Saving Private Ryan 15 year anniversary guest post

Saving Private Ryan Historical Accuracy

Fifteen years ago, on July 24th, 1998, one of the most realistic portrayals of World War II ever put to film was released. Saving Private Ryan caused more than a stir when it premiered - in fact, the film was so realistic that it caused a spike of PTSD cases reported by real life D-Day and WWII Veterans. Many counselors began to advise veterans who were “more psychologically vulnerable” to avoid the trip to the theaters.

The film, which starred the phenomenal actors Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns and, of course, Tom Hanks, as well as household names like Matt Damon and Vin Diesel in minor roles, was too much of an unwanted trip down memory lane for many who had experienced war first-hand. For those not involved in the war, however, Saving Private Ryan provided the first cinematic experience that was anywhere near close to the true horrors of war. Let’s look at the two main reasons the film was so successful, and accurate, in portraying the grisly reality of World War II: the opening battle scene, and the considerable efforts that went into it from behind the camera.

The Opening Scene

    The first 27 minutes of the film were dedicated solely to the depiction of the Omaha Beach assault, which took place on D-Day June 6, 1944. The scene, which was shot on Ballinesker Beach in Ireland, was realistic and intense enough to be named the “best battle scene of all time” by Empire magazine and ranked number one on TV Guide’s list of the 50 greatest movie moments.

So how was it accomplished? The scene cost a whopping $12 million to create, and involved around 1,500 extras, many of whom were members of the Irish Reserve Defence Forces. To play the German soldiers, members of local reenactment groups (for example, the Second Battle Group) were cast. Along with these extras, approximately twenty to thirty actual amputees stepped up to more realistically portray American soldiers that had been maimed during the landing. Tom Sanders, the production designer, transformed the beach by building the defensive Belgian gates and even tracking down any remaining World War II-era landing crafts, called Higgins boats. Perhaps most importantly, Spielberg chose not to storyboard the sequence. He wanted purely spontaneous reactions and for “the action to inspire me as to where to put the camera.”

    The scene, and the rest of the film as well, stayed true to the weapons that would have been used during World War II. For example, the M1 Carbine was used by Allied forces and in the film Sergeant Mike Horvath, Private Toynbe and most of the paratroopers use them. On the other side, the film’s German forces used the the MG 42, or “Maschinengewehr” in German, which is a 7.92 universal machine gun that was developed in Nazi Germany and entered service in 1942.

    Spielberg also used techniques such as having hand-held cameras follow the men, placing the audience squarely in the shoes of the men receiving fire. He peeled the protective coating off the camera lenses used, making the colors more closely resemble the cameras used in the ‘40s, and even ensured that the men acted with complete faithfulness to the historical events, right down to the portraying the sea-sickness experienced by many of the soldiers as the landing crafts moved toward the French shoreline.

The Men Behind the Camera


    There’s no denying that Tom Hanks is an outstanding actor, with a resume that includes Forrest Gump (1994), Catch Me If You Can (2002) and The Terminal (2004), just to name a few films, and the supporting cast in Saving Private Ryan is no different. It was director Steven Spielberg, however, who brought on an already demonstrated interest and experience with World War II themes. Spielberg had already previously directed 1941 (1979), Empire of the Sun (1987), Schindler’s List (1993) and the Indiana Jones series, all of which deal with World War II either directly or indirectly.

Aside from the breathtaking opening scene, Spielberg also received high praise for the unique “knife fight” scene between Private Stanley Mellish (Adam Goldberg) and an unnamed German soldier. Mellish is killed with his own knife, pushed slowly, excruciatingly into his chest by the German soldier who whispers (translated to English), “Give up, you don’t stand a chance! Let’s end this here; it will be easier for you like this!” We are forced to watch as Mellish shakes and takes his final breaths before the German leaves the room. The scene was wonderfully directed, Spielberg seems to have caught the slowness of death, as well as the physical exertion necessary to take the life of another human being. There is no simple “bang, you’re dead!” in Saving Private Ryan, only gruesome, agonizing departures.

    Another man due some credit for his behind the scenes work is Tom Struthers, in charge of choreography. His skill was so exceptional, in fact, that he has since been recruited to work on the films Inception (2010), D-Day (2013), and The Dark Knight Trilogy (2012). Struther’s stunt strategy is one based off of authentic fighting styles. “I had to make sure the actors were trained to fight like soldiers, not superheroes,” said Struthers when discussing his newest project, D-Day. We’re pretty sure he used a similar tactic on Saving Private Ryan.

Before even reaching Struthers, the cast of Saving Private Ryan were trained by former U.S. Marine Corps Captain Dale Dye, who made the actors eat rations and crawl and sleep in the mud and dirt. During training, Dye put the actors through actual camp, calling them only by their character names and drilling into them the basics of soldiering, which included persevering when you have absolutely no desire to do so. When asked about the experience, Hanks later said, “I think he was trying to instill in us the idea that when you think you can’t go any farther, you can. You just have to decide to do it, which is exactly the situation in which many of the men involved in the Normandy invasion found themselves.”

Saving Private Ryan is still one of the most visceral representations of the horrors of World War II ever made, and fifteen years after its release, the hand-held, first person combat camera introduced in this film has become the standard way to depict combat in movies. Between the weapons, extras, its historical accuracy, and the film’s unique emotional resonance, it will likely continue setting the standard for war movies for another fifteen years, and beyond.
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About the Author:

Spencer Blohm is a television and movie blogger for Direct4TV.com, where he covers everything from profiles of actors and directors to reviews of new releases and retrospectives on forgotten classics. He spends his free time reading, and watching films and documentaries about whatever historical events happen to capture his attention at that moment. He lives and works in Chicago, with his cat, Rupert.

Generation Kill review

My top 3 favorite HBO shows are Deadwood, Generation Kill and Band of Brothers. It is hard to pick which one of those I like the best as they are all fantastic. However Generation Kill has that crazy dark humor of portraying mayor clusterfucks in contemporary warfare.

This is a 7 part miniseries about the invasion of Iraq, told more or less from the point of view of a reporter who tagged along the spearhead of the invasion - the US Marine Corps recon batallion. It stars Alexander Skarsgård which imo does a vastly superior performance in this show compared to the awful crap "True Blood", we also get Lee Tergesen who was superb as "Beecher" in another really great HBO show called "Oz" which I'm also a fan of.

There is a great number of very likable, hilarious and serious characters in this show. From the "straight" character of Skarsgårds character Sgt Colbert  who is just longing for a real recon mission that he has been trained for, to his goofy sidekick corporal Person, the little trigger happy and gun horny young kid Trombley who just wants to get to fire his SAW at something or someone and constantly spawns morbid onelines - and of course the reporter played by Tergesen.

Other memorable characters is the commanding officer of the marines called "Godfather" who talks with this low husky voice (apparently that is not the actors real voice, which is pretty impressive). One of my favorite reoccurring characters is another officer that the marines call "Captain America" who is pretty much a loose cannon of insanity, constantly screaming panicky commands over the radio about them being ambushed and blown to hell, at other times he scavenges enemy AK47s which he uses to "disable enemy vehicles" (firing at civilian cars and animals). The madness and surrealism of the whole situation that the marines go through is both entertaining and shocking at the same time.

You really get the impression that the grunts just want to do their job, while command and higher officers sends them on shitty missions with little information about the enemy to earn fame and glory. At one point the marines sum it up that "if the target we were storming with our HumVee's out in the open was actually manned by enemies, we would have been dead already". The lack of proper equipment and vehicle armor is another mentioned detail, Sgt Colbert resorting to ordering a gunshield for the vehicle turret from Ebay!

And of course the random nature of modern warfare with confusion, weird intelligence reports, friendly civilians, pissed off civilians, Iraqi militia fighters, roadblock fuckups and collateral damage to civilians and civilian property.

