Nuremberg

Today we're looking at:

Nuremberg (2025).

This movie about the first Nuremberg trial is based on the 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai. The script is written by the director James Vanderbilt who also directed the rather good Suspiria remake in 2018.

We open the movie with Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) surrendering to American soldiers. Next we meet US Army major and psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) who has been tasked with assessing the mental health and competency of the surviving top Nazis, particularly whether they are a suicide risk. Dr. Kelley is assisted by Sergeant Howie Triest (Leo Woodall) who speaks fluent german. Kelley is immediately fascinated by Göring who is highly intelligent and completely charming, and starts planning a future book.

At the same time, US Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert Jackson (Michael Shannon) is pushing to set up the Nuremberg trials, arguing that they can't just kill the top Nazis without a trial. He encounters severe opposition from several directions, as there is not only no legal framework for prosecuting foreign nationals but a real fear of losing such a trial and thereby legitimizing the Nazis. It is no spoiler to state the trials do go ahead, and Jackson is aided by the British barrister Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (Richard E. Grant).

The real focus of this movie are the actors. They are all amazing. Malek is good, but it is Crowe and Woodall that really shine for me. Russell Crowe especially does a great job going from affable and charming to monstrous and cold in a heartbeat. He goes from pleasant old Hermann to Reichsmarshall Göring in a blink and it is quite spooky.

Production wise, the movie is also really good. Nothing feels fake or out of place. Uniforms, sets, hairstyles and everything else all look and feel fine.

However Nuremberg has a big balance problem. Clocking in at a massive 148 minutes it still manages to rush through important parts while focusing on other less relevant bits. The big gotcha moment in court falls completely flat, I think it needed a lot more build up. At the same time we are treated to Kelley's arguments with fellow psychiatrist Dr. Gilbert (Colin Hanks) along with other scenes we don't need at all. Scenes of Kelley drinking in a bar do nothing except show he has a drinking problem, which isn't relevant either and leads to one of the biggest events that didn't happen in real life. (No spoilers).

The whole “can we even have a trial” part is really interesting and deserves further exploration in my opinion. Likewise, the discussions between Göring and Kelley are fascinating and we deserve more. We get practically nothing from the other Nazis which could have been used for Kelley's investigation into whether the Nazis were different somehow. It is all somehow rushed through with other bits crammed in that don't add anything worthwhile to the movie.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, ultimately I do think Nuremberg is worth watching at least once. As I said, it is very well made and the actors are wonderful but be aware of its flaws. Oh, and a warning: during the trial scene, they show real footage from the extermination camps, and while this is important in order to hammer home the full horror of the Holocaust, some viewers might not be able to handle it.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

Top Four part Four, Where Eagles Dare

For Eccentric Sphere number 700, we're at the final part of my top four movies on Letterboxd:

Where Eagles Dare (1968).

This WWII action/adventure/thriller came about because Elizabeth Taylor's kids requested that her husband, Richard Burton, should make a movie they were allowed to watch. So Burton contacted producer Elliot Kastner for “some super hero stuff”. Kastner called Alistair MacLean who gave him the script in six weeks and later wrote the novel based on his own script. The title was Castle of Eagles, which Kastner hated and changed to Where Eagles Dare after Shakespeare's Richard III: "The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch"

The plot in a nutshell is this: An American general has been shot down on his way to coordinate the invasion of Europe and been taken to Schloss Adler for interrogation. An MI6 team lead by Major Smith (Burton) is sent to get him out before the Germans can learn the invasion plans. Along for the ride is Lieutenant Schaffer (Clint Eastwood), a US Army Ranger. Things start going wrong almost immediately, but Smith is a clever fox and Schaffer a total badass, so we move on towards an exciting finale.

There is something I need to get out of the way now. Where Eagles Dare is full to the brim with errors. Uniforms are wrong, vehicles - including a helicopter, are used that were created after the war, hair styles (particularly the ladies) are wrong, bomb timers are too modern, the list goes on and on. This is something that normally annoys me a great deal, but when it comes to Where Eagles Dare, I don't give a damn! I love this movie despite all the errors.

Where Eagles Dare is the quintessential agents-behind-enemy-lines movie. Pretty much every piece of media that sneaks around in Nazi castles owes something to this movie. Return to Castle Wolfenstein even has a similar cable car. The Dirty Dozen (1967) is older but I don't think it is as influential.

The soundtrack likewise wins the gold medal for this type of story. The rolling military drums that lead into a bombastic score is simply perfect and will stick around in your head well after the movie is over.

Lets look at the actors. Richard Burton's career was on the decline but he was still big enough to get top billing. His health wasn't good and his drinking was bad, but the old theater actor comes out in full force. He is perfect as Major Smith. Smith may be a bit long in the tooth but he has all the experience in the world. He commands the room effortlessly and thinks as fast as Schaffer is with a gun. Clint Eastwood is likewise perfect. Cool as ice and tough as steel, perfect for backing up the older Smith. Another character I need to mention is Mary played by Mary Ure. She infiltrates the castle ahead of Smith & Co. She faces the Gestapo alone and she pulls the trigger without hesitation when needed to. In other words she is the professional she has to be to get the job done. An excellent example of a strong female character.

I could go on, but you really ought to watch this movie yourself. Where Eagles Dare is a bit silly and over the top, but the story is absolutely top notch and there is no shortage of thrills.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

We have ways of making you talk.

