Andy stopped by when I was watching a 1959 Russian film, “Ballad of a Soldier,” a love story set in WWII.
A soldier performs a heroic deed on the battlefield, starting a poignant tale of lost love.
I am impressed by the very subtle historic allusions to the deprivations the Russians suffered in WWII. They don’t intrude into the story line so much as augment it.
You know this will be the last the mother and son meet….
It is a lot noisier than that Russian film! (And absolutely a propaganda piece for a nation weary of war and beginning to understand they were in a fight to the last man.)
Greenies power. Even all that noise can’t hold Andy back from his treats forever.
=(^+^)=
While the Russian film was entertaining and nearly propaganda-free, it was poignant. It began with a grieving mother looking down a long road for a son who was killed in the war and never to return.
As for the Japanese film, there were frequent war references for the then-WWII war raging at the time of the filming, especially to fighting for the Emperor, the Emperor’s five learnings every Japanese had to know, the history of war for centuries, leading up to the then-current one.
The whole film emphasized the Bushido code (“the way of the warrior”) from the days of the Samuri and alluded to why the Japanese felt slighted and dishonored up till they invaded China, Korea, Mongolia, then made the fatal mistake, primarily, of involving the USA by the Pearl Harbor attack.
It smacked of defeat and denial, with heavy doses of hubris and under estimation of just how the USA would bring about the brutal war with Japan to an end with the most monstrous weapon created by man.
As a historic document, “The War” shows insights into the disastrous mentality of Emperor worship plus a militaristic mindset of the leaders at the time plus a sense of shame for failing in previous wars and negotiations.
These brought Japan to a terrible end in 1945, yet the new beginning as a democratic country that is well respected and prosperous today. It was in that historic knowledge that I watched and enjoyed “The War,” even if Andy only got through some of it, thanks to Greenies.
I recommend both films.
Very nice
The Russian film was quite famous, one of the best of the genre, in fact.
I am not familiar with the Japanese film, and I share Mr. Andy’s aversion to war movies. I was born a few years after the end of the war, but the aftereffects were still visible and felt, quite personal and highly emotional, since there wasn’t a family who hasn’t lost someone.
Half of the 50to 60 million war dead were civilians and military intelligence former USSR. Tragic and unimaginable….
Doug
The Russian fiwas nominated forever all awards in the USA and France, I read
I agree with Leah, these do sound like though-provoking films. Andy sounds like he preferred the snack booth though. 🙂
Andy and I each has his interests, eh! I love a good movie and he’s a snack hound!
Doug
I think that it’s good for Andy to insist on being who he is.
Me, too! He needs to have his thrills.
Doug
Honestly, I can’t watch movies like that. The violence is too much. I agree with Andy, turn tail!
Both were old enough that the violence was subdued compared with modern films made with coputer-generated violence. I tend to avoid those really violent ones, too
Doug
Clearly timeless themes
Yes. Humanity never Gets it right when it comes to blind obedience to leaders.
Doug
I’m not familiar with the Japanese film you and Andy watched, but I was told that sort of nationalist Samurai rhetoric was a 20th century construct born of the Japanese government’s desire to join the imperial powers that had divided up Asia in the 19th century. There was an odd admiration for the British Empire, with the misplaced idea that if an island nation like England could conquer India and parts of China, why not Japan. It was a pipe dream, but one that killed many people, not only Japanese but many in China, Korea and Southeast Asia, not to mention Allied soldiers during World War Two. I don’t think that form of bushido was shared by the average Japanese citizen, however. My mother said her family, especially her mother, never got over the loss of her older brother, who went down at Midway on a Japanese battleship. He was a US citizen, but stuck in Japan after Pearl Harbor. He was conscripted, literally walked out of the house by the military police, and made an interpreter in the navy. He had no love of war or the samurai, though his family was supposedly descended from an old clan. My mother said he wanted to return to the States and learn to play jazz piano, but he never got the opportunity.
Interesting! I imagine many were like the steel mill owner in the film, with extreme attitudes and a tendency to speak honestly about Japan’s failings in the war…at risk!
In the film, the last sequence with the huge military parade and vast crowds lining both sides of the street, all waving little Japanese
flags and cheering, the public watching this in 1944-1945 was supposed to feel inspired to fight to the last man. The realities of bombing raids, military and civilian war dead, the shortages surely negated the propaganda.
The film isn’t a well-known one, though you can watch it on TCM’s channel.
Doug
The value of watching these films was to give context to a war usually known from the Victor’s in one instance and an allie that turned enemy and thar has been a bad actor all my life. The Russian film was easier to feel empathy for the characters than the Japaese film, which had fated characters, too, though the propagandistic nature of the film resulted in one feeling they were just used to illicit a response, not people you would find living next door to you. Part of that disbelief, no doubt, was because of the cultural differences between Japanese then and them now.
Those do sound like thoughtful films about a difficult subject. I can understand why Andy wouldn’t care for the noise.
Yeah, too soon after the 4th of July!
Doug