lebensraum-1 Reviews

Culloden (1964 TV Movie)

Brilliant !!

[7 July 2006]

Peter Watkins film "Culloden" is outstanding for all the reasons other reviewers have described and strips away the romanticism about Bonnie Prince Charlie,which began with Queen Victoria and Prince Alberts enthusiasm for anything Scottish. We all know war is brutal, but up until 1964 had film and TV portrayed it as such ? "Culloden" seems to have been the first film to show brutality and atrocities taking place. War films were still about the brave and upstanding allies fighting the nasty axis powers. Other reviewers have commented on the parallels with the Vietnam war, but it must be remembered that "Culloden" was transmitted in December 1964 and the only American troops in Vietnam at the time were advisor's. The full scale American troop deployments to Vietnam did not materialise until April 1965. It is an interesting parallel, but the scenes of US troops burning Vietnamese villages on the nightly news was still months away. But in a sense Peter Watkins previewed this. Quite simply an outstanding film.

The Longest Day (1962)

The best D-day film

[9/10 · 4 March 2006]

Some reviewers have commented on the comical aspects of the British segment. This is probably because they were directed by Ken Anakin who made many comedy films and maybe humour is a way of relieving the stress of combat. Ken Anakin went on to direct "Those Macnificent Men In Their Flying Machines" and "Battle of the Bulge" and it is interesting to notice that a lot of actors in "The Longest Day" went on to appear in those two films. Also Sean Connery's Irish accent was far better than the Edinburgh Irish dialect he used in "The Untouchables" !! The producers seemed to want to attract young cinema goers to the film by using teen idols like Paul Anka, Fabien and Tommy Sands, who would soon be swept away by the Beatles. Indeed one of the faults of war films in general is the use of middle aged actors to portray servicemen barely out of their teens. Richard Burton as an RAF flying officer is stretching things a bit. He may have been one for real in 1945, but by 1962 he was to old. But overall "The Longest Day" is the best D-day movie. "Saving Private Ryan" may have more realism, but it does not give the overall picture.

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

An ignored classic

[10/10 · 3 March 2006]

All I want to add is some more background behind the conflict. Again the main source is Alistair Horne's book "A savage war of peace". Alistair Horne wrote a trilogy of books on 20th century French history incorporating Verdun, the fall of France in 1940 and the Algerian war. Although Britain also had an empire it seemed to be able to extricate itself from it in a less bloody manner and those colonies that did see conflict did not see the kind of bloodshed France experienced in Vietnam and Algeria. I think Britain was able to see that the concept of empire was politically, militarily, economically and morally unviable. The French did not seem to see it that way. Alistair Horne wrote that the French seemed to think that if the rebellion was repressed they could carry on ruling Algeria like Ian Smith's Rhodesia or apartheid era South Africa, a totally unrealistic option. I suppose all whites have to accept that attitudes were much more racist in that era which explains a lot. Also I suspect that after the humiliation of 1940 the French military were determined to win a battle. What is not generally known is that most of the Free French troops that fought in Italy and France in 1943/45 were from French north Africa. The brutal battle of Cassino in Italy was brought to a conclusion by these colonial troops making an outflanking manoeuvre over mountainous terraine. Most of the troops liberating Paris were colonial. The natives were liberating the mother country and many of them later led the FLN. French dissatisfaction with the ongoing war led in 1958 to General Charles De Gaulle being called out of 12 years of retirement. Most Frenchmen expected De Gaulle to crush the FLN but De Gaulle was a statesman not a 3rd rate politician and could see that long term France had to let Algeria go. When this became clear the French military in Algeria felt betrayed and astonishly tried to stage a coup d'etat in mainland France. It failed of course and many rebel officers went underground and formed a terrorist group called the OAS which murdered people in both mainland France and Algeria. The coup attempt was a PR disaster and most French people now wanted out of Algeria.

As independence for Algeria approached the OAS atrocities in the country made the situation untenable for the white colonist population after majority rule arrived. A million white colonists, many born and bred in Algeria fled for mainland France abandoning everything they owned and worked for in an incredible mass exodus. It was a retreat for western civilisation as villages and churches were abandoned to decay to be consumed by the majority Muslim culture. The OAS continued their campaign of terror in France, attempting to assassinate De Gaulle. And this of course inspired Frederick Forsythe to write the book "The Day of the Jackal", later a film. So whilst I feel sorry for the colonists who lost everything, their advocacy of "Algerie Francais" against a tide of De-colonisation was un-realistic and un-workable and led France and Algeria into a brutal and costly conflict. Fortunatly France was able to call on a man of the calibre of Charles De Gaulle who was able to convince the nation of the unpalatable truth, end the war and take France forward.

The Saint (1962–1969)

Classic swinging 60's fare

[2 March 2006]

I will just add to the praise of this classic 1960's series, great stuff. I notice a lot of American fans of the series which poses a question. Did the American TV networks show the Saint and the Avengers in prime time slots because the shows were mainly set in 1960's Britain, then the most fashionable place on the planet ? And did US interest in these Brit ITC shows wane when the Beatles broke up and swinging London faded away ? I was thinking that when Time magazine famously described London as swinging in 1966 the US TV networks wanted series set in Britain that offered escapist fare in places that viewers in middle America couldn't imagine travelling to. Certainly audiences took to Roger Moore for the Saint lasted longer than the other ITC series. I also feel the Saint was Roger Moores finest hour. When he became James Bond the series was moving beyond reality and into cliché with less credible plots. In a sense the Bond films needed a bigger budget than the Saint and it had to show on the screen, hence the detachment from reality. The Saint shows that Roger Moore could play it straight in credible plot lines.

Battle of Britain (1969)

The greatest air combat movie ever !!!

[10/10 · 2 March 2006]

Battle of Britain is the business, a relatively impartial attempt to deal with one of the turning points of 20th century history in glorious colour without resort to newsreel footage and it kick started the war bird movement to boot. How many youngsters who saw it aspired to own a WW2 aircraft and then earned the money to realise their dreams ? The air combat scenes are perhaps the most spectacular ever brought to the screen. When filming was taking place the world had just watched the Tet offencive in the Vietnam war through their TV screens and director Guy Hamilton didn't flinch in showing how unpleasant death in air combat really is. Aircrew are burned, obliterated in explosions and trapped by centrifugal force in planes falling out of the sky. A lot of criticism has been made of the ground scenes. This is probably because of the broad canvas of the film in trying to explain what may seem to some the complex tactics of air combat in relation to the Battle of Britain. Most aircraft enthusiasts come to the film with a basic understanding of the real life events, but newcomers may be baffled. I agree that there are too many acting cameo's in the film , many by now long forgotten actors. Note that Christopher Plummer wears Canadian shoulder flashes, from the land of his birth, but James Cosmo seems to wear those of New Zealand ,even though he is Scottish and of course later slaughtered us English in "Braveheart" ! I thought Michael Caine was on autopilot, Harry Palmer in RAF blue, but Robert Shaw was magnificent. Robert Shaw seems to have many US fans on IMDb, and his performance in BoB justifies all that. His character exudes confidence and comes across as the fighter tactician who teaches his men how to survive. Indeed it is some of Shaw's tactical dialogue that baffles non aviation enthusiasts. Edward Fox and Ian McShane are great as Shaw's pilots, and Fox has an equal part to McShane but in the pre-"Day of the Jackal" era, did not get the same billing. Guy Hamilton later teamed Robert Shaw and Edward Fox up again for "Force 10 from Navarone" but its comic book war is fun attitude grates. Laurence Olivier and Trevor Howard are also superb. This is one Britflick which probably would have benefited from having an imported US star as an American volunteer pilot in order to explain the importance of Britains survival to US audiences, for in 1940 ethnic cleansing was already taking place in Poland and the allies could not have freed western Europe without Britain's survival as the unsinkable aircraft carrier. So why did the film fail at the US box office ? Incredible as it seems people had forgotten about the Battle of Britain in 1940, the movie had no US star, took place before Pearl Harbor and many prominent pro-British Americans from 1940 such as Ed Murrow and JFK had died. The USA was engulfed by the Vietnam war that seemed to have no end. TV brought home the brutal reality of war , so why would Americans want to watch a film about someone else's war ? American war films like "Patton" seemed to parody the militaristic cold war attitudes that led the US into south east Asia. In short the war film was a dying breed. The big budget war movie of the late 1960's/early 1970's was a last ditch attempt to attract audiences before the widespread use of colour TV sets kept people away from cinemas. And the tragedy of this is that films like "Battle of Britain" were no longer made. Cinema should be about re-creating historic events.

The Dam Busters (1955)

Classic war film

[10/10 · 1 March 2006]

The Dambusters is simply the best. Stripped down dialogue and no overacting histrionics's. The film shows the determination, courage, and sacrifice of allied aircrew who were all volunteers. I won't comment on the special effects or the true worth of the actual raid, just the film. In the Dambusters there are no cliché-ed aircrew close to cracking up and no flag waving heroics, just an attempt at realism. The British war film by and large seems to have understated heroics, possibly because the UK was a target during WW2 and any attempt to glamourise war would have been difficult. The American war film seems to sit in 2 camps, shameless flag wavers like "Pearl Harbor" and anti-war fare like "Catch 22" and the Vietnam films. An interesting contrast. But the Dambusters is the perfect example of a true story being adapted for the cinema.