Almost every scene in every episode is memorable, at one point the marines are resting and talking about how peaceful their current location is and watch kids play near a house. Two minutes later a bunch of reservists drive by in trucks howling and firing their guns at the building and call in an airstrike to blow it to hell. In another one of the idiot officers in the company tries to call in an airstrike 200 meters from their own location against the recommendations of his junior officers - their asses are only saved by the moron calling in the airstrike having the wrong grid system on his map. The show has the perfect mix of humor, serious content, is anti-war without being on the nose and a pain in the ass about it - I think it simply shows a no bullshit version of events. It is based on the book written by the reporter who tagged along with these guys. It neither glorifies nor really condemns anything, but shows the problems and troubles caused by war.

A truly must see show with high production quality, fantastic screenplay, excellent performances all round and a rare flawless gem among TV entertainment.

Brotherhood of War review

As I somehow managed to catch a cold earlier this week, during the only damn day I left the house (had to visit the library to borrow a book for an exam I was writing), all plans for playing miniature wargames this weekend had to be cancelled....

So as I was writing my exam the first half of the week, and have been knocked out with this goddamn cold since Wednesday I kinda burned through most of my already written material. Checking my "to do" list I saw that I still had not posted a review for the excellent South Korean war film "Brotherhood of War" which is among my top 5 favorite war movies.

Brotherhood of War is a movie about the Korean war, from the perspective of the Koreans. The movie is about two brothers, Jin-Seok and Jin-Tae, Jin-Tae being the older and taking care of the family and looking after his younger brother. When the war between north and south Korea breaks out Jin-Seok is grabbed by some south Korean military men and drafted into the army. As Jin-Seok is sickly and hardly any soldier material the older brother first tries to bail him out but then ends up in the army as well with the goal to protect his younger brother by asking to serve in the same unit.

The war is going badly for the South, lack of supplies, lack of food and decent weapons lowers morale. The older brother comes up with an idea by talking to one of the officers about earning a medal of honor and thus being able to free his brother from active duty. Jin-Tae puts his life on the line and presses his luck doing various dangerous tasks and fighting like a crazy person for the sake of his brother.

The movie nicely shows both sides of the conflict, even though the north Koreans are depicted as somewhat more savage and evil looking on the battlefield. The movie also shows not only battlefield brutality but how the civilian population on both sides suffered war crimes for political ideologies. It also shows the uncompromising side of a civil war where you can run into someone from your old neighborhood fighting for the other side and having to kill them. Perhaps this is what makes the movie much more engaging and thoughtful. Not least because the characters are likeable and have strong motivations. The effects and combat scenes are really great, you can trace bits of Saving Private Ryan in the way the movie is shot, battles being fought both in the countryside and in urban areas - the violence and fighting has a gritty edge to it and conveys a feeling of  realism and connection to what's going on. This is not a warmovie with heroes and happy endings that leaves you pumped up or with the urge to instantly jump straight to your computer and fire up some online shooter. It's a bit more thought provoking than that.

Highly recommended!

World War 2: Behind closed doors (documentary)

This documentary is not about the battle of such and such - but rather a much more interesting political backstage view of the wheeling’s and dealings of the western allies and their new buddy Stalin. And the focus is not on Hitler but on Stalin throughout the documentary, which show the increasing weakening of morals, principles and control over Stalin that Roosevelt and Churchill had as the war progressed. This documentary wonderfully illustrates how everyone tried to fuck over someone else - be it trying to make some compromise or simply by wishing to end up on top - even among the English and the Americans.

And while a well read person with an interest in WW2 would most likely know almost everything that became the result of the discussions between the 3 allied leaders the documentary relies on telling you the details that were secret up until recently when archives have been opened up and notes from the meetings made public for research and historians.

A couple of things stood out. First of all, the honesty of the documentary (made by BBC) which does not paint an altogether flattering picture of neither Roosevelt nor Churchill.

The eye witnesses and participants in actions that transpired during the war, who are being interviewed in this documentary are also brutally honest - in some cases you have people laughing about themselves having committed war crimes in front of the camera.

But perhaps the most nauseating thing about the documentary is how it shows you the contrast of the brainwashing media bullshit about happy meetings and hugs between the allied leaders, Stalin and Polish representatives or even between the Germans and the Soviets. You have wonderful "facepalm moments" when they show LIFE or TIME magazines running some fucked up story about Stalin as this gentle giant and his NKVD being compared to the FBI.

