![]() ![]() This heavily edited version is the worst version available and yet it earned the film six Academy Award nominations. Turning one side into a cartoonish evil does no one good and takes away from the horrors of the war.The original theatrical version that came out in 1982 is a trimmed down version of a six-hour mini-series that aired on German television the year before. It's not both sides are good, it's both sides involved human beings, we should realize and respect that. Some of the letters we have are exchanges between lovers, promising that they'll be together as soon as this horrid war is over, people that never returned. If you read into the journals and first hand accounts you'll realize that these people were, well people. You have the people that were drafted, they didn't really want to go, but they had no choice. Then you have the dragalongs, some people didn't think to hard, "they told me to go so i did", you can condemn that, but most of us today are just living day to day without greater plans, i just want food on my table dude. ![]() Some of these soldiers tried their best to justify what they're doing "these are hard times", and you notice, they wouldn't do that, they wouldn't try to convince themselves if they weren't decent people. You should read up on some first hand accounts of the experiences of German soldiers in WWII, it's incredibly sad. I thought it a poignant addition to the theme of this post: " will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war." As the reader you forget quickly that they are 'the bad guys'.Į: I just read a line from the preface of AQotWF by author Erich Maria Remarque, a German and WWI vet. I was surprised at first to learn it was about Germans during WWI, cuz they were the bad guys right? The novel does a great job of making you feel sorry for the characters. I had a similar epiphany reading All Quiet on the Western Front in middle school. Today, we remember primarily that Johannes was a Nazi. But instead he threw his life away on some godforsaken battlefield because he was a German patriot. Johannes knew a pretty girl back in Regensburg. Some people were Nazis simply by virtue of when and where they were born. It's easy to forget, in hindsight, that being a "Nazi" was as much a choice for some unlucky bastards as being a German male of fighting age from 1939-45. Individuals with a wide variety of personal hopes, dreams, fears, and reasons for joining. But the dirty secret your country's patriots don't want you to know is: All sides in all wars are made up of precisely that- humans. Countries in their retellings are always hesitant to humanize the other side. Now think about how the Germans were doing this during WWI prior to the advent of primitive computers. If any one of those of variables change or if you miscalculate, you miss the target. So many variables: your speed, the target speed, the target bearing, the target course, the angle of the boat (needed to adjust the torpedo heading once leaving the boat), the target range, etc etc. While true, the amount of calculations necessary to get a torpedo to swim to the exact spot you want it to go at a specific point in time (where you think the target will be) is exponentially more difficult and exponentially more difficult above THAT when all you have to work with is a periscope. One of things that Carlin (and Hanks) touched on briefly in the Addendum interview was the incredible amount of algebra and geometry necessary just to do something like plot an intercept course for a sub surface contact you lose radar contact 6 miles away. ![]() I've always wondered if that was actually done and if so how significant a difference time wise it made in getting the boat to depth. ![]() One of the details I always loved about Das Boot was all crew not assigned to a post running forward to shift weight/drive the bow planes to dive faster when the alarm was sounded. While waiting for Dan's new show why not check out these? However this sub is about Dan Carlin so please keep threads about other shows relevant. It's great to discuss podcasts similar to Dan's. Dan releases content as soon as he can, and has discussed this ad nauseam in his podcasts. No complaints about Dan's release schedule. His Generation X, non-partisan, “neo-prudentist” outlook provides a fresh look at the headlines in the newspapers and the stories in the history books. Whether he’s discussing history or current events, veteran journalist Dan Carlin brings his own unconventional approach to the subject matter. Discussion about Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" and "Common Sense" podcasts. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |