MovieChat Forums > The Victors (1963) Discussion > Why did the director have such a big chi...

Why did the director have such a big chip on his shoulder re: women?


The film features 5 younger women, and 2 or 3 older women.

The older women are kind-hearted motherly types, but the younger women are presented in very questionable fashion.

Romy Schneider: plays the part of an attractive violinist who turns George Hamilton's head, but then turns out to be a complete b*tch.

Melina Mercouri: plays the part of a wealthy operative in the black-market, who first offers George Peppard a position by her side, but when he decides to do the honourable thing and stay with his unit, she responds by repeatedly saying she hopes he gets killed and she hopes he dies.

Senta Berger: plays the part of Elke Sommer's sister, the daughter of German parents who got raped and had her family thrown out of their house by Russians. Senta doesn't seem to care and boasts openly of how she is dating a Russian captain, much to her parent's disgust.

Elke Sommer: presented in a bit of a better light, but her nightly habits are made questionable since there is the possibility that she is seeing Russian soldiers behind George Hamilton's back.

So the question that arises from all this is: what is up with the director and his attitude toward younger, attractive women? Blondes, to be precise.

Did his blonde girlfriend dump him just before filming commenced? He obviously has a good relationship with his mother, but the image of women as presented by the younger characters suffers terribly.

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War-time European reality. The five younger women you cite are all in survival mode, even Mercouri who has been juggling first German and then American occupation authorities. The kindly, older women cannot use womanly sexual wiles to manipulate the soldiery so they come through as you say in the film.

You fail to mention Rosanna Schiaffino, the young Italian mother with the half-German baby. A tragic figure, unquestionably in authentic circumstances. She is able to maintain a shred of decency yet still gives in to Vince Edwards out of loneliness.

Interesting that you characterize Melina Mercouri as "young" since she was about 43 years old when this film was made. In constrast to most of the soldiers in the film, that is.

Another younger woman you didn't mention was the wife of the British soldier in the home where Peppard was taken in during his trip to another hospital to see the wounded Eli Wallach. Surely she is portrayed in a positive light, with children around, holding a baby, etc. Admittedly she has a small part.

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Thanks for reminding me about Schiaffino. Again, she exhibited fear and ignorance regarding (going from memory here) a Muslim soldier, while her boyfriend from the US army showed patience, understanding and compassion to both sides. Even the Muslim soldier she was afraid of was presented as a kind and compassionate man who showed both great care for the baby and gratitude for the other man's gesture. Like the other scenes I listed, the men come off looking good here, while the woman is presented in a much lesser light.

Your comment about war-time reality doesn't explain these presentations. In all cases the men are presented as honourable, loyal and heroic, while the women are presented as compromising their morals for a wide range of reasons.

The scene with the wife of the British soldier was so brief (like you said) it isn't worth mentioning.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm just seeing this film as a plain statement by the director regarding his attitude toward both genders.

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You have a point about the main players in the squad being portrayed a bit on the Boy-Scoutish side; the reality of more typical behavior wasn't always mirrored in what we saw in this movie. A read of some of the works of, for example, Stephen Armbrose, offers plenty of contradictions.

However, showing American soldiers in a more realistic (and therefore bad) light probably wouldn't have sold as many movie house tickets. Art and commerce are closely intertwined.

Rehashing war-time survival mode in Europe, it's well known that some German women in immediate post-war Germany would exchange sexual services for cigarettes, chocolate and other items. Taking a regular boyfriend like George Hamilton to the bedroom was a very big step up.

I don't think most Americans today can appreciate the suffering that was endured by surviving civilians in post-war Germany. Rape, dispossession, humiliation, hunger, homelessness. Those circumstances quickly remove the veneer of civilization.

We forgot to mention Jeanne Moreau; she came through relatively honorably in the story. I can't think of an explanation for so many blonde women being cast; a preference of the times perhaps or coincidence.

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