Sane Inside Insanity: WAR DOCUMENTARIES; GOOD AND BAD

mercoledì, gennaio 21, 2009

WAR DOCUMENTARIES; GOOD AND BAD

(This one is a draft, but I have no time to give more info on the documentaries and I don't want to let it languish in the "unpublished" section.)

I've sampled some WWII videos lately - I have no time to watch them, so I just skimmed for some scenes, totally not the events of Sword Beach - and here's some opinions.

DENTRO LA STORIA: LE GRANDI BATTAGLIE DELLA II GUERRA MONDIALE A COLORI.
(Inside history: Great battles of WWII in colour)
An American production (?) dubbed in Italian. Awful. They colorized authentic footage, and then "antiqued" it with fake scratches. What's the point? It all looked fake like a badly drawn cartoon, to the point that I became to doubt the authenticity of the footage. Also, they are very superficial: no, Dieppe wasn't a COMPLETE defeat; Incidentally, No. 4 Commando, led by Lord Lovat, was the only unit to entirely accomplish their mission, to the point of raising the British flag over a German stronghold before leaving in good order.

BBC: D-DAY TO BERLIN.
Meh. A lot of re-enactment, but at least it was in deliberately "distorted" colours, so it could be clearly distinguished from authentic BW footage. Good quotes from the protagonists, but too many cheesy reconstructions of behind-the-scene action, with miscast actors (a tiny Monty, a fat Rommel).

BBC: THE WORLD AT WAR
Very good, even if it's from the Seventies. Narrated by Laurence Olivier, and this says all. ONLY original footage and interviews, showing that what really happened is enough to tell a poignant story without resorting to cheap effects.

D-DAY 6.6.94
Found this on YouTube and can't trace its origins. More cheesy reconstructions with useless emphasis on glamour (Robert Capa's girl); they found a decent Rommel but Ike is completely off. At least there's a lot of details and good interviews. There's the story of the Commando who was interrogated by Rommel and set free, and I know I've read it somewhere else but I don't remember where. Also, Ike's resignation letter "just in case" (chilling - reminds me of the message prepared by Nixon in case the Moon mission had failed).

QUOTES

Heart shall be bolder,
harder be purpose,
more proud the spirit
as our power lessens!
Mind shall not falter
nor mood waver,
though doom shall come
and dark conquer.
(The Battle of Maeldon, translated by Tolkien)

He who has a treasure, or a demon in his heart, cannot hide it. (King Theodoric the Great)

I' mi son un che, quando
Amor mi spira, noto, e a quel modo
ch'e' ditta dentro vo significando.
(Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio)

The lambs will stop for now. But, Clarice, you judge yourself with all the mercy of the dungeon scales at Threave; you'll have to earn it again and again, the blessed silence. Because it's the plight that drives you, seeing the plight, and the plight will not end, ever. (Hannibal Lecter)

Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai 'Ngaje Ngai', the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude. (Ernest Hemingway)

Would I embarrass you? Yes, it is possible. You see, I... I am crazy. I take the newer medications, but I still see things that are not here. I just choose not to acknowledge them. Like a diet of the mind, I choose not to indulge certain appetites. Like my appetite for patterns. Perhaps my appetite to imagine and to dream. (A Beautiful Mind)

Night gathers, and now my watch begins.
It shall not end until my death.
I shall take no wife, hold no lands,
father no children.
I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.
I shall live and die at my post.
I am the sword in the darkness.
I am the watcher on the walls.
I am the fire that burns against the cold,
the light that brings the dawn,
the horn that wakes the sleepers,
the shield that guards the realms of men.
I pledge my life and honor to the Night Watch
for this night and all the nights to come.
(GRRM)

Never criticize a person until you walk a mile in their shoes (Atticus Finch)

A warrior for peace is no less a warrior (General Korrd, unwittingly reminding of Yitzhak Rabin)

What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed? Only innocent lives, Peter. (Sirius Black)

Whatever makes a soldier sad will make a killer smile (Leonard Cohen)

I'm rightly tired of the pain I hear and feel, boss. I'm tired of bein on the road, lonely as a robin in the rain. Not never havin no buddy to go on with or tell me where we's comin from or goin to or why. I'm tired of people bein ugly to each other. It feels like pieces of glass in my head. I'm tired of all the times I've wanted to help and couldn't. I'm tired of bein in the dark. Mostly it's the pain. There's too much. If I could end it, I would. But I can't. (John Coffey)

Oh, life! 'tis in an hour like this, with soul beat down and held to knowledge, - as wild, untutored things are forced to feel - Oh, life! 'tis now that I do feel the latent horror in thee! but 'tis not me! that horror's out of me! and with the soft feeling of the human in me, yet will I try to fight ye, ye grim, phantom futures! (Starbuck)

I have dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind. (Charlotte Bronte)

If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me? (Karen Blixen)

Do not you recognize me, Dumas? I am the rearguard of the Grande Armee. I have stood at Kovno, and thrown the last muskets in the Niemen. I am Marshal Ney. Give me a bowl of soup. (Attributed to Michel Ney).