MovieChat Forums > Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) Discussion > a good film making allowances for when i...

a good film making allowances for when it was made

posted 17 years ago by ib011f9545i
7 replies | jump to latest

One of the peole on the comment boards is very critical of this film.
It is easy to attack this film for its lack of realism and the way it does not how the story ended in detail.
But we have to accept that the film was made in 1958 and a more gritty version of the story would not be possible at that time.

The story of SOE is an amazing one and something that Britain can still be proud of.
I find it sad that so many of our European sister nations forget our role in helping resistance going in occupied europe.

I think the best film about SOE is still the late 1940s film AGAINST THE WIND.
There is more violence in AGAINST THE WIND and the whole story is better due to it not just concentrating on one person.

CHARLOTTE GREY seems to have been made by someone who is trying to make a boring film about an exciting subject.

[–] Druxy 16 years ago

As much as I enjoyed this movie, I don't think it does Violette Szabo justice.

After I watched the picture, I went on-line and looked her up.

Violette Szabo did some truly amazing things that had a profound effect on the war effort, yet we don't get a sense of that in this movie.

We see her talking to a colleague in the French underground, telling him to blow up a bridge, which he does (without her) off-screen. Later, we watch her holding off a bunch of German soldiers while her companion escapes, but that's about it. Then, she's captured, tortured and, eventually, executed.

I know that in England that she's considered to be a great heroine, and I'm sure that she was. But, this movie spends more time on her military training and personal life, rather than her war time exploits. I would have preferred seeing more of the latter.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Squeeth2 12 years ago

Armee des Ombres is a much better film about resistance, as are Flame and Citron, Max Manus, The Round Up and Idi i Smotri. Ombres has a good joke about English people and tea too....

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

[–] Squeeth2 12 years ago

Armee du Crime too.

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

[–] Errington_92 12 years ago

Does anyone else think Virginia McKenna was miscasted? I did not think she was the right actress to play the role as she did not give the impression of a woman who would take part in such activities. Even when it did show her taking on the Nazis I still was not convinced.

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".

[–] Prismark10 9 years ago

You actually think after watching this film what was it she exactly did that led her to be awarded the George medal. It seems the screenplay skimped on a lot of her heroic activities.

Its that man again!!

[–] icaptainchaos 8 years ago

I have to agree ....

While I am sure that she deserved all the accolades, praise & medals etc. etc., she didn't really seem to DO much.

Someone else blew the bridge up, she was going to join up with some people & do something else somewhere, but got spotted, so she killed a few German soldiers, go caught & interrogated.

Then shot.

The End.

In the film, she appeared to spend more time wining & dining than organising resistance stuff.

I am sure that if I actually read about her real story, I'd be more impressed, but certainly not from the film.