Hitler Parody: Over Flanders Fields

[+Paarma 0]

Yes the movie is far away from parody. Very touching movie all the way. Helping show how things was in last few weeks before ww2 ended.

 

 

Thanks Arto, I'll look for in on Amazon! I've seen Stalingrad, which was German made and was a fantastic movie. Probably one of the best and most authentic. So I'm sure this one will be the same. Just from the silly parody's it looks very good.

[OvS 8]

OvS - the movie "Der Untergang" shows the final days in the Fuehrerbunker; and Hitler's decay and loss

of reality. The officers report about the Russians closing in on Berlin. Hitler wipes it away and says, this

would all be cleared by Steiner's counterattack. The officers have to tell him, that Steiner could not

unite enough forces to make that attack. That's what leads to the outbreak of Hitler's rage.

He explains to the officers remaining in the room, that he couldn't lead Germany any further to get out

of this situation, when his orders were not followed.

Maybe I'm extremely sensitive, but when I see his madness in combination with his charisma; and the

obvious fear of those officers in the face of all this madness and rage - it makes me feel horrible.

I did not manage to see the whole movie; it just brings up too bad feelings in me.

 

I know the feeling. I had the same issue with "Blackhawk Down". I could not watch the whole movie knowing what happened there was a waste of time, resourese and more importantly, good men.

 

OvS

[Olham 164]

Yup. Hitler knew very well, why all high ranking officers and even Generals

had to hand out their pistols, before they could see him.

[Fliegenhund 0]

Have seen trailers for that movie and some of the battle scenes look really good. Reviews I have read stated the acting is atrocious and it is not historically accurate. I suppose it is good that I have never seen it for rent in the US, NY area. I wish Tom Hanks and Spielberg would do a WW1 movie, there is so much that could be done and it is ancient history to younger people even more so than WW2.

[Olham 164]

That's nonsense about the acting - I saw part of it, and it was pretty good, I'd say.

Bruno Ganz is a well respected actor in Europe. Maybe not totally acurate historically,

but who knows, how it all really was? It's more about the downfall of a leader, his decay,

and the desolateness of the awakening, the realising, that all was lost and in vain, and

even wrong. You will see such scenes like Magda Goebbels giving her children poison to

drink, because all hopes are lost, and they knew, they had taken the side of the devil -

now they would be treated like that. If they would get caught.

A depressing movie - but very well acted, IMHO.

[Fliegenhund 0]

That's nonsense about the acting - I saw part of it, and it was pretty good, I'd say.

Bruno Ganz is a well respected actor in Europe. Maybe not totally acurate historically,

but who knows, how it all really was? It's more about the downfall of a leader, his decay,

and the desolateness of the awakening, the realising, that all was lost and in vain, and

even wrong. You will see such scenes like Magda Goebbels giving her children poison to

drink, because all hopes are lost, and they knew, they had taken the side of the devil -

now they would be treated like that. If they would get caught.

A depressing movie - but very well acted, IMHO.

 

The acting I was referring to was in the link I provided which is the movie "Passchendaele". I have not seen the Hitler movie but being American do find the parody hilarious. I imagine understanding his German lines would be quite distracting.

[Guest British_eh]

Bloody Brilliant

Whilst the truth of it all is/was quite disturbing, we must be able to look at something so awful, and see that there can be a something quite contradictory that can lessen the nature of what can be so distastful.

 

As my career in Health care has lead me to witness some offensive things, we are quick to have a way of dealing with such assaults on the psyche, and of course humour is the best medicine!

 

Cheers,

 

British_eh

Edited July 31, 2009 by British_eh

[Bullethead 12]

Whilst the truth of it all is/was quite disturbing, we must be able to look at something so awful, and see that there can be a something quite contradictory that can lessen the nature of what can be so distastful.

 

Aristotle couldn't have said it better in his lost book on comedy . It's good to laugh a Hitler, especially as that's our only way now to get back at the bastid. The Soviets ran off with his bones and destroyed them, after all, so we can't piss on his grave.

 

But as funny as I found this parody, it was doubly so because a few weeks before I'd seen the exact same clip but with different subtitles about Michael Jackson's death. So to me, this clip was not only poking fun at Hitler and us OFFers, but also on MJ and all those who obcessed about him

[TSmoke 2]

Have seen trailers for that movie and some of the battle scenes look really good. Reviews I have read stated the acting is atrocious and it is not historically accurate. I suppose it is good that I have never seen it for rent in the US, NY area. I wish Tom Hanks and Spielberg would do a WW1 movie, there is so much that could be done and it is ancient history to younger people even more so than WW2.

 

 

Have you seen the movie sounds like a no to me, don't go by hearsay and third party information. No it isn't stellar but neither are the more poopular WW2 movies like Pearl Harbour and other POS movies.

 

The Canadian film industry sucks on a whole but this is a huge step up from their usual efforts, except for the crappy love story the majority is pretty accurate.

[Bullethead 12]

The Canadian film industry sucks on a whole but this is a huge step up from their usual efforts, except for the crappy love story the majority is pretty accurate.

 

I look forward to seeing it and will let you know. But unless that was a very old trailer, the movie won't be out for a few months.

[themightysrc 5]

"I wish Tom Hanks and Spielberg would do a WW1 movie"

 

Bloody hell, just read that and it sent shivers down my spine. Frankly, I'd rather disembowel myself with a potato masher than have to sit through such a film - wasn't WWI horrific enough?

 

Downfall, by the way, is a splendid film. Claustrophobic, but brilliant.

[Hauksbee 103]

...if I had grown up in Germany at that time I would most likely have joined the Hitler Jugend...

As I understand it, membership was mandatory, or, so strongly 'reccomended' that it amounted to the same thing.

[Olham 164]

Yup - if your children wouldn't join in there, you where regarded as an outsider,

and as an "opposition" to Hitler's Reich.

A priest in my native Ostfriesland had spoken against the actions of the brown hordes in church.

After church, on the Thanksgiving parade, two young boys walked up to the priest and smashed

his nose in the open street, with dozens of people around. Nobody dared to do anything.

Let fear reign over you, and you're lost.

[OvS 8]

Yup - if your children wouldn't join in there, you where regarded as an outsider,

and as an "opposition" to Hitler's Reich.

A priest in my native Ostfriesland had spoken against the actions of the brown hordes in church.

After church, on the Thanksgiving parade, two young boys walked up to the priest and smashed

his nose in the open street, with dozens of people around. Nobody dared to do anything.

Let fear reign over you, and you're lost.

 

 

Hey Ohlam... check out the history of the town I grew up in....

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindenhurst%2C_New_York

 

Crazy huh.

 

What they didn't mention is that old Lindy was also a huge Brewery town and at one time had the most bars/pubs per square mile than any other town/city in the US. The locals called the main road Wellwood Ave, which passes through the heart of Lindy, "Whiskey Walk". If you could start on the 'walk' and hit every bar, taking 1 shot at each, you were lucky to make it to next main crossroad, Hoffman Ave (that's halfway) still standing. Then you took a 'deadman's walk a faith' across Hoffman, to continue on the walk. It was a common local's attraction and all the bars knew you were doing 'the walk' when you asked them for a 'shot on the avenue tonight'.

 

It was fun back in the 80's, but many of the bars are gone, so the 'walk' is gone too. Yeah... old 'Swindlehurst' where I grew up was quite an interesting town in Long Island.

 

All the best,

 

OvS

[Olham 164]

Tch - even over there? It's good you stopped them!

 

The "Whisky Walk" should have been a great attraction for good old W.C. Fields, I'd think.

[Fliegenhund 0]

"I wish Tom Hanks and Spielberg would do a WW1 movie"

 

Bloody hell, just read that and it sent shivers down my spine. Frankly, I'd rather disembowel myself with a potato masher than have to sit through such a film - wasn't WWI horrific enough?

