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Reviews
Murphy's War (1971)
Peter O'Toole does a magnificent job.
This film was fictionalized so that it could be viewed by civilians. What actually happened was far worse than shown in the movie. When the Germans invade the native hospital they killed the doctor and all of the civilian natives they could find. They did this to conceal their presence and activities from the world once the war was over. The film crew had to use a Grumman Duck because they could not find a Vought Kingfisher. The mechanic that was trying to learn to fly the plane would never have looped and rolled it but like any producer they did it to maintain interest in the film. The river used in the movie was the Orinoco in Venezuela even though the incident happened on the amazon in Brazil. The fact that the crew and captain might have been tried for war crimes had they left any of the survivors alive led them to eliminate all known survivors. The movie tries to show what survivors would have had to do in reality to achieve justice. Of course no one tried the victors. The German crew killed less than 300 people while the fire bombing of Tokyo killed 200,000 people. Perhaps the message the film tried to establish was that only the meek shall survive. I loved the scene near the end when Louie walks off abandoning his only source of income to a lunatic. In reality he would have refused to let the tug go to sea in the first place. When Peter would scream full speed ahead, in the real world Louie would have shut off the fuel line. This is one of the best movies around and the flying sequence is magnificent.
Having flown a Giles 202 for five years the aerobatics were something I know about from first hand experience and the loops and rolls were easy. I was also in a Sabreliner when it was rolled but to roll the Duck is something I would never have done. To take a plane that had been so severely damaged and and then to loop it is beyond any form of possibility. The plane, as shown in the movie, did not have enough power to go vertical and once it got inverted the engine would have quit as the plane stalled inverted.
Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
may contain spoilers.
This makes the Nazi movement look less than lethal while in fact it threatened to end civilization as we know it. Grant and Rogers made this movie before December 7, 1941 although it was released in 1942. During the time the movie was being made many Americans wanted the USA to stay out of the war. If this movie had been more realistic it would have been so horrible than in would have been banned until after the war. What was happening in the conquered countries could not be shown in the true light of day as it would have blinded the public. It is amazing that so few European countries were willing to stand up for their Jewish population like Denmark was. If anyone really wants a first class look at Europe before the was they could read TWILIGHT OF COURAGE. It is a shame that this is the only book on the prelude to WWII that these authors wrote.
The comedy in this movie makes it hard to sit through in this post WWII era but is all that could have been endured at the time it was produced.
Roosevelt was severely criticized for declaring was on Nazi Germany at the time he did it. What we need to realize is that if Hitler had won the war he would have exterminated 90% of the Americans, not just the Jews. This movie is a must see for anyone interested in the feelings of America before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The distressing thing is that if Hitler had not been crazy and had not declared war on America after Roosevelt had declared war on Japan, those of us who had survived the Nazi victory would now be speaking German.
Playing for Time (1980)
I saw the movie last night and it is fantastic
When I saw this movie in 1980 I thought it was good. I remember the JDL wanting it banned because it had Vanessa Reedgraves in the title role and she had recently been photographed with the PLO holding up an AK47. However, her part in this movie was flawless. She and several of the supporting actors must have starved themselves to look so skinny and forlorn. There is one scene that is especially riveting. It occurs at night when one of the starving prisoners comes to Vanessa to express her love for another prisoner. To me it represented the displacement of impending extermination with a feeling of passion for another person. This is the same irrational runaway of internal emotions that impels someone to leave his wife and family and run off with another person, male or female. This feeling has been described as uncontrollable, ie. beyond conscious control.
Also, we have one very beautiful Nazi Guard. She is shown shooting someone in cold blood, but she also expresses deep human concern for the members of the orchestra and for children.
Joseph Mengaler is also portrayed in this movie. He is responsible for keeping the prisoners alive although we know from history that he was brutal in his experimentation on prisoners. The part is played by the actor who was the father in the TV series Alf. Toward the end one of the guards tells the fleeing prisoners that if they go left they will fall into British hands but if they go right they will fall into Russian Hands. Also, we are shown the guards being rounded up and taken out in trucks. If the Russians had taken over the camp this would not have happened as the Russians shot all the guards and made prisoners watch. This was especially hard on prisoners who had been befriended by guards.