I had this whole thing planned with World of Warcraft Legion: Remix, but I got slapped with a proper flu, and my brain has been replaced with snot. Instead I'll just say, Legion: Remix is really cool and if you play WoW, give it a shot.

Instead of my planned content I want to highlight a channel: WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk.  

This channel is WW2 history with comedian Al Murray and historian James Holland who are currently talking about the Battle of Britain. I've seen two videos so far and it is really good. So, enjoy that if you like history. I'll embed the first video for you.

 

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week! 

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Having seen a couple of clips on Youtube, I watched:

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024).

This movie claims to be based on true events from Winston Churchill's diaries, but that should be taken with a grain of salt.

Churchill is desperate to do something about the German U-boats, so he tasks Brigadier Gubbins (Cary Elwes), who together with Ian Fleming (Freddie Fox) recruits Major Gus March-Phillips (Henry Cavill). He is a rogue and constantly in trouble, but the ideal man for unconventional commando operations. March-Phillips puts together a team, and they go off to destroy an Italian tanker, the Duchessa d'Aosta, that is supplying the U-boat fleet with carbon-dioxide filters (they didn't use these in real life). The ship is in the Spanish controlled colony of Fernando Po in Africa. Lots of action ensues.

The event in question did happen, and is called Operation Postmaster. It is also true that several high ranking British officers were vehemently against commando warfare, seeing it as well, ungentlemanly. So far so good, but the movie has some problems. When I started watching, I had no idea that the director is non other than Guy Ritchie, who's movie The Gentlemen I recently reviewed with great pleasure. I thought The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare would be a serious war movie with some comedic elements, but it is in fact a pulp action movie with lots of comedic elements. The British commandos are total superhuman soldiers, hitting everything they shoot at even without really aiming. They are almost completely unfazed by the enormity of what they have to do. It gets a bit silly to be honest.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is so full of errors that I don't even want to try to list them all. Some are small issues like how their silenced STEN guns weren't developed until a few years later, that doesn't bother me, but uniforms are wrong (Gestapo officers in army general staff uniforms, military behavior is wrong (Sitting indoors wearing hats), essentially lots of small things that screamed at me when watching.

So what is good about The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare? Well, everything else. It is really nicely made, the action is great, most of the dialogue is good, although there are a few stinkers in this department. The music suits the movie perfectly. Once I understood what the movie is, I could relax and start enjoying myself. Guy Ritchie is best known for his British crime movies, and a war movie is a very different beast.

I couldn't help but compare The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare with SAS: Rogue Heroes, which is also about the birth of unconventional warfare. SAS is a mini series and could thus take it's time and show background issues, and political problems. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a two hour movie and it wastes too much time going in this direction with no payoff. It had been better if it had focused solely on the commandos instead.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes. You may get the impression that I didn't like it, but I complain because I liked it. Watch it as a pulp action comedy, and you will have a good time. Ignore all attempts at viewing it in a documentary light, and it works. I may even watch it again at some point.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!

 

SAS: Rogue Heroes

This week I watched the first and so far the only season of:

SAS: Rogue Heroes (2022).

SAS: Rogue Heroes is written and created by the prolific Steven Knight, the man behind Peaky Blinders, Shutter Island, Eastern Promises and much much more. He is also a co-creator of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? One can safely say that Knight knows what he's doing.

SAS: Rogue Heroes takes place in North Africa in 1941. Field Marshal Rommel is hammering the British who in turn don't get anything done. One man, Lieutenant David Stirling (Connor Swindells) has an idea. He has gone through the commando school and understands the value of asymmetrical warfare. He gets in touch with a couple of other officers, Lieutenant Paddy Mayne (Jack O'Connell) and Lieutenant Jock Lewes (Alfie Allen) with the idea of creating a regiment that operates on its own, outside the normal chain of command.

As it happens, the chief of intelligence in Cairo, Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke (Dominic West) has used a phantom regiment to lure away the Germans, that he calls SAS. The two ideas merge and a group of rough, hardened soldier set forth into the desert to blow up planes and make history.

The first season, with six episodes, was made in 2022, but the second season should air later this year, focusing on the European theater of war.

Visually SAS: Rogue Heroes is a real treat, it is simply gorgeous. The stark desert makes for a strong back drop to the action, the humor and the drama. I found nothing to complain about here.

The actors are superb from smaller side roles to the main characters, no one is pointless and nothing is meaningless. Despite being a story about war, there is character development, and lots of subtle details that really flesh out the characters in a wonderfully subtle way.

What really stands out is the music. When the officers are at the Empire Club, the band plays the swing hits of the time, like Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. But, at certain points the music switches to AC/DC, Motörhead and more. At first this really threw me for a loop, but somehow it really works and allows the creators to make a point. A dangerous journey might start with AC/DC's Highway to Hell and during the complete destruction of a German airfield, they blast Motörhead's Overkill. As a fan of such music I was delighted. Even though it is a brave choice.

So, far so good but are there any drawbacks? Sure. Some of the story beats are really obvious. If a character thinks too much about his love back home, is it a surprise that he's not long for this world? Things like that, that should be shocking, but are pretty clearly telegraphed. Not a deal breaker by any means, but in a show this well made, one would hope they could have been more subtle with it.