 

Downfall, by the way, is a splendid film. Claustrophobic, but brilliant.

 

 

You either arent a fan of saving private ryan and band of brothers, or you think watch such movies is disturbing, I dont know which. Either way SPR was alot of Hollywood but BoB was outstanding, either way they open alot of peoples eyes to the horrors of war as close as a movie can be.

[Olham 164]

Yes, I found both very well made - "Saving private Ryan" needed some Hollywood, to make it

bearable; and "Band of Brothers" was just as if you was there.

But I can understand everyone, who would not watch it. On my last visit, "Saving private Ryan"

was on TV. My mum watched it, and she grew very pale at the sight of the Normandy landing.

"Now I understand, why Wolf (my dad) and Menno (her second husband) seemed so irritated,

so enclosed, throughout their lives" she would say half an hour after the film. She had decided

to look through the whole film (she likes Tom Hanks), but I could see from the angle of my eye,

that she was very uncomfortable with all this.

[themightysrc 5]

"You either arent a fan of saving private ryan and band of brothers, or you think watch such movies is disturbing, I dont know which."

 

Best not to confuse the two. SPR was cack, BOB was excellent. Films rarely disturb me, and certainly neither of those did.

[Bullethead 12]

Best not to confuse the two. SPR was cack, BOB was excellent. Films rarely disturb me, and certainly neither of those did.

 

I have to disagree....

 

I saw SPR in the theater when it came out, and about 50% of the audience were wearing hats saying they were veterans of wars from WW2 to Desert Storm. When the movie ended, not one swinging Richard, vet or otherwise, got up. We all sat there staring unseeing at the credits until the usher came to clear us out for the next show. The vets were all thinking of the long ago and far away, and friends not present, having been sent right back There by the realism of the movie. The civies were realizing, probably for the 1st time, just what sort of sacrifices were necessary for them to live their carefree lives.

 

SPR is, IMHO, the single most-realistic war movie ever made, regardless of how you measure it, and even if the whole story is no more than a retelling of the King Arthur legends in a WW2 format. The sounds and graphics of combat were far and away more realistic than anything before, and what's come since has at best duplicated it. On top of that, the charaters were quite realistic, and so were their missions, actions, and attitudes. They were just ordinary guys following their typically assinine orders, and FAR stranger things have happened in real life than happend to the guys in this movie.

 

If you've never been there, then I can of course I can see folks considering SPR as "cack". But I about gagged on the "Band of Brothers" series.

 

Understand, I have nothing but respect for paratroopers of whatever nationality. However, the line troops usually had it far worse, what with frontal assaults on prepared positions, day after day. They're the real heroes, again regardless of nationality. And besides, all those special forces types in the US army then and now are just imitation Marines from my POV, and more battles have been fought in bars over that point than have been for national interest in foreign fields. And let them continue! Any takers?

 

Anyway, BoB was realistic, but it struck me as undue attention to a glamorous few to the neglect of the great multitudes. And seriously, nothing in BoB was any less realistic than what happened in SPR, except that the BoB series didn't have as many stupid, pointless, suicide missions as most troops have to face at the whim of the higher-ups. You could argue convincingly that the whole Market Basket thing was a WW1-style pointless sacrifice, but that ignores the daily wastage of small groups for even less-justified reasons, such as in SPR.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

The sound effects were what impressed me the most about SPR, especially the beach landing scene at the beginning of the film. Could have done without the opening and closing scenes in the cemetary, however.

[Bullethead 12]

Could have done without the opening and closing scenes in the cemetary, however.

 

As some Frenchman who'd seen both said a while back, "The choice is always Dachau or Verdun." That's not an over-simplification, it's the honest truth. If you agree that Dachau is a symbol of all the worst that Man is capable of, then anything, even a Verdun, which is symbolic of ultimate national suffering, is justified to stave it off.

[Hauksbee 103]

..."The choice is always Dachau or Verdun."

Jaysus! Talk about "a Rock and a Hard Place"!

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

I have no problem with the scene being shot in the national cemetary, it's the execution of the scene that I didn't much care for. For all of Spielberg's talents, he has a tendency to the overly saccharine or maudlin at times. I dunno, something about the scene just struck me as a bit emotionally false. OTOH, I didn't feel that way the first time I saw the film.

 

I also had the same reaction as you at the end of the film. Had the same reaction at the end of Glory. Silence and awe at the sacrifices of soldiers past and present. SPR and Glory are two of my favorite war films.

[Olham 164]

Those who say, SPR was cack, are either lacking a lot of imaginative phantasy, and maybe sensibility, or they

just keep themselves out of all emotional reach, maybe to protect themselves.

When I see a scene, where one fighting bastard talks convincingly to the other to let the knife in to his chest,

to just give up and have peace quickly; and short after that the knife man comes down the stairs, passing the

guy, who can't shoot, who is absolutely paralised by what happens (and I know from our old neighnours tales

from Stalingrad, that this and many other unbelieveable, irritatingly strange behaviours happenend) - when you

call that cack, then maybe you just want to protect yourself. Which may even be alright. But such attitude was,

what made it so impossible for so many soldiers to ever return home. They where physically there, stood in the

rose gardens behind freshly painted white fences - and coul still not return...

[OvS 8]

I have no problem with the scene being shot in the national cemetary, it's the execution of the scene that I didn't much care for. For all of Spielberg's talents, he has a tendency to the overly saccharine or maudlin at times. I dunno, something about the scene just struck me as a bit emotionally false. OTOH, I didn't feel that way the first time I saw the film.

 

I also had the same reaction as you at the end of the film. Had the same reaction at the end of Glory. Silence and awe at the sacrifices of soldiers past and present. SPR and Glory are two of my favorite war films.

 

 

Shortly after BOB was released, at the time, I was doing some research on my Uncle Biaggio's 82nd Airborne campaings during the '2' (as he called WWII). The more I spoke to him and got in touch with a lot of his old war buddies, the more emotional and deeper each story became.

 

I had 1 relative that was in WWI, 10 in the '2', 3 in Korea (my Dad), 2 in Nam, and 1 that was in the First Gulf War. So saying I am from a wholly Military family is an understatement. But most intreaging was having the pleasure of talking with my Uncle Biaggio, as the rest from WWII are dead, aside from my Uncle Angelo. He was stationed in Burma, and opertated with a unit in the USAF, supplying troops in the jungles on China. His escort squadron was non-other then the Flying Tigers. So he's quite an interesting story teller. ;)

 

As for my Unlce Biaggio... talking with him was an experience in itself. Hearing him tell me of 'the drop' and the heavy action he incurred shortly after that was a real eye-opener. But seeing simialr action payed out on the screen in such detail during BOB helped me to truly understand the hell these men went through, and the intese sacrafices they endured on foreign soil, far from home, and not having single sense of what else to do other than stick together, support each other and stay alive.

 

Two quotes from my Uncle that will forever stick with me....

 

Number 1: Landing in Normandy.

Q: OK, Unk, so after the long trip down through all the tracers, and flak.. you hit the ground, drop the chute, duck down... what's the first thing that popped into your mind.

A: Well.. all I could think of was... "what the F*#K am I doing here?!?!"

 

Number 2: Normandy, first sitting of a Tiger tank.

Q: Wow, a Tiger? What did it look like to you? Had you ever seen one before?

A: No, we were only told that they were big. Big was wrong, it was f'n massive. The biggest machine I've ever seen. Scared the hell out of us.

Q: So you rasied up the bazooka, and fired it at the Tiger, it bounced off, no damage. Then what?

A: I turned to my CO, and said: "OK, now what?"

 

As you can see... sarcasim runs deep in my family.

 

OvS