mharlos
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
18 years
Reviews
The Nazis: A Warning from History (1997)
A Valuable Contribution
I just finished re-watching this series on DVD (I had previously seen it telecast about 15 years ago).
The warning -- that is, the lesson of Nazi history -- is only explicitly addressed for a brief moment. But at the same time, it is vividly present throughout, and I think will be especially valuable for younger viewers who are likely to know very little of the story of those times. It is not presented as a chronology of the war, but it rather succinctly (in less than five hours) gives a clear depiction of the descent into depravity.
The series also offers some historical theses: first and foremost, that because the Nazi regime was so much dominated by its single charismatic personality, and because he was a visionary much more than a leader, what went on within the regime was often chaotic and confused (despite Nazism portraying itself as the paragon of order and efficiency).
For me, the most memorable and valuable distinction of this documentary is its collection of interviews with people (all elderly by the time of interviewing in the 1990s) who participated in the persecutions. Often, documentaries about the Nazi regime have interviews with people who were passive witnesses, or resisters against the regime who had less cause to fear disclosure of their actions and less to feel ashamed of. I used to watch every documentary in English I could find on WW II, and never saw perpetrator interviews like these. And because of the age of the people involved in those times, I doubt that anything like this could have been accomplished since.
Very stark for me is a meeting (on a park bench) with the author of a letter of denunciation which, along with several other such letters, led to the death of young German woman, for the crime of "being different." The calm (and yet surreal) conversation about this letter, more than 50 years after the event, offers a profoundly disturbing look into the face of evil.
The warning -- that is, the lesson of Nazi history -- is only explicitly addressed for a brief moment. But at the same time, it is vividly present throughout, and I think will be especially valuable for younger viewers who are likely to know very little of the story of those times. It is not presented as a chronology of the war, but it rather succinctly (in less than five hours) gives a clear depiction of the descent into depravity.
The series also offers some historical theses: first and foremost, that because the Nazi regime was so much dominated by its single charismatic personality, and because he was a visionary much more than a leader, what went on within the regime was often chaotic and confused (despite Nazism portraying itself as the paragon of order and efficiency).
For me, the most memorable and valuable distinction of this documentary is its collection of interviews with people (all elderly by the time of interviewing in the 1990s) who participated in the persecutions. Often, documentaries about the Nazi regime have interviews with people who were passive witnesses, or resisters against the regime who had less cause to fear disclosure of their actions and less to feel ashamed of. I used to watch every documentary in English I could find on WW II, and never saw perpetrator interviews like these. And because of the age of the people involved in those times, I doubt that anything like this could have been accomplished since.
Very stark for me is a meeting (on a park bench) with the author of a letter of denunciation which, along with several other such letters, led to the death of young German woman, for the crime of "being different." The calm (and yet surreal) conversation about this letter, more than 50 years after the event, offers a profoundly disturbing look into the face of evil.
St. Martin's Lane (1938)
Wow
Just delightedly discovered this movie, under the title St. Martin's Lane, on Turner Classics (its first showing there). My most vivid impressions:
Laughton's bitter tirade in the halls and stairway of the house, in his moment of disappointment...
How the superficially charming, but hard-edged character created by Vivien Leigh was a magnificent preview of her role the following year, in Gone With the Wind...
The brief but hard-hitting scene in which Tyrone Guthrie tells Liberty (Vivien's character) what he thinks of her...
Laughton's on-stage recitation of Kipling's "If"...
It is certainly a gem for all who, like me, adore the work of Charles Laughton. I also expect that any great fan of Vivien Leigh will deeply appreciate her performance here. And as a bonus, there are some bits of witty music-making by a true virtuoso of the harmonica.
Laughton's bitter tirade in the halls and stairway of the house, in his moment of disappointment...
How the superficially charming, but hard-edged character created by Vivien Leigh was a magnificent preview of her role the following year, in Gone With the Wind...
The brief but hard-hitting scene in which Tyrone Guthrie tells Liberty (Vivien's character) what he thinks of her...
Laughton's on-stage recitation of Kipling's "If"...
It is certainly a gem for all who, like me, adore the work of Charles Laughton. I also expect that any great fan of Vivien Leigh will deeply appreciate her performance here. And as a bonus, there are some bits of witty music-making by a true virtuoso of the harmonica.