So, do I recommend this show? Absolutely! If you have any interest in WWII you need to watch SAS: Rogue Heroes. It's not Band of Brothers good, but it comes very close, and I hope the second season is out soon!

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!

 

Force 10 from Navarone

Today we're looking at:

Force 10 from Navarone (1978).

This is a sequel to The Guns of Navarone and is also based on a novel by Alistair MacLean. When I say based on, I really mean that. The script is so different from the novel that MacLean modified it into another novel, that's how different the novel and the movie are.

Like in Guns, we again have Mallory and Miller, then played by Gregory Peck and David Niven respectively. There was some thought given to having the original actors return but since they were already too old seventeen years earlier, they recast the roles for Robert Shaw and Edward Fox.

This time they are on a new mission to kill a double agent in Yugoslavia. A US Army Ranger, Lieutenant Colonel Barnsby (Harrison Ford) is on his way there anyway for a different mission and is ordered to give the British commandos a ride. They accidentally pick up a US sergeant played by Carl Weathers and the heroes are off!

Things go wrong, people get killed, stuff blows up and it is a dramatic roller coaster of a ride through the war!

Force 10 is directed by Guy Hamilton, who also directed Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, Diamonds are Forever and The Man with the Golden Gun. Besides these four Bond films, he made a few Agatha Christie movies and a bunch of other stuff. I think you can recognize the Bond style here, even though it is a very different kind of movie. It's something in the way he made adventure/action movies.

Actor wise, this is pure gold. Robert Shaw (From Russia With Love, Jaws), Edward Fox (The Day of the Jackal, Ghandi), Harrison Ford (Star Wars, Indiana Jones), Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me), Carl Weathers (Rocky franchise, Predator), Richard Kiel ( The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker) and the list does not end there. Brilliant cast and everyone does a good job. Richard Kiel is even scarier here than in Bond, and that's without his metal teeth.

In fact, I have nothing technical to complain about. It is a beautiful movie from beginning to end. My biggest gripe is the lack of continuity from Guns. Especially the fact that in the previous movie, Mallory is said to “speak German like a German”, but in Force 10 he doesn't speak a lick of German. I have a real problem with that since the book keeps this skill intact. For some reason, they decided to change that when there was no need to! Very annoying, but not a deal breaker.

Force 10 is almost two hours long, but so much happens, and the locations change so much that you don't really notice it. There are so many exciting and tense scenes, dramatic fights and clever plans that you simply don't have time to get bored.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, of course! I would say that anyone who likes war or adventure movies should see Force 10 and any general movie fan could enjoy it. With a cast like that, you can't really go wrong. You don't even have to see The Guns of Navarone first, but it is the smart thing to do.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great week!

 

Those are some Big Cannons!

I found a movie called Force 10 from Navarone and the cast list looked pretty good. Then I found out that it is a sequel to:

The Guns of Navarone (1961), which I hadn't seen, so I sat down and watched it. Can't start with the sequel after all.

This WWII epic is based on a novel by Alistair MacLean and is directed by J. Lee Thompson. In a nutshell the story is this:

2000 British soldiers are trapped on a Mediterranean island, and Germany intends to wipe them out in order to intimidate Turkey into joining the Axis. The Royal Navy could easily get them to safety but for a heavily fortified artillery emplacement on the (fictional) island of Navarone. The RAF has tried to bomb the artillery, but to no avail, so it falls to a small commando group to destroy it. The group is led by Major Franklin (Anthony Quayle) with Captain Mallory (Gregory Peck), Greek Colonel Stavros ( Anthony Quinn), Corporal Miller (David Niven) who is also a professor of chemistry and an explosives expert. The rest of the team is less well known today but all solid actors as well.

First off, The Guns of Navarone is 2 hours and 38 minutes long, which is on the extreme end of a movie that is comfortable to watch in one sitting. The reason for this length is that it shows pretty much every step of the way. Early planning, later planning, travel, rock climbing, hiding from the Germans, sneaking into town... etc etc.

The benefit of this is that you get to know the characters very well, and that you don't always see things coming, but it also drags the movie a lot. A lesser director with a worse script would have made a movie that is impossible to sit through. As it is, The Guns of Navarone is something of a masterpiece so it works, but only barely.

Naturally I won't spoil anything, so I won't go into any detail as such, but a lot of the story is easy to guess from the start. After all, no one makes a movie where the Nazis win, let alone back in 1961. Things turn out alright, but of course, at a price. The excitement comes from seeing who makes it and who doesn't. But enough about that.

The Guns of Navarone is the kind of movie that they don't really make anymore, it's just too expensive. It cost $2.000.000 back then and even though it made a hefty profit, I shudder at what it would cost today.

Fun trivia time!

• Gregory Peck portrays a British officer, even though he refused to do a British accent. He also felt he was miscast for the role.

• This is the only war movie David Niven ever did where he didn't play an officer, which he was in real life.

• Niven caught a nasty infection and was hospitalized for a month. This set production back so badly they considered re-shooting all his scenes with another person. He went AWOL from the hospital, finished his scenes, but relapsed and spent seven more weeks in hospital.

• The story is loosely based on the real Battle of Leros.

• All the German tanks were actually American and the Royal Navy destroyers were Greek, as are all the German extras.

