Posted on 05/30/2004 4:15:31 AM PDT by ken5050
If you happen to turn your TV set on at any time this Memorial Day weekend, there's a strong probability you'll come across a World War II war movie..... the classic Hollywood genre. There are many of them, and, happily a lot of very good ones. So, on this weekend of remembrance, and the dedication of the WW II memorial, what's your favorite, or favorites, and why?
"The Harmonists" is a great film also. I don't know if you saw the comment where I mentioned it, but it's a film about a Jewish harmonist who is part of a quartet that performs for various Nazi officials.
Eventually, he is forced to flee in order to save himself. His best friend, a tall, blue-eyed, blond guy, becomes a top munitions expert, who makes rockets for the Nazis.
They Were Expendable
If anything, the story was written from a friendship angle; showing us how these three men were able to forge ahead by relying on each other's respective strengths, and how their particular weaknesses hindered one another at various points in time.
Guadacanal Diary and They Were Expendable.
I couldn't imagine having to consume the flesh of another human being-let alone, that of a close, family relation-in order to merely subsist.
It truly is remarkable that this city was able to survive the onslaught of the German army for such an extended period of time.
Von Ryan's Express
I saw most of Ike, I thought Selleck did a serviceable job, the only bad flaw I saw was that they portrayed Patton as a total fool.
It truly is remarkable that this city was able to survive the onslaught of the German army for such an extended period of time.
I often wonder if many Americans could withstand the same thing.
Red Dawn
One of the reasons the Russians were able to gut it out was because of the biggest ally they had on the Eastern Front; Old Man Winter.
Hitler, like every fanatic, did not take into account the lessons he should have learned from history. Napoleon tried the same thing and got shut down by Khutuzov, et. al., who had the winter's frost at their backs.
I wouldn't put such low stock in Americans-from whatever era or background. </>
With the mood and influence of the anti-war people in our media - Hollywood, newspapers, TV news etc, and the numbers who are ready to oppose war so quickly I hope you’re right.
Hopefully if a full scale invasion happened, we would respond as we did a couple centuries ago. It has been a long time since it has happened to us. Other than a few Mexican bandits in the early part of the 20th Century, we haven’t been invaded since the War of 1812.
I hope I don’t see it never happens again.
As that cad Huey Long was wont to say, when questioned if fascism will ever take hold in the United States:
Yep, but it will be calling itself antifascism.
I can’t really imagine any country being foolish enough to invade us - unless we get a couple Presidents like Hanoi John back to back.
No, Crown Prince Nayef, I don't see why we can't have a few Saudi Arabian air bases on the East Coast. How does Martha's Vineyard sound? Great, we'll discuss it while we're on the slopes.
On Martha's Vineyard?
Sounds good to me. It would be the ideal location for protecting New York. It wouldn’t require tearing down as many homes (compounds?) as it would in other areas.
That and its sequel, "War and Remembrance" were excellent books and films.
One of the best lines of any WWII book has the Brit journalist and his niece in Singapore just before its fall to Japan. All the talk on the island is whether or not "Fortress Singapore" actually is and public optimism is tempered with lots of private doubt. It is in that atmosphere that the uncle bursts into his sleeping niece's room shouting,
"We just won the war! We just won the war!"
His groggy niece who has no idea what he's talking about asks, "The Germans surrendered?"
To which he replies, "No, the Japs just bombed Pearl Harbor. The Yanks are in it! It'll take a few years of fighting, but the outcome is no longer in doubt."
I completely agree. Conspiracy: Meeting at Wannsee is a recent effort and as chilling a portrayal of evil as Compulsion (the Leopold/Loeb case) or In Cold Blood.
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