1864

A great and intriguing miniseries, which opens in 1851 and closes in 1864 following a peculiar love story against the backdrop of the Second Schleswig War. The historical storyline is complemented by the contemporary one. The two parts of the story fit quite well together, clearly showing how too much nationalist fervor can make a small nation dangerous not only to others but especially to itself. I was satisfied with the whole series, I was far from bored. The only thing that disappointed me was the sloppy ending. (25.11.2016)

After watching this mini-series, I understand that in her native Denmark, she received a lot of criticism mainly for the subject matter itself. If someone were to film the topic of the Masin brothers or the life of President Benes, they would also find a whole lot of opponents just by the nature of nationalism, as such. The fact is, though, that from a filmmaking perspective, 1864 is an absolute gem. Moreover, a gem that had the honor of filming to a large extent in the Czech Republic, and so here in one of the important, albeit not entirely speaking, roles you will meet, for example, the beautiful Eva Jozefikova, who probably captivated the crew with her beauty because there are quite a few shots of her. Besides Eva, there are also shots of the war, which are filmed absolutely uniquely. Personally, I admit that I didn't even know about the Danish-German war, so this series was a great experience for me. Furthermore, eight episodes are eight episodes, and so the significant military conflict that ended everything needed to be wrapped in a certain human coat, telling the stories of different people from different times. At times it was slightly confusing or unnecessarily long. In the overall context of the series, however, it is still a significant European project, which is also the most expensive project that Denmark has ever sent out into the world. (04.12.2020)

1864 is a project that I approached with confidence. Danish television production rightly has a good reputation, churning out one international success after another, and in addition, considering the size of the country, it is capable of carrying out ambitious large-scale productions. The subject offered a journey into understanding historical events, the significance of which had so far escaped me. I like similar topics, as history has been my hobby since high school. The series is well-cast and full of familiar faces and it has an appropriate set design - so why only two stars? It is because I feel that something is wrong with the scriptwriting. At the end of the first two episodes, I found myself staring at the screen with a blank look and unable to remember what had just happened. Yet, the series offers many powerful themes. It is the story of a confident country that fell victim to self-delusion of exceptionalism and nationalist fervor, and in the end, it cost them dearly. However, if you can't connect with the characters in the series, if you can't appreciate the effort of the script to connect events from the second half of the 19th century with the present, and if you prefer fantasy elements, then you will simply not get into the series. In the end, I only appreciated the well-directed war scenes. There were quite a few of them, including truly massive ones, but the journey to get there was long and exhausting. Overall impression: 45%. (20.06.2017)