• The artillery set was refurbished and reused as cable car terminus in Where Eagles Dare, also written by Alistair MacLean.

So, do I recommend this movie? Absolutely! Any fan of war film that hasn't seen it should see it. Even those who don't care much for war could find this fascinating. There are no big battles, no, but it is no less hard hitting for that. All the acting is superb and it is extremely well done. There are tons of day shots with a night filter, which is annoying after a while, but that is how it was done back in the day. This is an old school epic in the best sense of the word. Well worth it despite the length.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

Sniper Elite 5

On May 26^th, 2022 Rebellion Studios released Sniper Elite 5. Since I have shared my opinion on Sniper Elite (SE from here on) V2, V2 Remastered, 3 and 4, I thought it is high time I shared what I think about the fifth part of the series. This is perhaps a bit late, but it takes time to fully understand a game this complex.

Once more we step into the boots of commando demigod Karl Fairburne. SE5 is set in France in 1944 from just before D-Day until that fateful day itself, and beyond. This makes it the fifth game in sequence but the third game in chronological order.

Mechanically SE5 is much like the other games. Third person camera, a good choice between rifles, submachine guns and pistols and the standard binoculars. Unlike all but SE4, the maps are enormous. It took me about three hours per map and with nine missions not counting DLC, it takes a while to play through, and that does not factor in replayability.

The game looks gorgeous, plays great and feels smooth. On a few of the levels there are loudspeakers that periodically blare out propaganda and I really wish you could turn them off. It is really loud and annoying, but that is the one mechanical element that frustrates me.

Some things are new however. Rebellion have added a RPG like leveling system that is fine but not great, in essence you become more effective with time. Nothing special, but okay. There is also a new mechanic called Focus that allows you to sense enemies through walls but using it raises your heartbeat, which reduces accuracy. When I played on lower difficulty settings, the Focus system was of questionable use at best since you can see the enemies on the mini-map, but once I got to Sniper Elite (hard) difficulty you can no longer see enemies on the map and Focus became incredibly useful.

As mentioned above, the maps are gigantic and very complex. This allows for a myriad of ways to tackle objectives in whichever way you want to. SE5 got some criticism that it is too stealth focused and not a good sniping game, but as someone who is on his fifth play through, I can confidently say that critique is complete nonsense! The maps allow up close take downs, long range sniping, furious assaults, whatever you want really. It is up to you to figure out how to do what you want to do. You get your objectives, and then you get to decide how to do them and in which order.

Another wonderful element is the addition of extra starting positions that you can unlock on each map. This simple little thing almost makes each level a new experience. On some maps you can even start on the other side of the map and essentially play it in reverse. It sounds simple but is in reality a stroke of genius.

The alternative starting positions combined with the medals really push for extra playthroughs. As I mentioned, I'm on my fifth run, and I'm finding new places and details all the time. The previous games have their achievements as does SE5, but here you can also unlock medals for mastering weapons, playing the game on various difficulties, getting long shot kills and best of all, interesting challenges like taking out three snipers in melee on a map, specific kill challenges and much more.

SE5 has a PVP invasion mode, but not only am I not interested in that, it is full of cheaters despite the so called “easy anti cheat” you have to install if you want to do that. I'll make no further comment on this.

I could keep gushing, but I think you get the point by now. I love this game! I haven't played SE4 for a few years and most SE fans say that the fourth game is the best. I agree but I would say that this installment in the series is almost as good as number 4, if not equal to it. If you've been thinking about giving Sniper Elite a chance go with 4 or 5.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Stalingrad

I was again in the mood for a WWII movie and watched:

Stalingrad (1993).

This German production is directed by Joseph Vilsmaier and stars Dominique Horwitz, Thomas Kretschmann and Jochen Nickel amongst others.

With the clue in the name, this movie follows a squad of German soldiers from a rest period in Italy to the Battle of Stalingrad. I knew this wouldn't be a happy or fun movie, but I wasn't prepared for how grim things would be.

Unlike Enemy At The Gates, Stalingrad is a grim march to the grave. There are no heroics, only a desperate struggle for life held together with camaraderie. The only thing these men have are each other and the will to live and both are failing fast. Despite this I never once considered turning the movie off. It is both compelling and well done. But damn is it gloomy.

I found the way the movie is built interesting. Perhaps because it is a German production instead of Hollywood one, but Stalingrad is a series of scenes without much in the way of connections. The unit is on the train, they are marching into Stalingrad, combat scene, rest scene, combat scene etc. Despite the slightly loose format, I had no trouble following the plot, even though I had to read the subtitles. From a technical point of view, the movie is excellent, no complaints whatsoever. The actors are great and the props and scenery is first rate.

For being a movie about possibly the bloodiest battle in human history, there is a surprising lack of gore. There is some in a few scenes here and there, but the real horror is the winter, starvation and the terror of death. Interestingly enough, there is basically no overt Nazism either nor are the Russians really “the bad guys”. I'd say the biggest villain in the movie is the military police captain Haller, who is a sadistic bastard. This puts the focus on the squad instead of the bigger picture, reinforcing the small scale look at their humanity, their suffering both physically and mentally, as well as the cruel winter. Oh yes, this movie actually has winter unlike Enemy At The Gates. You are intimately locked in with these wretches, whether you like it or not.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes and no. This is not a “war as an adventure” movie and it's not about anything important as such, it is just a dark journey full of horror and pain. It is also a look at what it was like for the soldiers at Stalingrad. The movie omits cannibalism which did take place historically, and perhaps it is for the best. It is dark enough as it it. If anything I said above seems compelling, then yes watch it. If you need something lighter, than no, go elsewhere. It is an effective anti war movie and no mistake.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

The Eagle Has Landed

This week we're going back to WWII with the movie:

The Eagle Has Landed (1976).

More often than not I have the problem that I can't talk too much about a movie without spoiling it. This time that is not a problem.

The Eagle Has Landed is all about a Nazi plan to kidnap Sir Winston Churchill and bring him back to Germany. To no ones surprise this does not succeed since they didn't and still don't make movies where the Nazis get a strong win.

This movie has an amazing cast with Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter, Donald Pleasence. Treat Williams, Larry Hagman, even the famous Swedish actor and singer Sven-Bertil Taube. Two of the actors went on to play Indiana Jones villains. I found so many familiar faces it became impossible to keep track of them all. The Eagle Has Landed is directed by legendary director John Sturges (The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven) and it was in fact his final movie.

Inspired by the rescue of Benito Mussolini, Hitler wants German military intelligence chief Admiral Wilhelm Canaris to plan the kidnapping of Churchill. He turns the operation over to Colonel Radl (Duvall) who recruits paratrooper Colonel Steiner (Caine) and his men. They also have the help of IRA man for hire Devlin (Sutherland) who goes in first to prep the way for the paratroopers. Predictably enough things go wrong and the German paratroopers find themselves in a fight against US Rangers led by the hysterical Colonel Pitts (Hagman).

The Eagle Has Landed is weird movie to watch. It has so many actors that I like and admire that play Nazis and I found myself wanting the actors to succeed and their characters to fail. It was a confusing movie to watch on an emotional level. Despite that, this is a good movie. It feels very real from start to finish. All the actors are incredibly good, especially Donald Pleasence who plays Heinrich Himmler and gives a terrifying performance.

Michael Caine stated that he was excited to work with the legendary John Sturges but was very disappointed that for Sturges it was only a paycheck. He took the job to make more money for his deep sea fishing hobby and left as soon as his job was done. This makes the editing a bit wonky at times which does show from time to time. He later stated: “The picture wasn't bad, but I still get angry when I think of what it could have been with the right director. We had committed the old European sin of being impressed by someone, just because he came from Hollywood."

The Eagle Has Landed is over two hours long and for a movie like this it is a bit long, but it never got boring. In fact, I wanted more, especially with Devlin as he infiltrates the sleepy English village.

Fun Fact, there is a water mill in the village where the action happens that is pretty famous. It is the same mill that is featured on the cover of Black Sabbath's first album, Black Sabbath, which is considered by many to be the first metal album of all time.

So, do I recommend this movie? Oh yes, I really do. It's an unusual WWII movie but very good. Sure, it's the actors that make it good, but any fan of war movies that haven't seen it really should.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!

 

Enemy at the Gates

I was in the mood for a war movie so I watched,

Enemy at the Gates (2001).

This movie is set in the Battle of Stalingrad and follows a young soldier turned sniper, Vassili (Jude Law) as he goes from a nobody to a heroic figure thanks to the propaganda created by his friend Commissar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes). Soon enough the Germans send their top sniper Major König (Ed Harris) to hunt him down in the torn apart ruins of the industrial city.

That is the story in a nutshell. We also have Rachel Weisz as Tania Chernova, Bob Hoskins as Khrushchev and Ron Perlman as Koulikov. Enemy at the Gates is directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud who also directed amongst others The Name of the Rose and Seven Years in Tibet.

First off I want to point out that the movie does many things that are not true. In the beginning, the Soviet troops are sent in to fight, but only every other man gets a rifle. This never happened. Ammunition could be incredibly scarce, but they never sent their troops into battle without weapons. There are other things like bombers flying way to low to the ground, the fact that it is not winter in the movie, but the real Battle of Stalingrad was blanketed in an unusually cruel and hard winter. There is also apparently no German records of a Major König, though it is proven that Vassili (who was real) did kill several highly skilled German snipers.

There are many errors like that throughout the movie, yet it doesn't really matter that much. Enemy at the Gates is two hours long and somehow it didn't feel that long. Annaud has done something special in this movie, and I'm not really sure what. Yes, the actors are really good and both Law and Harris were cast specifically because they are so good at acting with their eyes. The music is fine, and very reminiscent of other movie scores, but I can't say what and from where, but throughout the movie I had a strong feeling that I had heard the score before.

The movie itself is beautiful, which is weird to say about a war movie, but the way it was created is stunning. The ruins, the bombings, the masses of people all feel so real. Sure it is often panicking civilians or the dead and wounded, but the first thing a war movie needs to work is a sense of realism, and Enemy at the Gates has that in spades. The romance subplot between Law and Weisz is likewise realistic and quite sweet. Perhaps it is in the balance of the story that the genius lies? When the war part risks getting too overwhelming we get friendship or romance and when that starts to get a bit stale, we are back to the war.

