Skip to content

war

Munich: The Edge of War – Christian Schwochow (2021)

  • war

It is not clear to me why the film is better known under the German title: “München – Im Angesicht des Krieges”, but there you have it.

Oxford University students Hugh (British) and Paul (German) both find themselves in high places when Word War II is at the edge of breaking out, just a few years after their university days. Hugh is the personal assistent of Neville Chamberland and Paul is close to Adolf Hitler.

Hugh and Paul grew apart. Paul appeared to have an admiration for the upcoming regime in Germany, but apparently as time went by, he became part of a current who wanted to prevent a new Word War by taking Hitler out of the equation. In order to do so, he needed to get a document into the hands of the Britsh prime minister. Pulling a lot of strings, the two manage to meet in Munich during the signing of an agreement about Sudetenland, a part of Czechia.

Schwochow managed to show the tension and stress around high summits, the fine line that Chamberlain had to walk, decissions that had to be made and how young men risked their careers and lives to make a stand.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – Guy Ritchie (2024)

Can it be done? Making a comedy about World War II? Based on the diaries of Winston Churchill even? Well yes, Ritchie pulled it off.

Germany is rapidly conquering Europe and they control both the land and the sea. Their submarines are a manace to allied forces who have no answer to the U-boots. Then a daring plan develops.

The Germans appear to transport almost of their supplies with one ship and an elaborate plan involving ‘difficult people’ is forged to sink that very ship in its African port, in order to take out the U-boots for a considerable time.

With amusing dialogues, a lot of fighting and shooting, a story that appears have been true, we get a peak into the development of the James Bond stories (!). Indeed, a WWII story can be told with humour!

Svart Krabba – Adam Berg (2022)

A weak, Swedish film playing during some war. Six soldiers have to deliver a package from a camp under siege over 100 sea miles by skate to another camp. It is a ‘we will lose the war or win’ situation.

Needless to say that there is a main character who is the only surviver of the hazardous mission. Along the line the soldiers find out what the package contains and get moralistic doubts.

Like I said, weak.

The Zone Of Interest – Jonathan Glazer (2023)

We see a family at a riverside. When they leave in two cars, it is clear that this is not your average, German family. In the next scenes, we follow the family in their busy home. Lots of personnel and many children. The family has a nice house and the lady of the house built a little paradise of a garden with a part for the children (with pool), a vegetable garden with greenhouses, places to sit, etc.

The man of the house does not have to travel far for work. Out of the garden and into the gates of the concentration camp Auschwitz that Rudolf Höss helped to build and which he manages. The house and the garden of the Höss family borders immediately to an outer wall of the camp.

Glazer mostly shows the daily life of the Höss family. Raising children, tending the garden, receiving family, but also receiving Rudolf’s colleagues and subordinates for business meetings. In the background you constantly hear the low rumbling of the ovens and every so often a guard shouting to a prisoner, gunfire, etc. The family seems to have grown used to these sounds (and the smell?) and live their quiet lives outside the wall enjoying the sun and the river that flows nearby.

Höss is portrayed as a man good as his job. He makes the institute ever more efficient and even though he makes long hours, he finds time to spend with his children, in the garden or in nature and to read a book. In spite of him doing a great job, Höss is told that he will be transferred. His wife goes far in order to be able to stay in her paradise.

There are a few scenes outside of the Höss house, first at Rudolf’s offices and later at a meeting of camp managers.

It is mostly what you do not see that makes this film a fairly hard watch. Everybody knows what is going on in the camp, but that is good for the country, is it not? The Höss family is just doing their part and we are watching them do just that.

Im Westen Nichts Neues – Edward Berger (2022)

  • war

This is not the first time that the famous novel of Erich Maria Lemarque has been turned into a film. There is a 1930 and a 1979 version as well. Especially the latter many people will know. I am not sure if I ever saw it myself.

We follow a group of young men from Northern Germany who -towards the end of Word War I- are eager to go the the Western front in Southern Belgium / Northern France to help the German advancement towards Paris. What these adventurers do not know or realise, is that that Western front has hardly moved for a long time, yet costed millions of soldiers to die on both sides.

After a peptalk the new recruits are shipped to Belgium where their dreams are immediately shattered by the brutal reality of actual war. Being welcomed by the sight of fallen soldiers, being bombed on their way to the trenches and also within these trenches, main character Paul soon starts to loose friends.

In the film you can see the brutality of futility of war. Men being canon fodder when sent out of the trenches towards the trenches of the French with nothing more but a bajonet and and a few grenades running straight towards the machine guns of the other side.

I do not understand the English title of the book and films “All Quiet On The Western Front” as it is not quiet at all, but there sure is “nothing new” with not moving front lines and endless death. Since nothing indeed happens, the German contemplate a treaty to prevent further loss of lives. The demands of the French are harsh, but the Germans decide to agree anyway. The ceasefire time is set, only for a hotheaded German general to call for one final and completely unnecessary attack.

Besides war scenes, we also follow the soldiers in the time between combat. How they have to live, how they try to find more food than their rations allow for, the things they talk about, the way they mourn the endless loss of lives…

Indeed, a penetrating look into modern warfare.

Spectral – Nick Mathieu (2016)

IMDb.com

In a near future with high-tech warfare, American soldiers run into something that they have not seen yet: an invisible and deadly enemy.

Clyne, the creator of these high-tech items, is sent to a war-zone to try to find out what technique the enemy uses.

“Spectral” makes an alright film with a good war atmosphere. The film is good up until we find out what enemy the soldiers face and then becomes a bit of an action horror which is not too convincing. Of course there is a bit of the obligatory drama and American patriotism, so in this regard a Netflix film is exactly like a Hollywood production.

Darkest Hour – Joe Wright (2017)

IMDb.com

On the outbreak of WWII the British prime minister Chamberlain is replaced by Winston Churchill, without much enthusiasm of his own party. Especially when Churchill’s rhetoric is about fighting rather than trying to make peace, ways to get rid off him are soon thought of.

Starting optimistically it soon becomes clear that Churchill has to admit that he cannot overpower Germany and when 300.000 of his troops get trapped at the French border, an unpopular way of evacuating them is started (this evacuation is what the film Dunkirk is about).

Some of his ministers want to make peace with (meaning: surrender to) the Germans, but as the people seem to prefer fighting over flying, Churchill pushes his old tactics again.

The film makes a nice history lesson showing a hard politician who was also but a man.

Allied – Robert Zemeckis (2016)

A romantic spy adventure with Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, that bound to be a popular Hollywood production. This fairly descent film is only rated 7.1 on IMDb though.

Pitt and Cotillard are coupled on a mission to kill some Nazis and when they survive the mission against the odds, they leave for London where Max Vatan (Pitt) remains under the employment of the British secret service.

The secret agent professionalism initially looks a bit forced, but as soon as the spark of love enlightens, the two actors seem to be more in their element. The story is perhaps not be too surprising, but well-written. Also the film shows well how life continued during the war, while at other times it did not.

A descent film. Very much a Hollywood production, but not a bad watch.

Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan (2017)

  • war

I did not expect to receive this film so quickly from my DVD rental. I have the feeling it is just out of the cinemas. Nolan made some of the best films I know, but war films are not my genre, so I had no haste in seeing “Dunkirk”, but here it was.

“Dunkirk” is a good and pressing film about a small part of World War II. The British decide to evacuate soldiers from a small, French harbor. While thousands of soldiers are waiting for the ships, the Germans come in with fighter planes to throw their bombs.

Nolan managed well to give an idea of the tension. A droning, minimalistic soundtrack. He also managed well to give an idea of the drama on a larger scale, but several personal stories are interwoven to give the viewer characters to identify with, adding to the drama.

Indeed a good film. Not much like previous films of Nolan and war-films remain not my genre, but this is a film to get a glimpse of the atrocities of war.

Waltz With Bashir * Ari Folman (2008)

Last summer we planned to go to the Fantasy Film Fest in Dortmund and the day we had in mind had “Waltz With Bashir”. I watched the trailer and decided that this was one of the films that I wanted to see. In the end, we did not go to Dortmund so I had to wait until another possibility to see the film. After a couple of months of silence, this title is suddenly all over the media. It played on one of the larger Dutch film festivals (Vlissingen if I am correct) and opened the animation festival last week. By now, it also plays in cinemas and for some reason the local arthouse has it listed for as much as five times a day! At least I have been able to see it on the big screen!
As you probably heard “Waltz With Bashir” is a documentary made by an Israelian soldier who fought in the Lebanon war when he was still young. Trying to fill in the blanks in his memory, he tries to find fellow soldiers of the period. Instead of making a dry documentary, Folman has made a great-looking animation. The high-contrast drawings in black and white/yellow and ‘woody’ characters make a slightly surreal atmosphere. The film goes from current events to flashbacks and what is very well done (especially caused by the animations) is that these flashbacks are rather distant, just as the people in the film see the events. While Ron’s memories are reconstructed, the flashbacks become more realistic. Storywise, I think this film is more meant for Israelis than for us Westerners (there are plenty of similar stories that we could make a film of), but the way the film is made is magnificent. The director and his team really managed to set the right atmosphere with the animations and the great soundtrack and the psychological/therapeuthic pursuit of the main character tells us a lot about or own constitution. “Waltz with Bashir” is surely not a pleasent watch, but a good watch and a great film nonetheless.