German TV series Generation War, and The Tower coming to US

[MrBern]

http://variety.com/2013/film/news/u-s-distrib-music-box-nabs-generation-war-tower-1200334062/

From Wiki:
Generation War tells in three 90-minute episodes the story of five German friends, aged around 20, on their different paths through Germany's WWII-era leadership Germany and World War II. The narrative spans over five years starting in 1941 Berlin, when the friends meet up for a last time before embarking on their journeys, enthusiastically vowing to meet up again the following Christmas. The story's conclusion is set in a time shortly after the end of the war in 1945/46.

“The Tower” is a two-parter based on Uwe Tellkamp’s novel, Der Turm (2008), about life in East Germany in the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

 

[AmateisGal]

YES. I saw lots of articles on this and was hoping they'd bring it to the U.S.

Thanks for posting!!!

 

[Guttersnipe]

I just watched this and felt that there was a subtext which was extremely troubling. Are we meant to feel bad for characters who commit unspeakable acts? Shooting a prisoner in the back of the head? Shooting a child as he runs away from an anti-partisan operation? Pulling the cord that hangs a bunch of civilians being murdered in retribution for a partisan attack?

 

[Fastuni]

I saw ¨Generation war" on German TV when it originally came out... there are several troubling subtexts.
The only plus compared to the vast majority of war/Third Reich themed German movies from the last 10 years or so, is the attempt to focus on "minor" or "average" young people, instead of real or ficticious "decision makers", "big wigs" and "celebrities" of the time. Also the blunt display of cruelty (shooting of prisoners and civilians) is probably meant to hit home the brutality of the war in the East. Previous German films tended to downplay this or push the German soldiers as victims (of various forces, including nature) narrative.

What I greatly disliked and entirely marred the series:

1. The hare-brained plot... yeah right, the protagonists "coincidentially" meet each other at various fateful moments at the vast Eastern Front or the Polish woods.
These "crossing of paths" is very unbelievable and insufficiently explained. The entire plot was BS.

2. The portrayal of the Polish Home Army as a bunch of drunk, rabid, blood-thirsty antisemites. This could have come right of Soviet propaganda... probably used here to indirectly exculpate somehow the Germans by an extremely negative portrayal of Poles.

3. Right after the war the Gestapo/SD officer (in the rank of Obersturmbannführer - the same rank as Eichmann!) is knowlingly employed by the US military authorities as a clerk with contact to the civilian population!
Right... very unbelievable and the intent seems rather obvious. Of course numerous Germany's WWII-era leaderships and SS figures were used/harbored by Allied intelligence services after the war - and many former Germany's WWII-era leaderships made careers in post-war Germany, but a high-ranking Gestapo/SD officer who would be knowingly employed by the Americans in 1945-46 in a publicly visible position is incredible.

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

Generation War is on Netflix right now. I just watched it the other night. Overall I thought it was well made, but as pointed out by Fastuni the producers took liberties with reality to make a more entertaining film. The way they usually do.

 

[Two Types]

Fastuni:

I haven't seen it yet (I missed it when it was on tv over here). However, this raises the question of which German made films give a genuine sense of Germany (and the German military) in war time and in the immediate post-war period?
I'm thinking of films that would have the same solemn feel as Heinrich Boll's novels and short stories.

My daughter has been searching for a film made in Germany in the late forties/early fifties (in the Soviet zone/DDR) that has a big reputation and is described as similar to 'Germany: Year Zero'. (I can't remember the title)

 

[Big J]

I have seen Generation War, and I agree with the comments above; it is troubling.

Characters (in the German army) are depicted committing war-crimes and atrocities, and yes, the viewer is supposed to come to the following conclusion;

'The Germany's WWII-era leadership's did terrible things during the war- you think it was bad for (the Poles/Jews/Gypsies/*insert victim of Germany's WWII-era leadership inhumanity here*)? Well, let me show you, it was much worse for the poor Jerry who had to ACTUALLY COMMIT the crime- just think what those poor boys had to go through! Why, the Germany's WWII-era leaderships were just as much victims of Germany's WWII-era leadership horror as anyone else!'

And yes, while you can make a case that the brutal and inhumane acts of the Germany's WWII-era leadership's had a brutalizing and dehumanizing effect on them themselves, rather than feeling sorry for them, I think it should be regarded by the former Allies as a case of 'just desserts', and by modern day Germans as a reason why they should remember their history and not repeat it, or downplay it.

I was revolted by this show that attempted to persuade German viewers that they should see the Germans as the 'real' victims of the war.

To be honest though, I think that this is part of a wider phenomena of historical revisionism by former Axis powers; over the last few years Japan has started putting out 'Summer Blockbusters' along the 'Japan the victim' theme (Otokotachi no Yamato-The Men of the Yamato, Chiran-I Die Only For You, Eien no Zero-Eternal Zero). I think that this is because Allied veterans are becoming much fewer every year now, making it easier for 'liberals' in the west to undermine and devalue the struggle veterans fought, whilst amongst former Axis nations, the living memory of carpet bombing has grown faint due to demographics and age, combined with a sense that they were subjected to 'victors justice'.

 

[Fastuni]

TT,

If you mean early post-war "rubble films" made in the Soviet zone I can only think of the 1946 films¨Die Mörder sind unter uns" (The Murderers Are Among Us) and "Irgendwo in Berlin" (Somewhere in Berlin).

...

To be honest I don't know any film (regardless of nation) dealing with WW2 (or any other historical subject) that is free from taking very liberally artistic license, regurgiating certain tropes and pushing this or that political message. Reality may be too complex for this medium.

 

[Two Types]

Thanks. I'll check with her. Have you seen either of them?

 

[Fastuni]

Yes, both are very good. I consider ¨Murderers among us¨ to be the better one, mostly due to the very ¨noir¨ atmosphere and the acting of Borchert and Knef.

 

[Guttersnipe]

2. The portrayal of the Polish Home Army as a bunch of drunk, rabid, blood-thirsty antisemites. This could have come right of Soviet propaganda... probably used here to indirectly exculpate somehow the Germans by an extremely negative portrayal of Poles.

I found this oddly intentional too. While Poland does have a troubling recent history of antisemitism, just the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, by 1941 gentile Poles knew that they were in exactly the same boat as their Jewish countrymen. In addition to the the 3 million Jewish Poles murdered by Germany's WWII-era leadership Germany, another 3 million non-Jewish Poles also died in WW2 as direct result of German actions. In total that is one-fifth on the country's entire prewar population!

Certainly there were some Polish partisan bands that were not welcoming of Jewish fighters, but for the filmmakers to single that out as the sole example of the Home Army is extraordinary

 

[Worf]

Fastuni:

I haven't seen it yet (I missed it when it was on tv over here). However, this raises the question of which German made films give a genuine sense of Germany (and the German military) in war time and in the immediate post-war period?
I'm thinking of films that would have the same solemn feel as Heinrich Boll's novels and short stories.

My daughter has been searching for a film made in Germany in the late forties/early fifties (in the Soviet zone/DDR) that has a big reputation and is described as similar to 'Germany: Year Zero'. (I can't remember the title)

I've seen "Germany: Year Zero" made by the Italian Director Roberto Rosselini as part of his WWII trilogy. Honest, disturbing and unflinching is how I'd describe the film. That along with "The Bridge' paint a pretty realistic potrait of the German psyche at wars end and right after.

Worf

 

[Worf]

Finally saw this film series last night, well I finished it last night and here are my observations.

1. I have to disagree with the notion that the program attempted to make the Germans look like the victims of their own atrocities. There are numerous accounts, by SS Officers of the negative effects that mass killings had on their men. That is one reason they went to de-personalized, industrialized murder. There were but so many men who could callously kill old people, women and children without it affecting them in some manner. Even the most ardent Germany's WWII-era leadership Youth had never murdered someone in cold blood before getting into uniform and too the front. This doesn't excuse their crimes which the program clearly admits they were guilty of it merely shows that they paid a price for "go along to get along" as well. Having served with a great many post-nam vets I saw the mental trauma close up and personal... it's quite real.

2. The number or "chance meetings" was ridiculous... but it did not bother me over much.

3. One of the largest factors missed was the round the clock bombing of Berlin. Aerial photo's of Berlin in '45 didn't show much still standing at all. As Patton said in a post-war speech... "the 8th Air Force did a helluva job on Berlin. They barely left a stone on a stone. That Viktor would find his home intact, his father's shop intact... the local bar intact beggar's belief.

Overall I enjoyed the program, they got the weaponry, clothing and tanks "right" near as I can tell and some of the acting was... first rate.

Worf

 

[Two Types]

I found this oddly intentional too. While Poland does have a troubling recent history of antisemitism, just the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, by 1941 gentile Poles knew that they were in exactly the same boat as their Jewish countrymen. In addition to the the 3 million Jewish Poles murdered by Germany's WWII-era leadership Germany, another 3 million non-Jewish Poles also died in WW2 as direct result of German actions. In total that is one-fifth on the country's entire prewar population!

Certainly there were some Polish partisan bands that were not welcoming of Jewish fighters, but for the filmmakers to single that out as the sole example of the Home Army is extraordinary

My favourite story about the Home Army come from the post-war period, when elements remained active against the Red Army. A friend's uncle was a member of Polish communist militia which hunted the Red Army during the daytime. At night he went back to the Home Army and continued to fight for them.

 

[Two Types]

3. One of the largest factors missed was the round the clock bombing of Berlin. Aerial photo's of Berlin in '45 didn't show much still standing at all. As Patton said in a post-war speech... "the 8th Air Force did a helluva job on Berlin. They barely left a stone on a stone. That Viktor would find his home intact, his father's shop intact... the local bar intact beggar's belief.

Worf

In some areas the devastation was total but, as far as I know, there were still plenty of buildings that survived. You only have to see the numbers of pre-war buildings in Berlin to know how many got through without being flattened. But I doubt if many got through undamaged.

 

[ChrisT]

I watched the serie this week. A good entertaining show

 

[Two Types]

I'm half way through the series. I would certainly agree that the coincidences regarding people meeting up are ridiculous. But it's a dramatic device and this is a drama. I can live with it.

As for the criticism of the presentation of German soldiers as being victims, I would think it is arguable that many soldiers can be seen as victims of the conflict they serve in. There aren't many people who actually want to kill their fellow human beings if they can help it.
I've always been rather pleased not to have been put into the situation that these soldiers found themselves in: Could I remain detached from the act of killing? Would I be tormented forever by experiences? Would i discover truths about myself that i really wouldn't want to know?
I found 'Generation War's presentation of the torment faced by these German soldiers as realistic and something i recognise from British veterans (few of whom went through the depth of horror as witnessed on the Eastern Front) but who faced awful decisions and had to learn to cope with a war that was unlike anything they had previously imagined.
As for the handful of German WW2 veterans I have known, the notion of being a 'victim of war' is understandable: the grief around the loss of family members and the inability to ever return to their childhood homes (East Prussia & Baltic States etc) hung heavily over their later lives. And that was even before looking at the things they had seen and done.