It's only harmless fictional entertainment isn't it?

Rating: 1/10 (22 July 2000)

Wow. You have a German director depicting the British burning down a church full of women and children. Now does that strike anybody else as ironic? After having read through the majority of these comments there seems little doubt that the film makers had their target market and they reeled them in. They went for the good ol' American flag waving, it's only a movie, don't take it seriously, good vs evil, black and white, don't need any depth or characterization, American movie goer. The more discerning American based comments do not like the movie for many reasons not only the 'dreaded' Historical Accuracy (it's only a movie! Geez) or the Nazi Brits. It really would be interesting to note American reactions if the shoe was on the other foot but then it wouldn't be Hollywood so they probably wouldn't watch it anyway. This film should not surprise people however. As someone else has noted Hollywood likes to portray the British as villains and has done so for many years. They always insult the American intelligence by figuring they need a simple good versus evil story and having an accent, preferably an English one, as the evil side fits in nicely with this. They must know what they are doing too judging by the money involved and the money the likes of this make. There is a disturbing trend towards skewing facts in movies and I for one do not subscribe to the fictional entertainment debate. The simple fact is a lot of people do not know, or care to know, history and they will take movies like this as fact. I know this from personal experience. It's absurd and insulting to the British. The sad part is it's only getting worse. 'U-571' took extreme liberties considering the US were not in the war at the time the movie took place and it was the evil Brits who actually captured the Enigma machine. 'The Colditz Story' has American heroes escaping from Colditz when NONE ever did. Ah but it's only entertainment and nobody is going to think it's really happened. Right?