When was the last time anyone remembers a "good"/"sympathetic" Nazi or just a regular German Army soldier was depicted without making him straight up anti Nazi/Hitler/war effort?
I remember NONE.
"Cross of Iron" and "Das Boot" are two films that immediately come to mind which present humanistic non-cartoon villain portrayals of German soldiers. "Band of Brothers" never portrays the Germans as mustache twirling villains. There are several scenes in the mini series which portray the humanity of the Germans.
-A very young SS soldier is taken by surprise by Winters, his fearful face haunts Winters after Winters shoots him
-A German general makes a heartfelt speech to his battered men
-A German colonel has a heart-to-heart with Winters
-A German MP is seen interacting jovially with an American soldier after the surrender
-Captain Nixon intrudes into a German home looking for whiskey. He breaks a picture of a German officer and encounters a woman (implied to be the officer's wife)who stares at Nixon with a look of contempt and disgust. The American comes off as the *beep* in this scene.
If you deny the reality that Japanese soldiers were, underneath their indoctrination--human beings who experienced, fear, anger, confusion and all the other range of emotions that soldiers universally feel you are incredibly short sighted.
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al666940-3
8 years ago
Dude, none of those characters you mention ever professes his loyalty to Nazi Germany or how they believe in Nazism or anything remotely similar to support for their war effort (in Das Boot they mock Hitler outright in the bar scene). Key difference.
While in this one, pretty much everyone laud their war effort and leaders more than once.
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FilmMuscle
8 years ago
Your short-sighted American perspective is really affecting you, but I bet you would be extremely offended if a film represented Americans as hopeless savages during the Vietnam War (because many people around the world had that view at the time). Soldiers have no say over who they serve. They're not just going to say I quit when a new regime comes to power. Humans are humans; some are more indoctrinated by dangerous ideas than others. Many Japanese soldiers in this film questioned their empire like the Kempeitai, for instance.
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al666940-3
8 years ago
"Your short-sighted American perspective is really affecting you, but I bet you would be extremely offended if a film represented Americans as hopeless savages during the Vietnam War "
You mean like Platoon, which won several Oscars and is still remembered as one of the best Vietnam movies ever?
And it was written/directed by an actual Vietnam veteran, Oliver Stone.
Talk about being short-sighted (and flat-out IGNORANT)...
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