Two Excellent War Films to Commend

[Colonel J Lee]

Excuse me if this is not the right place for this, but I don't know where else to post it and I think some, if not all of you men, will appreciate the information.

I have two movies to commend that are very good:

The Lost Battalion (WWI). Private-Ryan like battle scenes and good story. A real surprise (not well known, but very well done it appears).

"Downfall". This one is about the fall of the Third Reich and the last days of Hitler in the bunker. This is an impressive film. The main actor, Bruno Ganz, has a distinguished acting career and is AMAZING as Hitler. He looks very much like him, too. It's all in German with subtitles as the actors are all German.

Neither film is 'perfect' in my opinion (what film is?). However, I believe most of you on this forum will find them very engrossing. They are well-crafted, well-acted, and seemingly historically accurate for the most part (I'm less sure about this with regard to the Lost Battalion). Happy viewing.

[SKELLEN]

Maybe you should have posted this in the General forum.

I've heard of 'The Lost Battalion' but never seen it as yet and I agree with you on 'Downfall' and Bruno Ganz on his excellent performance and his moving portayal of this evil/monstrous like man and the madness that so obviously plagued him.

Very moving indeed!

Btw I don't know if you are aware of this, but I read just a couple of days ago that Hitler liked to listen to music by Jewish composers amongst others, how chilling is that for one case of ultimate hypocrisy?

[Colonel J Lee]

He knew he was listening to music written by Jewish composers? Interesting.

I watched Downfall last night. The reviews on Amazon are extremely positive; of 295 reviews, 278 were either five stars out of five (234) or four stars (44). Most cite the acting of Ganz.

Some reviewers criticized the lack of commentary on the holocaust and the 'human' depiction of Hitler. However, I don't believe those in the Bunker spent a lot of time talking about the Jews those last few weeks, with Germany crumbling around them and the Russians down the street. Sadly, Hitler WAS a human and a quintessential example of the worst of the human family. Most of us know going into such a movie as Downfall what he was responsible for (along with his Nazi henchmen). So, it wasn't so important to me that the producers included clear presentations of his supremacist/racist beliefs (though some of the dialogue brings these out).

[Colonel J Lee]

P.S. to Skellen.....

I did not see that there is a General Forum. Whoops.

[Philippe]

I think there may be some confusion here between composers and conductors.

None of the records in Hitler's collection were on the banned music list as far as I could tell. What is interesting is how much Russian music there was. One singer's name that caught my eye was Chaliapin, who was not exactly Stalinist. Wagner was represented not by the Ride of the Valkyries but by the overture from Flying Dutchman. But Richard Strauss and the Rosenkavalier were nowhere in evidence.

[sudowudo]

i've seen lost battalion,its the most recently made WW1 film.focus is on a US infantry battalion that advances into a seam in the german defences then gets cut off.its ok but the action scenes save it.

[David I]

I thought it was strange in "Lost Battalion" that when the artillery started to come down how many guys got up and started doing a strange game of "musical foxholes". Running around during a barrage is not a good idea. I don't think you would see so much as a helmet above ground level when the big shells come down.

Check out "Days of Glory" new French flick about the Morrocan and Algerian Divisions raised during WWII. They fought in Italy, Southern France and Germany (movie appears to have been filmed in North Africa and in those countries so has a great "feel"). Lot's of Colonial troop angst about fighting for, and in, the Mother Country.

"Vive la France" sounds interesting in Arabic.

DavidI