It's nauseating because shit like this is still going on with the media today. Brainwashing the public with lies told straight to your face and hoping you are stupid enough not to see through the propaganda of modern day politics and events.

This documentary is amazingly good. It gives you a fantastic continuity of pre WW2 events all the way to the start of the cold war. It is very engaging, and will probably piss you off more than once as you watch it because of what it shows, and as such ends up being a much more intelligent and satisfying ride then just watching another 60 minute documentary on D-Day or the battle of Kursk for the 5th time but with slightly different archive material.

This documentary makes use of newsreels and archive material as well as live actors to portray historical characters as they re-enact meetings and deals as they have been recorded by people present back when it happened for real. It adds a bit of a fleshed out portrayal of events instead of just listening to a speaker voice for 6 hours.

The best part? Someone uploaded the entire series on youtube. You can watch it for free by following this link to the YouTube playlist of all 27parts of this documentary: LINK

Czas honoru/Time of honor WW2 tv series

Czas Honoru or "Time of honor" in English, is a Polish tv series that I stumbled upon just recently. The show is about Polish soldiers trained in England by Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.), an organization specialized in sabotage and resistance in German occupied countries. Being airdropped back to Poland during the spring of 1941 these soldiers are join the underground resistance in Warsaw where they are needed in different lines of work.

Counterfeiting German documents, assassinations on German collaborators, sabotage, and gathering of information and general conspiracy which causes lots of paranoia on who they can trust. Members of the conspiracy have pseudonyms and use contact persons and drop boxes.

The show depicts all aspects of life in Warsaw, with the random German roundups and executions on the streets, German officers living among the civilian population, "Volksdeutsche" having special privileges, the Warsaw Ghetto, the amount of people involved in the resistance in all sorts of ways. Storylines don't only show the Polish side but we get to follow both the Abwehr (German army intelligence) and Gestapo as well, see the Gestapo prison from the inside and their interrogation methods and the friction between the Abwehr and Gestapo.

There is a great cast of characters in this show, beside the 5 main characters dropped in from England, over the 3 seasons we also get a nice lineup of German "baddies" with the Abwehr major Martin Halbe being the bright spot during season 1 and later joined by Gestapo SS-Obersturmbannführer Lars Reiner during season 2 and 3. Reiner is a fantastic character, having worked for Interpol before the war he is more of a intelligent policeman than brute and there is lots of interesting and at times hilarious scenes with him and Halbe as they work their way through the Polish resistance.

The show has 3 seasons, and originally ended 2009, the ending of 3rd season was really meant to be the last season and you can see that by most of the plotlines being resolved (with an ending that is like a less moronic but similar to the Inglorious Basterds ending). However, the show has been renewed for one last, 4th , season which will start broadcasting this September. The last season makes a jump in time to 1944, which leaves it open to suggestion that the Warsaw Uprising could be covered in one way or the other.

The show was surprisingly enjoyable and is a good mix of drama and adventure. If I have to leave a complaint there are 2 things.

The first, the CGI of the very first episode will make you cringe - more specifically there is a brief sequence on a British airfield during season 1 first episode where there is a lineup of obviously fake planes. Luckily this is the only time anything like this occurs during the 3 seasons, and the locations and action throughout the remaining episodes is free of such jarring imagery.

The second, since it is a Polish tv series - obviously everyone speaks Polish. Not so bad when 80% of the cast is supposed to be Polish but this unfortunately stretches to the German characters as well. Though they keep using German names and military grades. The only time Germans speak German is when the audience sees something from the point of view of a character who can't speak German to highlight this.

A short rundown of the main storyline of the 3 seasons so far:

1 Season, acquiring contact with the underground resistance cells and start preparing people for the work ahead. Main storyline is about a planned jailbreak from the Gestapo prison. We also get to see how much damage a single person working for the Germans can do by spreading false information while gathering information for the Gestapo.

2 Season, Gestapo and Abwehr change their tactics. They recruit ex criminals into Gestapo service and release them as double agents which increases the paranoia. The resistance movement also plan a heist on the Reichsbank in Warsaw. Life in the Ghetto deteriorates.

