Tonight I watched a film called "The Moon Is Down", set in a small mining town in Norway during World War Two. The movie opens with the German invasion of that country, and at first, they try to portray themselves as benevolent conquerors. "We are here because we need your iron, but we are also your protectors so you need not fear". The Nazi Colonel (the great Cedric Hardwicke) tries to sell the town's Mayor on this line of hogwash, hoping to use him to placate the townspeople, but he resists, telling the Colonel that, unlike the Germans of that time, the Norwegians are a free people and will therefore never accept the presence of an invading force, no matter how benevolent they pretend to be. The Colonel then informs the Mayor that there is another way he can achieve compliance : through threats and force. He hopes to be able to maintain the peace, but the Mayor lets him know this is futile.
There is no way the miners will act as slaves for the German cause. Soon, they rebel. The German retaliation is swift and severe. Several miners are shot as an example. Then the rebellion goes underground. A sabotage effort is begun using covert means.
This is not a typical action oriented war movie, however. There are no battle scenes because the conflict is between soldiers and civilians. Instead, the plot is based upon the heavy dramatic tension between the occupying German soldiers and the Norwegian townspeople who don't want them there. The officers have the high hand and make no effort to be friendly, but it is not so easy for the regular soldiers, who have to interact with the people. A major thread involves a lieutenant who has given up on the Nazi cause. He knows Hitler is crazy and just wants to go home, but he is stuck in this town as an overseer, and everyone hates him, even though he tries hard to be friendly. There are other similar themes having to do with the psychology of the dominator wanting to be understood, to not be hated. Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the Colonel goes to great lengths to work with the Mayor to avoid violence, but the Mayor (played by the great Henry Travers) tries to explain to him that violence is inevitable, so long as the occupying forces remain in his country. The Colonel seems to understand this, but he is over a barrel due to the devil's knot the Nazis were tied in, where any disloyalty to Hitler might be reported back, and the dissenter then shot and disposed of. Hardwicke cannot show kindness nor cooperation toward the Mayor, lest one of his underlings see it and tattle on him.
The movie is a heavy drama about these wartime dilemmas, and about the immorality and futility of fascism. The script is based on a book of the same name by John Steinbeck, so the writing is as good as it gets, a treatise on basic human nature in the face of oppression. The cast is incredible, also featuring the noted character actor Peter van Eyck as the troubled lieutenant, and Lee J. Cobb as the town doctor. In one scene near the end, Cobb was onscreen with Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Henry Travers, who among other roles played the angel "Clarence" in "It's A Wonderful Life. The three were stuck in a room, playing a fatalistic scene where Hardwick, the Colonel was quietly trying to sympathise with Cobb and Travers, the two Norwegians. I was in the scene, too, as the viewer, and I was sitting there thinking, "man, that is a heavyweight group up there on the screen". You could feel the majesty dripping from the pixels..... :)
I give "The Moon Is Down" Two Solid Thumbs Up. It's a philosophical anti-war film rather than a battle picture, but there is still enough standard intrigue to recommend it to fans of regular WW2 films.
I hadn't heard of it until last week, when I did my library search of "Fox Cinema Archives". I am glad the studios keep releasing these lost gems discovered in their vaults, and I hope they have hundreds more to keep me supplied for the future. I am on pace to watch upwards of 250 movies this year, almost all of them from decades past, and I do worry about the day when I run out, and my searches produce nothingmore. :)
I am still off work, and I had a nice hike today out at Santa Susana. It was nothing fancy, just meandering around the park with no climbing, but I had the place to myself and the vibe out there is always steady and restorative, thanks to it's Native American history and the Great Spirit that watches over the place. I recommend going there so you can see for yourself. :):)
That's basically all for today. I am still working my way through the almost 700 pages of Jim Penniston's "Rendlesham Enigma" book, and I have already mentioned how much it is blowing my mind, but there are also certain parallels to my own story that have to do with containment - i.e. the way in which agencies from the government act to put the brakes on a developing story about a classified experience - and I must say that there are details in Jim's story that line up exactly with mine, such as his being subjected to drug induced hypnosis and given sodium pentothal, also known as "truth serum". He may have also had part of his memory erased - and I recommend you read up on the Rendlesham Forest Incident to see what I am talking about - and the way Sgt. Penniston describes it, his experience in that regard is very similar to mine. /////
That is all I know for today. See you in the morning.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment