Don't you know that the Republicans were the bad guys!

Rating: 5/10 (4 March 2013)

The Republicans--that is the parents and friends of the girl--were the bad guys! People nowadays misunderstand the Spanish Civil War in the mid-thirties. In short, while there were true ideological 'republicans' in the Republican coalition--that is, those who adhered, more or less to the principals of a free, democratic and liberal government patterned much after the US--many of the Republicans were Socialist and out and out Communists, including a faction from Communist Russia. While the Republican government started more or less OK in the early 30's, it soon became very anti-church. Now most of the population were Catholic and adhered strongly to that faith. Then the government started restricting religious freedom and soon factions among the Republicans starting invading and burning churches: even thousands of priests and laymen were arrested or murdered (some claim about 9000.) Naturally the majority of the people objected to this and many of the generals at that time agreed with them, General Franco among them. Franco, to help his people, formed a coalition of all people willing to defend their long established and cherished lifestyle that was being decimated by the Republicans. (Those on Franco's sided were called The Nationalist.) Included in Franco's coalition was the Falange, a fascist organizations; however, it was of the mild kind as found in Italy and at most formed about 10 to 20 percent of Franco's coalition. As for Franco, he was not a fascist: however, he had to impose dictatorial power given the nature to the times. It was said that the Communists used torture chambers of this sort: they placed their prisoners in small slanted chambers wherein the prisoner could not sit or sleep or stand properly, but had to stay in a excruciatingly torturous position for days on end: these are the people you would like as friends. No! By God, No! Some may say that Franco asked the aid of Hitler in his war: but where else could he get aid to save his people. Some say the whole town of Guernica was bombed by the Nazis. In fact only a small number of people died at the train station: a place of strategic importance in the war. In short, there has been a lot of negative propaganda about this war. Although I like many aspects of this film--I admire good fantasy--I can not condone another film that portrays the Republicans as all good and Franco Nationalists as all bad: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, For Whom the Bell Tolls and even Casablanca (Rick states that he fought for the Republicans.) After the civil war was over in 1939 and the people regained their freedom, Franco was more or less neutral during the war and did not support Hitler and even opposed him in 1940 and after. During his leadership, people were allowed to say anything they wished. Read history books: that is primary sources or even Catholics sources and all sides in the issues. One will be startled at the truth.