3 Season, The resistance cell made up of the main characters is infiltrated by the Germans in a very clever way. Operations start to go wrong and wrong people are accused of working with the Germans. The 3rd season also sees the appearance of communist cells in Warsaw adding to the enemies of the Polish resistance.


Each season is 13 episodes with each episode being 45-50 minutes long.

And of course I would not write about any of this unless you could get the TV show with English subtitles. Having checked it out, all seasons on DVD have Polish speech and English subtitles as an option.

Depending on where you get these seasons from you can get away very cheap. The cheapest way is to order the boxed sets directly from Poland. Each season goes for 50zloty and depending on the webbshop the postage is usually the same. I ordered 2 sets of the series for myself and my buddy Calle from the http://www.punkt44.pl/film.html store.

The http://www.punkt44.pl/film.html shop in Poland has it with English subtitles (and the store is in Polish / English as well).


TRAILER (may contain spoilers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxz2-pAJdSE

Indigènes / Days of Glory review

One of my friends just jumped onto the FoW Early War with the rest of us and is going to play Early War French. So I checked the army lists and saw the colonial troops which in my opinion are the best French infantry in the book (Fearless Trained). At the same time the Monte Cassino sourcebook which is about to be released includes the Goumiers so I thought it could be a good time to bring up a small budget French WW2 movie about the colonial troops fighting for France during the war.

The movie "Indigènes", (translates to natives), or the English crap title "Days of Glory" is a really good war movie with a focus on a pretty non-mainstream subject. It starts out in 1943 in Algeria and we see how the locals in a town enlist in order to "free France" as one village elder puts it.
Right off the bat we see how these colonial troops are treated like shit by most of the French brass, even as these troops try to find some pride in serving the French army they are getting poor training, poor equipment, officers scowl at them, they are used as cannon fodder and denied the same rights that the regular French troops receive.

They try not to be beat down and still have their hopes and expectations on what to do with themselves after the war having served in the French army. The main cast is made up of 4 soldiers, and the actors do a superb job conveying the frustration these troops might have suffered. They are assigned a French sergeant that despises them but at the same time cares enough to try to keep them alive - especially looking out for one of the main cast characters which only have one arm. So the movie chronicles the combat experience of these troops from their enlistment through the battles in Italy to the end of the campaign in France, and includes a couple of well done action sequences. Though the movie is not as combat heavy as your typical Hollywood production it is interesting to see the war from a different perspective.

I think the movie could be used as inspiration for anyone collecting these colonial troops regardless of scale or game system. Reading about them is quite abstract, watching on a movie gives you a better idea of what you're working with.

The reasons behind the making of this movie were political, since the colonial troops were treated like shit twice over. First they were treated badly during the war, and after the war they lost their veteran pensions as their countries gained independence from France. The movie was mainly made to remind the French public about these forgotten soldiers. I don't thikn the movie gets overly sentimental over this but rather presents things from a historical perspective.

Anyways, I can really recommend this movie whether you're a wargamer or just interested in WW2.

Der Untergang vs Inglorious Basterds [War movies part 3]

Last part of my comparison of the German cinema take on WW2 and Hollywood. This last part will be a review of the heavy German movie "der Untergang/Downfall" and the tounge in the cheek WW2 cartoony fantasy of Quentin Tarantino. Why? Well they both feature Hitler, Nazis and in their own way the end of WW2. Is it fair to compare two such in the end vastly different movies? Maybe not but it can be interesting nonetheless - and why does everything have to be fair all the time?

Let’s start with Inglorious Basterds. And I can’t explain the weird plot of the movie without talking briefly about Tarantino. I used to be a fan of Tarantino, but I think he has jumped the shark. In my opinion his last good movie was Pulp Fiction, a followup of the low budget Reservoir Dogs which was quite alright. Since then however, he has been revealed as a one trick pony – filling his movies with seedy C-grade stories, characters that talk for 15 minutes about random shit and never getting to the point just because it’s “cool and artsy”. It was cool the first two times,  now it’s repetitive. He has also this, again in my opinion, shitty explanation that all his movies are “homages” to old crap movies he used to see as a kid. The problem here is that he doesn’t make these “homages” good enough to pass for modern entertainment. Compare his work to Robert Rodriguez, Robert Rodriguez know how to make “shit” movies and still make them entertaining as hell (Planet Terror, Machete). Somehow people buy the “homage” explanation of Tarantino. I don’t. Imagine if I were painting models like a 4 year old, trying to pass those skills off as a “homage” to “the beginnings of my painting career”.  Ridiculous.

