Ever Haggiag, Alfred Levy
Screenwriter: Nicola Badalucco, Enrico Medioli, Luchino Visconti
Distributor: Warner Bros., Warner Home Vídeo
Production Co: Eichberg-Film GmbH, Praesidens-Pegaso Italnoleggio
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 14, 1969, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 20, 2017
Runtime: 2h 33m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)