GAWD BLESS MURICA

as an American I can appreciate your remarks about Britain and Russia, however the truth of the matter is that Britain was the "last man standing" when it came to the German onslaught and if not for FDR sending war supplies to Britain via the lend-lease program well, history would be much different. Russia was also the "last man standing" on the eastern front and through willpower and a knowledge of their winters and how to survive them they managed to defeat the Germans. But enough history lessons for the day, I am anxious to watch this movie and am also a little surprised at the soccer ball comment, hell most American's know that the sport is called football outside of the US and the producers should have given us a little more credit than that.

Americans have NEVER forgotten how Britain and Russia played huge role. We were ALLIES. In school, it is taught...over and over again. The ALLIES vs. THE AXIS. Not sure why every time I'm on IMDb blog, some Brit or European is always downing America for how they make movies.

When America makes a film, sometimes the director (NOT AMERICAN CITIZENS AT LARGE) makes decision to use terms which are different than European. Who cares how they refer to soccer??

Stop having an inferiority complex over a film's words. And once again, it's NOT AMERICANS AT LARGE who make these decisions. So, all you Europeans and Brits stop saying....."Why do those Americans do this or that, or say this or that in a movie...?" - WE have no control over it. Just like you have no control over how bad Downton Abbey's 4th season is horrible.

(Yes, we know Russia went into Germany. It was discussed by the military and the politicians on which nation would be located where to free people) - VERY political!

At no point did Russia have any intention of liberating Europe. In fact, quite the opposite, they were on a mission to claim territory to join the communist cause and reshape the political map of Europe. The Russians were on a mission for vengeance against the Germans, raping and pillaging as they drove towards Berlin. The Russians don't get much credit for the liberation of Europe because they were just as bad as the Nazis for human rights violations.

Not to point out the obvious since you probably just phrased it awkwardly, but Russia played no role in liberating Europe. Quite the opposite. They helped defeat the Nazis, but they were themselves every bit as bad and enslaved half of Europe for decades more after the war. If I come upon some poor fellow being robbed and I chase off the robber, but then take the victim's money for myself should I really get any credit for stopping a robbery? And we have the little issue of Stalin being a much greater butcher than even Hitler was. Hollywood just doesn't like to make movies about that though.

Americans get accused of provincialism a lot, but it happens with Western Europeans as well since they seem to forget their brothers in the East did not fare so well with the outcome of the war and needed liberating themselves. The Russian dissidents will tell you that it took Reagan and 'Murica to even give them any hope of changing things.

Outside of that I found it odd that sometimes the movie used the English pronunciations of words and other times they used the German. Also, they would switch between using a German word and the English word which is its equivalent in an annoying and inconsistent manner. I don't remember them all now but "no" and "nein" come to mind. Several times I was taken out of the movie because of this since it was clear the director could not make up his mind how he wanted to handle the problem of German characters speaking English.

But I would never say something stupid and condescending like "the devil with Europe" over it because that would just show my own bigotry. It is really not acceptable to mock America because a director did a poor job handling a common problem in movies which are meant for various markets.

I guess if I were to try to defend the director's inconsistency I would say that Lissell apparently spent most of her life in the US (if I remember the ending well enough since it has been a while since I saw it). Immigrants often mix words from their native tongue and their adopted one. "Football" would be one she would have to drop because that word is taken in the US by another sport. No one would understand her. So while she could get away with using "nein" since it is commonly understood she would not have that option with football or any variation of it. If she were thinking back and writing any of this down it would be difficult to say which words she would choose. It would likely depend on her intended audience, just as the director here hedged things to where he thought he might get the biggest box office. I don't think that is a strong argument since the director failed to clearly establish that point, but it would have made at least some sort of sense.

The rather contrived conceit where Mr. Death narrated the tale seemed kluged on. That didn't really add anything at all in my opinion and should have been scrapped since the story was really told from Lissel's point of view. The only time we got a perspective other than hers was when the narration was present. And the only real point of film making and story telling is to make us forget our own mortality and our own lives for a while. We don't need to be reminded that no one gets out alive. Pointing out the survivors in this story eventually died is like pointing out that they often relieve themselves or breath in and out. It doesn't add anything at all.

Yeah, like when the Russians liberated Poland...and Czechoslovakia...and Hungary...and Austria...and Romania...and Bulgaria...oh wait, the Russians didn't actually liberate anyone, did they?


I got girls up here do more tricks than a god damn monkey on a hundred yards of grape vine.