wishful thinking

Rating: Null/10 (14 March 2010)

In the years after the USA got its ass kicked in Vietnam, we were treated to a spate of movies in which white American commandos (Rambo etc) wreaked havoc on Asian enemies. How simple, I thought. If you can't win the war, just make a movie in which you won. So much easier! This piece is of the same genre. The actual history of Americans and American Jews WWII is somewhat spotty. The Americans turned away the MS St Louis in 1939, sending its cargo of desperate Jewish refugees back on their voyage of the damned, to be returned to Nazi dominated Germany.The Americans inexplicably failed to bomb the rail line to Auschwitz when they had complete control of the skies. When the Jews of Warsaw finally mounted a spirited resistance, the Americans and Brits refused to come to their aid. As for the Jews, they are still embarrassed by how docile they were in the face of Nazi aggression. The were led like sheep to the slaughter, and at the final execution they were executed by their own, Jewish capos who turned traitor to live a few more weeks. Much to be ashamed of, on both sides.
Far better to make a movie in which we all behaved differently. In this one heroic Jewish commandos operate with impunity behind German lines, terrorizing the Wehmacht with American Indian tactics, then finally assassinating the entire German high command in a stroke of bold genius. If only that had happened. In fact the only serious attempt on Hitler's life came at the hands of Col von Stauffenburg, a German officer. Had he had the courage of a modern Arab suicide bomber, to stay with his bomb until it detonated, the war would have come to a much earlier and less bloody conclusion.
There is a scene in the movie where the German high command is watching a propaganda movie and enjoying it thoroughly. The movie spoofs them, because it is not a very good movie. How many of the audience realized, that we were doing the same thing?
The danger of this kind of movie, is that young viewers, unfamiliar with history, might mistake this fantasy for reality. Would that it were so, kids. Real history is a lot more messy.