We see a long line of surrendered German soldiers being escorted. They are described as the remnants of the vaunted Afrika Korps. They are in fact regular Whermacht soldiers in France, in their longcoats . Afrika Korps soldiers wore distinctive tunics & shorts in the desert.
shareGreat english actors in one film and that is the problem for this viewer. They were all excellent and yet could not believe they were German ...maybe a faux accent might have helped. Absorbing though. I wonder if that ending was factual. Its hard to believe his wife would not break down knowing he was going to die and seeing each other for the last time.
shareGreat english actors in one film and that is the problem for this viewer.Really? Where did you get your psychic badge, or license?
Afrika Korps soldier did not wear just shorts in the desert; most wore long pants, as the nights got quite cold, and the long pants kept their legs from getting burnt by the sun during the day. They also had tunics very similar to regular werhmacht troops; just a different colour. They also wore long overcoats in Afrika as well, so your claim that the soldiers seen in the movie were in France is not ncessarily true.
shareIt's quite a long time since I've viewed the movie, but the long line of surrendered German troops could have been in Tunisia. The Tunisian Campaign ended with the Axis surrender (to include the Afrika Korps) on May 13, 1943. It gets quite cold there in the winter, and the spring nights are chilly as well. Many German troops were rushed to North Africa from Europe in the feldgrau uniforms. There weren't enough khakis to go around.
shareWhy nitpick it is a movie not a documentary? OK I have one why do all Nazi's have British Accents, even when they are not played by people from Great Britain. Doesn't that bother you? Sometimes I can't tell the Nazi's from the British if they are not in uniform in half of these flicks. Like the scene when Mason was in the hospital. Heck for a second I forgot he was talking to a Nazi cohort! If someone had just walked it and started watching the movie I would have a lot of explaining to do. And this is one of the better movies about a Nazi!
So Ok we know you like WW 2 history and you want to show off your smarts. But it just makes you look fussy and....you like to show off your smarts. It is just a movie
Who are you talking to? I was just pointing out a few items of interest that some people may or may not know about, I wasn't nitpicking the movie. Movies are made to make money, not recreate historical fact. Little things like that don't make a big deal, but I do appreciate a production that goes the extra mile to get as many details down pat according to the period it was set in. Also, I try to clear up a few misconseptions when I can to help those who ask questions about something that I might know about, that's all.
shareI like it too when production tries to at least make things as authentic as possible. But I have learned that unless it is a documentary that is not going to happen. I look at historical dramas a lot and not one movie have I watched somebody hasn't chirped in about something not being right. Well my experience is that even though they are suppose to be historical very little real history is told. It is the history according to Warner Brothers(who were notorious for making up history)or some other studio lol.
This movie almost comes as close to canonizing Romnel as anybody dare to. He was a Nazi who got mad because they started to lose the war and now he wanted to blame Hitler for it, who was ok with him when they were winning. So I don't drive myself up the wall looking for mistakes. I am just being entertained.
Just a quick comment on the seemingly pervasive notion that all German Generals were, ipso facto, Nazis. Please research the history of the rise of the National Socialist Party in Germany and you will learn that the regular military were mostly aloof from the thugs who used to run through the streets during the 1930's. In fact, the most noted image of that era are those brown shirted para-military units known as the Sturmabteilung (S.A.)roving around the streets in the backs of trucks or gangs on foot. It was the regular army that Hitler was attempting to mollify and appease when he disbanded his old buddies of the S.A. (killing the leadership in the infamous Night of the Long Knives) and then had the military swear allegiance to him as Fuehrer. Yes, there were some military hierarchy who bought off on the ideals of the Nazi Party, but most were soldiers who were loyal to Germany and wanted to see justice done in light of the unfair Versailles Treaty that many saw as the author of the economic and social woes of the Germany of the 1920's and 30's. General Beck, existing head of the army was replaced by more compliant military men and Beck was not alone in his opposition to Hitler, but not much they could do, especially since much of the details of Final Solution were not iterated publicly until well into the war. It's easy to sit back, 70 years later, and opine on the alleged deficiencies of the military leaders of the Third Reich. Many did take the drastic step, as the July 20th Plot proves, and those Generals/Colonels...are today recognized as the heroes they rightly are. By the reasoning mentioned here all Soviet Army Generals would have been Communists...and we know clearly from history this was not the case.
shareI know that. Just like all Soviets were not communists. I understand the German Navy had very little to do with the Nazi party and they basically listened very little to Hitler.
The Versailles Treaty was extreme. But just like the Japanese the Germans were considered very nationalistic and I believe people were more afraid of them starting another war then anything. I am not a person who believes all of the Germans who fought in both wars were terrible horrible people. Most were just like the soldiers who fight for this country. I read All Quiet on the Western Front in 7th or 8th grade and it had a profound affect on me and how I viewed our so called enemies.
Marbleam, this was a well reasoned as well as reasonable analysis, proved by your realization that many who fought for Germany were merely doing their duty as they saw it and rendering my initial response quite unnecessary. Also, the great classic of E. Remarque about the First World War did, indeed, create a well needed view of the most senseless conflict in 500 years...quite unlike the highly ideologically charged conflict a generation later. Pity more 8th graders of this generation are not introduced to such classics. Best, Lepanto
shareI am shocked how many younger people have never even heard of the book. People who have gone to so called good school districts and on to college. In fact I am amazed how All Quiet on the Western Front is just one of the plethora of classics that seems to have gone ignored by people under 40. I was talking to someone today who never heard of the Grapes of Wrath. I thought they were joking at first, then I got mad but realized my anger was pointed in the wrong direction.
I am a lover of pre WW2 German cinema and I also have seen a few movies like Pabst's Westfront 1918. They really show how the enemy is not so different then we are.