So I was much surprised when Tarantino said he wanted to make a WW2 movie. Part of me hoped for a decent over the top action movie (imagine a WW2 version of the Expendables which itself is based upon old B action movies). Unfortunately Inglorious Basterds is a rather boring mashup of halfassed ideas of which very little work out. The main plot of the movie is the revenge of a French jewish girl whose family is murdered in cold blood by Nazis  - and her plans to use a local cinema in Paris to premiere a German propaganda movie that will attract a lot of German brass and supposedly even Hitler. The other part of the movie is about the title gang of US/allied soldiers – all of them jewish as well. The “Basterds”  get surprisingly little screen time in this movie, most of it is posing, talking stupid and building up to action sequences you never get to see…. Wtf?

Like in one scene Brad Pits talks about how the Basterds are expert guerilla fighters, sweeping through Normandy like crazed Indians, scalping Germans and raising hell. You never get to see that. It’s Brad Pitt talking about it, then cut to a finished ambush.  The Basterds have one brilliant scene, and one completely retarded scene. And this really shows you that Tarantino needs help to sort out his shit ideas from what actually works to make a proper 100% good movie. There is a very suspenseful scene where the Basterds, disguised as Germans  enter a café with German soldier and one of the German officers comes up to them and starts asking a lot of questions about their accents. That entire scene is as good as it gets, in regard to the Basterds storyline.  I won’t spoil it because the movie is worth watching for very few reasons but this being one of the good ones.

One review I read a long time ago said the movie should be called “Inglorious Jew Girl” since 70% of the movie is about the jewish girl Shoshanna and the German SS colonel Hans Landa.  The scenes these two characters share are brilliant, and Christoph Waltz who plays Landa steals the movie every time he shows his smug smile on screen. The character of Hans Landa is so over the top hilarious and psychopathic that the best way to describe him would probably be - if Amon Goeth from Schindlers list could tell jokes – he would be Hans Landa. How Waltz can turn simple stuff like asking for cream into a suspenseful hold your breath moment is great. Too bad the movie falls apart, because the story itself is stupid. Shoshanna acquiring the cinema in Paris holding the premiere of a nazi propaganda movie and getting her revenge on every evil Nazi in France feels really really stupid the way it’s portrayed.  Hitler shows up in this movie, in a cape. Need I say more?

This movie doesn’t work as a modern Dirty Dozen, it doesn’t work as a serious movie, and it doesn’t work as a complete movie either – it is a Frankensteins monster of ideas and concepts. How this got 8.4 on IMDB is beyond me. It’s not even that entertaining, it’s not a movie I wanted to watch again soon. I wish Tarantino would have cut the Basterds part of the movie, and focused on the mischievous Hans Landa and his tour of death across the French countryside and making Shoshanna a proper resistance fighter.

The reason one would like to watch this movie is mainly Christoph Waltz, I bet 6 out of that 8.4 score on IMDB is thanks to him. There is also some good scenes, like the café scene with the Basterds,  the very first scene of the movie where Shoshanna’s family gets murdered. But other than that this is a pretty mediocre movie even for Tarantino. Kill Bill vol 1 was far better than this.

If you want to watch a movie about resistance fighters/jewish resistance fighter during WW2 watch the movie “Defiance” instead. I’ve read a few suggestions “Come and see” , a Russian movie about the resistance in Belorussia. But I saw that movie and it is just plain weird and I don’t think the style works for any audience outside of Russia. Like long takes of nothing, followed by stuff that makes no sense, followed by some “shock moments”. I didn’t find it to be any good.

If you want to watch a serious movie about the holocaust watch Schindlers List, and a much more interesting portrayal of the German Brass during the last days of the third Reich – watch Der Untergang/Downfall.

