Very interesting, as they say!:D I firmly believe that anyone is capable of anything given the right/wrong circumstances, so, as you ask, who knows?
I thoroughly enjoyed this series. It was well acted, good locations, and very believable.
Yes, it's been excellent. Volker Bruch was outstanding as Wilhelm, seemingly able to express the horror of four years' combat without speaking at all most of the time.
I found it a very well crafted series. The sheer scale of the carnage on the Eastern front and the depths of the brutality and suffering of those involved are almost impossible to comprehend. If anything, Generation War hugely understated the inhumanity of warfare in that theatre*.
Obviously the makers did not have the resources to recreate the battle of Kursk or bombing raids back in Berlin, so kept the action focussed at the level of the individual. This did,of course, necessitate some unlikely meetings of the protagonists during the conflict. In reality, the Eastern front was a vast campaign and the likelihood of, for example, Greta being anywhere in the vicinity of the other three by chance whilst entertaining the troops, is zero.
* And back in Germany, for that matter. At that late stage in the war, Greta would probably have been executed by hanging or guillotine, as opposed to firing squad.
Yes, it's been excellent. Volker Bruch was outstanding as Wilhelm, seemingly able to express the horror of four years' combat without speaking at all most of the time.
I found it a very well crafted series. The sheer scale of the carnage on the Eastern front and the depths of the brutality and suffering of those involved are almost impossible to comprehend. If anything, Generation War hugely understated the inhumanity of warfare in that theatre*.
Obviously the makers did not have the resources to recreate the battle of Kursk or bombing raids back in Berlin, so kept the action focussed at the level of the individual. This did,of course, necessitate some unlikely meetings of the protagonists during the conflict. In reality, the Eastern front was a vast campaign and the likelihood of, for example, Greta being anywhere in the vicinity of the other three by chance whilst entertaining the troops, is zero.
* And back in Germany, for that matter. At that late stage in the war, Greta would probably have been executed by hanging or guillotine, as opposed to firing squad.
It's one of the only times a TV series or movie has tackled the subject of the war on the Eastern Front, which made it all the more fascinating. We've seen frequent depictions of the Holocaust and hundreds of TV shows and movies about the western allies, but the war in Russia is new territory for us.
Credit to German TV for not shying away from the atrocities, and not just by the SS, but by the Wehrmacht, and for showing how even seemingly ordinary decent Germans like Friedhelm could find themselves severely compromised when placed in that situation.
I don't think we were ever in any danger of falling for the sort of messianic absolutism that guys like Hitler and Mussolini were peddling. Two of our key characteristics as Brits are our healthy cynicism towards authority and our instinctive dislike of militarism. As Orwell noted, a political leader promising military victories as a means to popularity would be shunned and goose-stepping troops openly mocked in the streets in Britain.
I would hope your right but everything depends on so many things, the economy, whose in power,etc. i would strongly recommend watching this amazing Stephen Fry 5 min video. it really opened my eyes,
I wont derail the thread but the tactics have been used over here. not to kill of course but we are not as clever as we like to think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfvAf712_-k
With what we know today. NO. i dont think many would fall for the rhetoric today.
Could this country have fell for it in the 30s. I would like to think not.
Well obviously we didn't, Moseley was seen as a bit of a joke figure rather than a serious sinister threat, and was even able to become a semi-respectable figure after the war.
Well obviously we didn't, Moseley was seen as a bit of a joke figure rather than a serious sinister threat, and was even able to become a semi-respectable figure after the war.
The Nazis are not the only people to have committed atrocities. it would be naive to think the only reason this happened is because the German people are different from other nations.
Under the right circumstances you can change public perception, under the right circumstances decent normal people can do horrible things to other people. the point is, they can do this with a clear conscience as well.
The Green party MP on BBC Question Time had an interesting thought. She said that UKIP were doing well, and no one was interested in their faults, because we all hate the three main parties so much. Under different circumstances such hatred could allow an extremist party (not UKIP) to rise to power, very fortunately no such credible party exists here at the present time but who knows what the future may bring.
... under the right circumstances decent normal people can do horrible things to other people. the point is, they can do this with a clear conscience as well.
Indeed. I remember seeing the OU programme on the Milgram experiment, which I think involved Yale students, demonstrating this only too clearly.
Be interesting to see what ratings this excellent mini-series got. I'm guessing about 2-3m.
Now if it had appealed to the usual Saturday night audience and had Ant & Dec, Will.iam etc. starring, it would have been around 20m!:D
Be interesting to see what ratings this excellent mini-series got. I'm guessing about 2-3m.