My biggest complaint is the lack of actual sniping. The back and forth hunt between Vassili and König is incredibly tense and exciting, but there is a surprising lack of people actually getting shot. Being such a huge fan of the Sniper Elite games, I was hoping for more, but you get what you get. Although I'm 100% sure the developers of Sniper Elite has seen this movie several times since I found scenes and scenery that is incredibly close to scenery I have traversed in those games.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, I do. Fans of war movies that haven't seen it should see it, and even those who aren't that big on the genre could like it. Unlike other war movies I have written about, this movie has a solid arc, character development, and though I can't state that the movie has anything to really say, it has a story that makes sense. I won't go so far as to say Enemy at the Gates is a great movie, but it is solid and worth two hours.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Pieces of History

I was in a bit of a documentary mood and since I wanted to find something to share with you, I went to Youtube and found myself a couple of documentaries about WWII, more specifically Hitler as well as the still ongoing hunt for lost Nazi gold.

The first documentary is The Hidden Side of World War II: Last Secrets of Nazis. This is a horrible title as the film itself all about Hitler, his start, and his rise to power. Most of what is presented here I knew about, but there were a couple of details I had never come across before. All in all, a good watch.

The second entry is The Hunt for Hitler's Lost 'Gold Train'. This is a much better title and concerns the hunt for hidden tunnels, buried trains, gold and even the fabled Amber Room. I liked this one a lot, it has a good sense of mystery without going overboard and making myths into fact.

So enjoy and I'll see you next time. Until then, have a great and safe week!

 

 

 

Unusual druggies

There's a lot of talk these days about drugs and drug users, but did you know that many of the top nazis were on meth?

Please enjoy this documentary on the subject, and until next time, have a great week!


Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw-JP37q62Q

Foyle's War

Usually when I talk about a TV series, I've seen it through, but today is an exception.

Today we're talking about Foyle's War.

Foyle's War is a crime drama set mostly during World War II in the south of England, mainly in Hastings. The last two seasons are set post 1945 in the early Cold War.

The show was commissioned by ITV and started in 2002 in order to fill the vacancy after Inspector Morse ended in 2000. It's written by Anthony Horowitz, the brain and pen behind Midsumer Murders, so that's some serious mystery chops right there.

As of writing this, I've seen series 1 and two episodes of series 2. Each episode is about 90 – 100 minutes long, so it's really more of a series of interconnecting movies than a regular TV show. This of course demands a lot more time from the viewer, but it allows the plots to develop more, which is important.

The titular character Christopher Foyle is a soft spoken, and doggedly determined Detective Chief Superintendent of the police. He's usually assisted by Sergeant Paul Milner and his driver Samantha “Sam” Stewart seconded from the Mechanised Transport Corps, as Foyle can't drive. Another regular character is Foyle's son, Andrew, a pilot in the RAF.

As far as I've seen, each episode consists of a main mystery and a couple of side plots, and usually they all connect somehow. A small incidental happening can be the key to solving a major crime, and so far I'm very impressed with the writing, it really is first class.

So what separates this show from the myriad of other British crime dramas is obviously the war. The production values are amazing with uniforms, clothes, everyday props, vehicles even Spitfires everywhere.

Plot wise, the war has an immense impact. From the evacuation of Dunkirk and bombings to rationing and black-market racketeering you feel the conflict in every episode, but in such a way as to make it natural and not forced. The script shows it doesn't tell. Again, first class work.

So what are the negatives? Well, there aren't that many to be honest. The pacing can be a bit slow at times, and some events are pretty predictable. Like in one episode, Sam is undercover, and despite being ordered to safety she sticks with it, but gets into a bit of trouble. Things like that. Due to the grim nature of the war, some scenes can be hard to watch, but this is British television, not a Hollywood gore fest, so not to worry.

Finally, if you have a good memory for faces like me, keep IMDB handy. Like many British TV productions, you'll find familiar faces everywhere, and if I couldn't look them up they'd have to lock me up. This seems to be one of those shows everyone has been in at one point or another.

If you want to give it a go, you can catch it on Netflix.

That's me done for this time, join me again next Monday and have yourself a great week!

Heroes of another kind.

Okay, time for another classic movie. And another on that I have missed, somehow.

Today we're looking at Kelly's Heroes (1970).

Billed as a war-comedy, and filmed in former Yugoslavia, this movie stars Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Don Rickles and Carroll O'Connor and more. So a pretty good cast all in all. Yugoslavia was chosen as the shooting location because they still had WWII armors in use, particularly old American Sherman tanks.

The plot in a non-spoilery way is this; Private Kelly (Eastwood) finds out that the Germans have a huge pile of gold squirreled away in a small french town. He convinces his platoon to go get it since they have three days off. As extra help, they are joined by Oddball (Sutherland) and his crew of three shermans. The rest is spoiler territory so, watch it yourself to see how this goes.

What really confused me, is the comedic aspect. There were a few scenes that I found a bit funny, but there wasn't a single scene that made me laugh. I'd say the horrors of war and the pain of seeing friends die far outweigh the humorous elements. That said, it's an excellent film. It wonderfully produced and have in spades what a good war movie needs: Destruction.

They blew the hell out of their set pieces, which is good since you never get the same visceral felling from a bunch of guys firing blanks at each other as you do when a building collapses in smoke and fire.

The actors are of course amazing. Did you expect anything else? But the music is strange. Very 60's-70's, which adds a strange feeling to many scenes. At the end of the day, I'd have to say I liked it, but I don't think I'm ever going to watch it again. Give it a shot and see what you think.

