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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2019 16:36:41 GMT
Finding out really happened never quite satisfies because some things are difficult to explain even by those who live through events. Fear is a stronger force than we want to accept and we want to identify with courage in such films that explore war and strife. Hopefully the young do want to know - but even such mass involvement as Beatlemania and then, later, that powerful show of grief at the death of a Princess put some into denial in later years. Perhaps Europe's stories are best told by themselves with a glimmering of understanding. A Belgian I knew had one brother in the German army and another a Resistance outlaw whilst he as a small boy sang in a church choir where German officers went. His mother was in fear of and for everyone. Bev 61 has raised some interesting thoughts.
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Post by vicky on Oct 2, 2019 17:13:05 GMT
What an unimaginable position to be in.
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Post by Delia on Oct 2, 2019 22:02:39 GMT
I also felt it was not quite right, somehow: each set piece was well done, and well acted, but the whole thing was bitty, constantly chopping and changing between characters and even countries.
If you watch famous old films on this subject, they all spend a little time at the outset establishing the characters. With a series like this, there is more time than in a 2 hour film, so no excuse.
I predict only a lukewarm reception for what should have been a triumph of a series. (And for a lesson in how to show wartime and its grim unfairness, watch "Our Finest".)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2019 9:40:56 GMT
So what is anyone else making of this so far? The child evacuee touched base here. Having lived in three war declared places our 6 yr old was once flown to safety in an air lift - to we knew not where for many days, with people who offered - we stayed back having work responsibilities for the safety of others. The fleet of emotions one does through in war situations is beyond words.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2019 9:58:23 GMT
I have just been watching Life and Fate on Amazon Prime -- I am up to episode 4 -- it gives you a much more believable feeling of what war is like; it is a real find. This seems too clean and sanitised. You do not feel as though you are on a set all the time.
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Post by marion on Oct 8, 2019 9:58:30 GMT
To use a word from Bake Off, I find it a bit claggy. It certainly isn't gripping or involving. Harry is a weak liar, Kasia has the best blow dry of any Resistance Fighter, the gay chaps in Paris seem to be part of a different series altogether, I cannot stand the plucky heroine's brother and after the revelations on here about the journalist, I couldn't care about her at all. So I'm in two minds whether to carry on with it. I think Lesley Manville and Sean Bean are the best things in it. I might give it another week.
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Post by vicky on Oct 8, 2019 10:50:13 GMT
I agree with everything marion says....but unlike her, I have already given up as I found my attention was wandering because it wasn't engaging me so I switched off about halfway through episode 2.
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Post by beverley61 on Oct 8, 2019 11:44:26 GMT
I am having a guess here, but I think Sean Bean will become more involved with little Jan and once Jan speaks English he is going to find out that the posh chap is married to his sister. I think these first two episodes are setting up the story and I am still engaged. However agree with marion, the two gay men in Paris seem completely superfluous and possibly an attempt to be too inclusive altogether. As the other black musician said "How do you think the Nazis are going to treat a black man like you, you need to leave now".
How do all these people link up is the concern. Are we to have lots of different stories about each individual each week. Kasia, her brother in the Polish Army, Jan, the singer in ENSA, the translator in the army, the brother in the Navy, the journalist in Berlin, the American doctor in Paris, his boyfriend, the embittered posh woman, Sean Bean the pacifist. Is it going to be 15 minutes on each or will one person be getting a letter from all of them and just giving us a running commentary. Currently the links aren't there and I can't see how they mesh together or don't. Probably they don't unless they're all at the same party on VE day!! We will have to wait and see.
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Post by marion on Oct 12, 2019 13:08:18 GMT
I agree with everything marion says....but unlike her, I have already given up as I found my attention was wandering because it wasn't engaging me so I switched off about halfway through episode 2. I've changed my mind and decided to abandon ship. Recording deleted. |
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Post by geometryman on Oct 14, 2019 12:22:45 GMT
I'm still watching, just. I think the military stuff - troops, action, uniforms and equipment - is done pretty well. Much of the interpersonal relationships and storylines however I find unconvincing. It's almost as if completely different teams were responsible for those two aspects. The Paris gays didn't feature at all this week, which in my book is a good thing, but I'm beginning to find Helen Hunt's character quite irritating.
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Post by beverley61 on Oct 14, 2019 19:52:06 GMT
Yes I think the American aspect is very clunky and cliches. A small girl with normal intelligence who also has epilepsy wouldn't have been an early target for Herr Doktor. He would have been entirely taken up with those in asylums, special schools and those already known as disabled. This little girl wouldn't fit that category and perhaps she might have eventually but not then.
Also the father was shouting that she would bring the Nazis to their door, but that was hardly detective work when they are neighbours.
At this stage they'd have had plenty of opportunity to leave the country or move the wife and daughter to the country if they chose to.
Some high ranking Nazis had family members with LDs and most of them survived the war. I think the either the Rommels or the Goerings had a younger sister with LDs.
So that story line is completely superfluous at present and no US reporter would have been given such access later in the war.
I find her story line pointless. Other than for viewers in the US.
The Polish story line is also going strange. I get that she might want to work for the resistance, but she'd serve them well enough continuing to work in the cafe. She's too pretty and too obvious and recognisable to be the lure for the assassination squad. They'd be much more likely to use an actual street prostitute and a knife or poison as the weapon.
I knew Jan would learn enough English to explain the marriage.
I'm still watching because I'm interested and found the naval scenes etc very good. Also waiting to see what happens at Dunkirk.
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Post by marion on Oct 14, 2019 21:01:39 GMT
Oh do tell, who did Jan tell about the marriage? Lesley Manville or Sean Bean? Has much time lapsed then if he can speak English now? I have given up but this little snippet does interest me!
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Post by yankee on Oct 14, 2019 21:23:31 GMT
I find her story line pointless. Other than for viewers in the US. I always find it presumptuous when film makers or TV shows do this, and no doubt a decision made by some marketing person in a board room.
Some of my favorite films and/or documentaries about WWII had nary a yank in site.
Same goes for the popularity of UK programmes in the U.S. in general. People like to sample things that are outside of one's normal diet.
To tack on a pointless storyline because someone thinks it will make it more attractive for export is probably unknowingly insulting their potential customer. 
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Post by Miranda on Oct 14, 2019 21:35:39 GMT
I think we often assume over here that Americans don't like anything that doesn't have Americans in it cos this happens so often. Especially with WW2 stuff. Which was often annoying to people who actually had parents who went through the war. Especially when Hollywood had Americans winning battles they weren't even in. I remember my Dad having a proper strop a few times!  |
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Post by geometryman on Oct 14, 2019 22:16:07 GMT
Oh do tell, who did Jan tell about the marriage? Lesley Manville or Sean Bean? Has much time lapsed then if he can speak English now? I have given up but this little snippet does interest me! Lesley Manville. Apparently not much time has elapsed. He still seems to speak very little English, but enough to reveal this piece of info. |
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Anymore to come?