Now if it had appealed to the usual Saturday night audience and had Ant & Dec, Will.iam etc. starring, it would have been around 20m!:D
Haven't seen Lore, but Sophie Scholl is superb and very moving.
I must say German cinema and TV are doing a fine job in portraying the era in recent times.
Lore is on Netflix if you have it, not quite as good as Sophie Scholl but well worth seeing. There are also some good films looking at Eastern Germany before the wall went down on Netflix
Lore is on Netflix if you have it, not quite as good as Sophie Scholl but well worth seeing. There are also some good films looking at Eastern Germany before the wall went down on Netflix
I don't know if its just me but sometimes the discussion programme after the final episode seemed to be the other three contributors ganging up on the producer
I don't know if its just me but sometimes the discussion programme after the final episode seemed to be the other three contributors ganging up on the producer
I got that impression too, but fair play to him, he was more than capable of holding his own. It did at times feel like Pedants Anonymous.
I got that impression too, but fair play to him, he was more than capable of holding his own. It did at times feel like Pedants Anonymous.
As a TV drama, it was a fine one. Quite shocking and brutal at times, but the characters were always three dimensional and the series was very thought provoking. The fact that it caused so much debate is a good sign.
Does anyone know if this series is to be repeated? I ask because I had recorded the three episodes and was gripped by the first one. Came to watch Episode 2 only to discover that the snooker had over-run and so we only got 40 mins of the episode. Watched the last episode but are still unclear as to what happened in the last hour of episode 2.
>:(
I doubt if it will be repeated in the near future. I think Amazon would be the best option - buy the DVD box set, or rent it on DVD, or stream the episode you missed via Amazon Instant Film (£5.99 per month).
Despite the "oh, it's the story of good German's in WWII, how convenient" criticisms, I also really enjoyed it. The battle scenes were particularly superb.
Comments
Yes, it's been excellent. Volker Bruch was outstanding as Wilhelm, seemingly able to express the horror of four years' combat without speaking at all most of the time.
I found it a very well crafted series. The sheer scale of the carnage on the Eastern front and the depths of the brutality and suffering of those involved are almost impossible to comprehend. If anything, Generation War hugely understated the inhumanity of warfare in that theatre*.
Obviously the makers did not have the resources to recreate the battle of Kursk or bombing raids back in Berlin, so kept the action focussed at the level of the individual. This did,of course, necessitate some unlikely meetings of the protagonists during the conflict. In reality, the Eastern front was a vast campaign and the likelihood of, for example, Greta being anywhere in the vicinity of the other three by chance whilst entertaining the troops, is zero.
* And back in Germany, for that matter. At that late stage in the war, Greta would probably have been executed by hanging or guillotine, as opposed to firing squad.
It's one of the only times a TV series or movie has tackled the subject of the war on the Eastern Front, which made it all the more fascinating. We've seen frequent depictions of the Holocaust and hundreds of TV shows and movies about the western allies, but the war in Russia is new territory for us.
Credit to German TV for not shying away from the atrocities, and not just by the SS, but by the Wehrmacht, and for showing how even seemingly ordinary decent Germans like Friedhelm could find themselves severely compromised when placed in that situation.
I wont derail the thread but the tactics have been used over here. not to kill of course but we are not as clever as we like to think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfvAf712_-k
Well obviously we didn't, Moseley was seen as a bit of a joke figure rather than a serious sinister threat, and was even able to become a semi-respectable figure after the war.
Under the right circumstances you can change public perception, under the right circumstances decent normal people can do horrible things to other people. the point is, they can do this with a clear conscience as well.
Indeed. I remember seeing the OU programme on the Milgram experiment, which I think involved Yale students, demonstrating this only too clearly.
Now if it had appealed to the usual Saturday night audience and had Ant & Dec, Will.iam etc. starring, it would have been around 20m!:D
It will be rubbish if they are in the program.
I would recommend checking out these two films that look at Nazi Germany through German eyes, fascinating, moving and brutal;
Sophie Scholl
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426578/
Lore
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1996310/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Haven't seen Lore, but Sophie Scholl is superb and very moving.
I must say German cinema and TV are doing a fine job in portraying the era in recent times.
Lore is on Netflix if you have it, not quite as good as Sophie Scholl but well worth seeing. There are also some good films looking at Eastern Germany before the wall went down on Netflix
Such as?
I got that impression too, but fair play to him, he was more than capable of holding his own. It did at times feel like Pedants Anonymous.
As a TV drama, it was a fine one. Quite shocking and brutal at times, but the characters were always three dimensional and the series was very thought provoking. The fact that it caused so much debate is a good sign.
>:(
Well deserved, still the best thing I've seen all year