...Just read the reveiw of a film that could go into the SR category. Army of Shadows is a French film which was made in 1969, but has not been released in the US untl this week, It centres around the lives of French Resistence figjhters during WWII, and according the the writeup, appears to have a decidedly SR-like flavour . It had a debut screening last night at a local "Rep house" and should be making the circuit here in Portland beginning next week. Once I have seen it, I will post more.
If anyone, particularly our European dumpshockers have already seen it, please feel free to comment.
Full Version: Army of Shadows
I'm not sure about it being in any way "SR-ish". A lot of elements are somehow specific to the context. Also, don't expect a lot of action. But it's still a very good movie. The director and the actors are among the very best of their time.
...I have not yet actually seen the film. I can only go on what the reviewers said. What I gathered as being kind of SR was the way in which the characters' viewed their lives. They saw themselves as expendable at any moment which pretty much sums up a shadowrunner's existance.
Im not looking to start a flame war here, Im just honestly curious about how the history is taught 'across the pond'.
A french freind of mine once told me (we were deep in our cups at the time, so take this with a grain of salt) that the way WW2 history is taught in France, you'd think the resistance basically did the mainstay of ousting the Axis forces, and the Allies basically showed up on their heels.
Im just curious if theres any truth to this, as Im more of a scholar on the Pacific theater of combt for that conflict.
A french freind of mine once told me (we were deep in our cups at the time, so take this with a grain of salt) that the way WW2 history is taught in France, you'd think the resistance basically did the mainstay of ousting the Axis forces, and the Allies basically showed up on their heels.
Im just curious if theres any truth to this, as Im more of a scholar on the Pacific theater of combt for that conflict.
That could indeed start a flame-war 
Well, the emphasis on resistance is pretty heavy in the way we are taught WWII here in France.
A politically engaged friend of mine told me a theory about this : Supposedly, there were a lot of resistants during German occupation and there were a lot of "collabos" (pejorative term for people collaborating with Germans) and after the liberation, the fear of the government was that a witch-hunt would begin. They preferred to put an emphasis on resistance hero, to depict the whole French people during the war as a resistant one, completely occulting the "anecdotal" collaborators. This point of view was strongly denounced as propaganda, especially during the 1968 protests by the left-wing.
Anyway, the image that stays in official history is that the Resistance was very active during the occupation, mainly thanks to some courageous French but also thanks to Allied support, mainly UK support, as US did not recognize de Gaulle as the leader of the France Libre until later in the war. We are taught that the resistance took a big role in the preparation of the D-Day, giving information, sabotaging nazi equipments, destroying selected bridges, etc... I believe much of this is true. We of course are aware that this is the overwhelming resources US has brought into the war effort that managed to clean the territory of nazi presence.
The thing is, from our point of view, US didn't appear in "our" war before 1944 (note that I use there a naive point of view one could have in high school) and we had already 4 years of occupation and an humiliating defeat behind us at this point. From what I read, when the implication of US in the European front became evident, the number of resistants rose significantly, making nazi presence very difficult. One known story of this time tells about an arrested resistant who managed to jump out of a window of the Gestapo and immediately ran into French policemen he didn't know for help, which he got.
If you start the subject in France, you will see two poles in opinions : the "every one was a resistant" and the "every one was a collabo", I slightly bend toward the first opinion
What I am a bit uncomfortable is that we are less taught about the russian front, where most of the nazi effort was wasted at this time and that was, in my opinion, a far greater cause of the victory than the resistance or even the battle of Normandy.
Well, the emphasis on resistance is pretty heavy in the way we are taught WWII here in France.
A politically engaged friend of mine told me a theory about this : Supposedly, there were a lot of resistants during German occupation and there were a lot of "collabos" (pejorative term for people collaborating with Germans) and after the liberation, the fear of the government was that a witch-hunt would begin. They preferred to put an emphasis on resistance hero, to depict the whole French people during the war as a resistant one, completely occulting the "anecdotal" collaborators. This point of view was strongly denounced as propaganda, especially during the 1968 protests by the left-wing.
Anyway, the image that stays in official history is that the Resistance was very active during the occupation, mainly thanks to some courageous French but also thanks to Allied support, mainly UK support, as US did not recognize de Gaulle as the leader of the France Libre until later in the war. We are taught that the resistance took a big role in the preparation of the D-Day, giving information, sabotaging nazi equipments, destroying selected bridges, etc... I believe much of this is true. We of course are aware that this is the overwhelming resources US has brought into the war effort that managed to clean the territory of nazi presence.
The thing is, from our point of view, US didn't appear in "our" war before 1944 (note that I use there a naive point of view one could have in high school) and we had already 4 years of occupation and an humiliating defeat behind us at this point. From what I read, when the implication of US in the European front became evident, the number of resistants rose significantly, making nazi presence very difficult. One known story of this time tells about an arrested resistant who managed to jump out of a window of the Gestapo and immediately ran into French policemen he didn't know for help, which he got.
If you start the subject in France, you will see two poles in opinions : the "every one was a resistant" and the "every one was a collabo", I slightly bend toward the first opinion
What I am a bit uncomfortable is that we are less taught about the russian front, where most of the nazi effort was wasted at this time and that was, in my opinion, a far greater cause of the victory than the resistance or even the battle of Normandy.
It's kind of sad but here in the US almost all of the military aspects of our history have been scrubbed from our textbooks since the 60's-70's due to the very liberal nature of our school system.
You'd think WW2 was a fistfight fought between FDR, Churchill, Stalin and Hitler the way its written.
You'd think WW2 was a fistfight fought between FDR, Churchill, Stalin and Hitler the way its written.
Great topic...
| QUOTE (HullBreach) |
| You'd think WW2 was a fistfight fought between FDR, Churchill, Stalin and Hitler the way its written. |
Actually, it was a rock-paper-scissors game :
http://www.worldrps.com/index.php?option=c...id=83&Itemid=39
Damn, couldn't find the image where Hitler had the obvious "paper" nazi stance
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