Which brings me to -  Der Untergang or Downfall as the English title goes.

I think it took a lot of balls for a German director to make a movie where the main character is Adolf Hitler. Considering that the Germans are very very sensitive about WW2, nazi’s, Hitler, damn the whole nation seems so traumatized that you can’t even show a swastika painted on a miniature tank without getting yelled at regardless of whether or not its historicallyaccurate. Der Untergang is about the last weeks of the Third Reich. “Ivan” is starting the artillery barrage of Berlin and Hitler is hiding out with his staff in the bunker in central Berlin. The movie kinda chronicles the life with the Führer of one of his secretaries, and much of the movie is through her eyes. From how she first meets Hitler in his “wolfs lair” in Prussia where she tries to get a job as a secretary – screws up during the typewriter test – but still gets the job. To her being part of the “Führer bunker” staff in those last hours of nazi Germany. 

This movie is really amazing, and chilling in its portrayal of a society crumbling under the pressure of war. Hitler issues orders of complete annihilation of infrastructure, disregarding the lives of civilians because clearly the Germans have let him down and the people of the east are the “übermensch”.  People are evacuating, the army digging in, buildings blowing up, children and old men being forced into the underequipped and untrained “Volksturm” battalions – truly Götterdämmerung.  This entire movie is again, not trying to explain anything, instead just like in Das Boot and Stalingrad – Der Untergang shows the very end of the road for the losing side of a war and the misery inflicted on the civilians who in the end pay the highest price. The German actor Bruno Ganz who plays Hitler is looking like a clone version of the dictator, at this stage he is worn down, his one hand shaking out of control and the fantasies he maintains beliefs in makes for a lot of awkward moments down in his bunker as he orders various Generals about, talking about troop movements and at one point appointing a new commander of the air force – talking about that there is much work to be done (with the air force annihilated that would still be an epic understatement).

The delusional and fatalistic crowd of the Führerbunker , led by Evan Braun are holding parties, drinking their worries away and just living for the moment as each moment could be their last. Meanwhile above children are blowing up Soviet tanks with 88mm AA guns and earning medals and ceremonial handshakes from Hitler.  The recreation of the last public appearance outside of the bunker by Hitler where he congratulates the teenagers and children for their soldiering is one that says it all. All able men are either dead or maimed; children hold the line as Germany makes its last stand.
Our buddy Thomas Kretschmann (the Lieutenant in Stalingrad and German captain in U-571) makes another memorable appearance as Hermann Fegelain, Eva Brauns insubordinate brother in law. An officer who has had it and knows the shit has hit the fan a long time ago. This is not a movie that shows a lot of battle sequences, rather it shows the chaotic atmosphere of being inside a battle zone. I think it does a good job at describing and showing the confusion and breakdown of society. And this movie as a whole is amazing, there are so many memorable scenes in this movie, so many good portrayals – from Bruno Ganz Hitler, to the woman playing the cold hearted bitch Helga Goebbels, the German doctor, the officer  stoically reports to the HQ to “get shot” but gets a promotion (the scene when he’s talking to the guards if fantastic). The entire movie and how its put together is a masterpiece. Ironically it shares the 8.4 score of Inglorious Basterds.

I remember watching this movie at the cinema when it premiered here in Sweden and there was a complete dead silence throughout the movie, people were just watching the movie completely mesmerized – not even bothering to chew their popcorn with open mouths as if they hadn’t eaten in weeks as people tend to do at the movies. No one talked, laughed, or made noise. It was the best cinema experience of my life.

I cannot recommend this movie enough, a must see! And if ever there would be a “trilogy” box released chronicling the WW2 such a boxed set would do best to contain Stalingrad, Das Boot and Der Untergang. They should really show these movies in schools instead of letting students read those shitty short descriptions of historical events with zero emotion attached to it. Would give the kids a better understanding and respect for history.

Summing up,

Inglorious Basterds – a weak 6. Again. It’s boring to give it the same score as every other Hollywood movie in my mashup but Christoph Waltz along with a handful of scenes save this movie from being a complete dud.

Der Untergang – 9.5/10. The cast, story and the atmosphere is mindblowing.