That's that. Until next time, have a great week and stay away from Tiger tanks.

Sniper Elite 3

A few days ago I was delighted to discover that Steam had Sniper Elite 3 (SE3) on a 70% discount. Being a huge fan of Sniper Elite v2, I had wanted this game since it's release. Naturally I snatched it up immediately. Although I haven't quite finished it yet, I feel comfortable talking about it. Mind you, this is not really a “proper” review, just an impression based on having played six missions out of eight.

My first reaction when I heard that SE3 is set in North Africa was “why?”. Then I quickly realized the genius of it. The African part of WWII is pretty underrepresented in gaming. And since SE1 and 2 are firmly placed in the European theater, this brings a welcome change of scenery.

And what a scenery it is. Lush oases, and cliffs worn down by millennia of wind and sun baked sand, create a gorgeous backdrop for the intense mayhem this game provides.

The night time levels are equally atmospheric with the added pleasure of hearing the jackals baying and howling in the distance as you're sneaking up on an unsuspecting guard.

The game play is solid, much like the earlier iterations of the franchise. Basically my one complaint is that large parts of the game seems to be designed for stealth play with silent take-downs instead of, you know, sniping. Like the title suggests. But it's really a miniscule complaint to be honest. You don't have to be all sneaky if you don't want to. But if you do go in loud and proud, you'd better be prepared to handle a complete bullet storm. There are lots of enemies in each level and they can reduce you to a bloody mess in seconds if they get the drop on you. The AI is competent enough to make you careful, and they have no qualms about flanking you. But sometimes it's just so satisfying to take up an elevated position and rain bloody death on you enemies.

In several places you have to fight vehicles, from half-tracks to tanks, and it can be a truly heart pounding experience to sneak up on a tank that can kill you in one shot. Like wise enemy snipers are well hidden and I for one really enjoy a good sniper fight.

So, if you liked Sniper Elite v2 or you're just looking for a fun action filled game, you can certainly do worse than Sniper Elite 3. In fact, if you like shooters, you probably want to check this out.

That's it for me for this week, check in again next Monday for more Eccentric Spheres. Until then, have a great week!

Hitler's Furies

Recently I finished Wendy Lower's book, Hitler's Furies: Women in the NaziKilling Fields (2014).

As the title suggests, this book examines the role of women in the Holocaust, and it does a pretty decent job of it. There is an important clue in the title though: killing fields. The book doesn't touch upon the role of women in the concentration camps, save for a passing mention.

Instead Lower shines a light on the massacres in the east, most notably in the Ukraine. Also, the book stays clear of the more famous monsters like Ilse Koch, which is fine. Much has already been written about them, and this is a more general look at the subject.

We get to follow the lives of a few select women, how they came to be in the Ukraine during WWII and what they did there. Being a book about the Holocaust it naturally focuses on the atrocities the Nazis committed in the east, and we are told the story of a few women who were willing participants in killing Jews. It's worth noting that these murderesses went east mostly with their husbands, most of whom were in the SS. A few of the women who worked in the administration system and became lovers to Nazi killers, also joined in. It seems no women went east expressly to kill. There were no women in the Einsatzgruppen.

We also follow a few women who, though brought up in Nazi Germany, traveled to the front as nurses and did not commit atrocities. I'm not sure why the author decided to include these stories, except perhaps to illustrate that not all German women who traveled east participated in the killings. In my opinion these anecdotes don't really contribute all that much to the book. Sure they witnessed some of the horrors, but we already know that they happened anyway. They are well written, but fairly uninteresting. If this had been a work of fiction, they might have been more valid. You decide.

Another aspect of Hitler's Furies analyses how being a part of the Nazi system affected women in general. On one hand Germany at the time was extremely conservative. Women were expected to go from dutiful daughters to respectable mothers and hausfraus. But with so many men in the army, SS and SA, the system had a desperate need of workers. And they were not shy about employing women. This created a mass of women who were independent both socially as well as economically. Perhaps more so than in the rest of Europe at the time.

To my great surprise, I found out that there were even high ranking female inspectors in the Gestapo. In all my time studying the Third Reich I have never come across this. Sadly the book leaves this part pretty much unexplored. I suppose this is due to the lack of solid evidence left behind, but it's a shame none the less.

Finally we follow the aftermath, and the ultimate fates of these killing women. Or rather lack of fates. Very few women were ever punished for their crimes. Naturally they downplayed their participation as much as possible, but interestingly enough, the allied investigators and prosecutors were unwilling to believe that women could do such things. Yes, a few were executed, mostly in East Germany, but the majority got away with it.

Final verdict? Definitely worth reading. I was a bit disappointed, mostly because I expected more. Perhaps it would be fair to say that Hitler's Furies could have been a bit more hard hitting. I get the feeling that the author didn't want to wallow in the horror and sheer vileness of the subject matter, but in pulling back lost something vital. The book becomes somewhat clinical, and being an objective observer which is what the author should be, the book lacks passion. Historical works shouldn't take sides and they mustn't preach, but the tone is a bit dull.

I don't know how to say it better. If the subject matter is of interest to you, by all means read it.

Until we see each other again, have a great week!

Odd Tactics

I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone who reads Eccentric Spheres, but I read a lot of WWII history. I don't read much about the battles as such, but more about the strange goings on that occurred in that grand conflict.

Today you get to share in some of these unusual occurrences and people.

First up is Nancy Wake, a.k.a. White Mouse.

Though by no means the only female SOE agent, she's in my opinion the most fascinating.

Born in New Zealand, she moved on her own to New York at the age of 16, to become a reporter for the Hearst papers. Then as Hearst's European correspondent, she saw first hand the atrocities the Nazis were capable of, and decided to do something about it.

To make a long story a lot shorter, she joined the British SOE, and between 1940 and 1945 raised merry hell for the Germans. The Gestapo gave her the nickname White Mouse for her ability to escape them time and time again, even thought they put up a 5 million franc bounty on her head.

She performed multiple jumps into France, successfully leading resistance fighters in raid after raid. In the last year of the war, thanks to her efforts (and a few others, I'm sure) her 7000+ fighters fought 22000 SS troops, killing 1400 while losing only 100 themselves.

In one raid, she killed an SS guard with one blow to the neck. In her own words:

"They'd taught this judo-chop stuff with the flat of the hand at SOE, and I practiced away at it. But this was the only time I used it -- whack -- and it killed him all right. I was really surprised."

There's more of course, but I won't put it all here. Follow the link if you want to know more about her. Believe me, it's worth it.

But the French Resistance is not the only group who knew how to stick it to the Nazis. The Norwegian freedom fighters, though not as famous, were just as good, and probably a lot meaner. Not just probably...

In 1943, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) decided to wage a mass demoralization campaign using itching powder. This powder was distributed to resistance groups all over Europe to be put in German uniforms. And it was pretty effective. It's hard to fight when your skin feels like it's on fire.

But the Norwegians decided to go that extra mile, and pretty soon the hospitals in Trondheim filled up with very upset German troops, because the resistance put the itching powder in the soldiers condoms...

Later on, the Nazi collaborating government in Norway (see Quisling) confiscated the entire years

sardine catch to supply the German military. This naturally upset the resistance a great deal. But thanks to some intelligence they got from a mole, they soon put in a request to SOE for a laxative that would dissolve without a trace in vegetable oil. No doubt impressed by the itching powder initiative, the British happily complied, and the Norwegians went to work.

You see, what the mole had discovered was that the best sardines were to be delivered to the U-boat crews.

Imagine that, boys and girls. You're trapped in a steel tube roughly 67 meters long, 6 meters wide at best and 9 meters high. You are in there with, give or take, 50 guys, and the whole place reeks of diesel fuel and unwashed bodies at the best of times. Now, add uncontrollable diarrhea for the whole crew, and you can truly say that war is hell.

That's all folks, have a very merry Christmas or your own equivalent thereof.

Sniper Elite V2 (PC)

The other day I finished the final mission of Sniper Elite V2, the shooter/stealth game from Rebellion Developments, released last year, and figured a review would be in order.

Sniper Elite V2 takes place in Berlin, 1945. You play Karl Fairburne, an OSS officer and elite sniper. Karl is assigned to Operation Paperclip, and tasked with recruiting German scientists for the US, though you mostly spend your time killing said scientists in order to deny them to the Soviets. If this is because Rebellion Developments wanted to minimize the impact of Operation Paperclip or because most gamers hate escort missions, I'll let you decide, but as I'm writing this, I can only remember one escort mission, and the only thing you had to do was give a guy cover fire, so not all that many escort jobs in total.

This game is extremely atmospheric. It oozes mood in every mission. Between the music, the sound effects and the graphics, the game does everything it can to draw you in. And it does it well. No complaints there whatsoever.

But pretty sights and sounds only go so far. The devil is in the details, and in all games, those details are in the gameplay.

Not to worry though. The gameplay in Sniper Elite V2 is quite good. They haven't re-invented the wheel, which is fine, since it allows you to dive right in.

You have a cover system that works well most of the time, but it handles corners somewhat poorly. The rest of the ”day to day” gameplay is pretty standard. You sneak through the ruins of Berlin, carefully scanning the buildings for enemy snipers, dodging (or eliminating) patrols, and when you have the target in your sights, you eliminate him. If you choose to play on higher difficulties, you will have to contend with accurate bullet physics, which will of course make things harder.

A couple of things really stand out from other games though.

The first is the X-ray damage camera. When this effect occurs, you get a graphic view of your bullet tearing it's way through the enemy. You get to see bone exploding, blood spurting, and organs being ruptured. Quite a graphic reminder of what getting shot means. You can set the frequency of how often this occurs, and it can get annoying if it happens too often. I have to say though, that it can be very satisfying to see your target go down so vividly.

The second thing that really sticks out is not so good. It is in fact, pretty silly. You see, from time to time, you will encounter tanks, and you destroy these tanks, not with anti tank weapons like bazookas, but by sniping their bright red fuel tank covers. That's right, you can kill tanks with one well placed bullet. It's very silly, but in the grand scheme of this game, it's a very small thing. It is in fact the only bad thing I can say about it.

In conclusion, if you like assassination games, and you are a fan of WWII, you'd do well to pick up this game. It's a lot of fun to find that right spot to shoot from, while large groups of bombers sail overhead. Then you wait for a bomb to explode in order to cover the noise of your gun, and bang! Mission successful.

I leave you with this trailer: