Wednesday Reviews: King's Speech

Let's face it, I love and adore Colin Firth. So of course I was going to see The King's Speech. I've seen everything else he's in (including the utterly humorous St. Trinian's and the truly horrible What a Girl Wants.)

This movie did not disappoint, despite my high hopes for Colin Firth and an historical setting. *le sigh* OK, so I may be biased given my Colin love...just a bit. But let's face it, he rocked in this roll. You can see the growth from the quiet Bertie to the King who doesn't stutter when addressing his people on the eve of World War 2. Not many actors can play a roll with only facial expressions (I'm talking the classics like Cary Grant etc.) but Colin always pulls it off.

Geoffrey Rush was, as always, superb. If there's a part he can't play, I've yet to see it. And the same equitable and long suffering qualities you see in pretty much everything he plays (including Barbosa) can be found here. I found it ironic that Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennett in BBC's Pride and Prejudice) was Myrtle Logue, Rush's character’s wife.

(Am wondering if they cast that specifically. I've noticed that several Colin Firth films have either copious references to Mr. Darcy like St. Trinian's or that somehow the writers/directors/actors manage to get a dig in at some movie he did.)

Helen Bonham Carter...she's an actress that has a diverse acting background yet I found to be a perfectly wonderful addition as the roll of the Queen Mum. Granted, I can't picture her as the adorable 101 year old woman with the Corgis in perfectly matching hat, coat, shoes, and white gloves shaking hands with everyone and always with a smile on her face, but as a younger woman, yup. Totally there. Of course, this wasn’t about her, and it’s a shame she’s more background character than anything but the story is about Bertie and Lionel and the friendship there.

Guy Pearce...I kept thinking he looked familiar, that I'd seen him in something. According to IMDB, only this. But I did discover he played Errol Flynn in Flynn. And I'd never heard of the movie let alone seen it. I suspect it'll be bad and a huge disappointment, and filled with half-truths from that biography I read years ago that I can't remember the title of but was subsequently debunked. Alas, if I can sit through What a Girl Wants, I can sit through this. Cause it's about Errol Flynn!

Lots of familiar themes like friendship over class boundaries and the power of other's beliefs in you. But it's a classic for a reason, and that reason is that we all enjoy happy endings, whether it's good over evil or personal triumph over some sort of adversity.

Time

I was going to post a brief bit on time, how there's never enough and how it seems to fly entirely too quickly for my liking. Or my sleep habits for that matter! But when I looked on Today in History, I saw that today in 2004 the National World War 2 Memorial opened.

Got me thinking about time and the passage of in a whole new way. How it'll be 70 years this December since the bombing of Pearl Harbor (72 this September since the official start of the war). How it took 59 years before there was even a monument devoted to those who served in that war. (I'm obviously not counting the years it took to build the beautiful monument.)

And how of the 16,112,566 individuals were members of the United States armed forces during the war, as of September 2010 approximately 1,981,000. [wiki article]

If you have the opportunity to visit, take the time to do so.

On April 29, 2004, the National World War II Memorial opens in Washington, D.C., to thousands of visitors, providing overdue recognition for the 16 million U.S. men and women who served in the war. The memorial is located on 7.4 acres on the former site of the Rainbow Pool at the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. The Capitol dome is seen to the east, and Arlington Cemetery is just across the Potomac River to the west.

The granite and bronze monument features fountains between arches symbolizing hostilities in Europe and the Far East. The arches are flanked by semicircles of pillars, one each for the states, territories and the District of Columbia. Beyond the pool is a curved wall of 4,000 gold stars, one for every 100 Americans killed in the war. An Announcement Stone proclaims that the memorial honors those "Americans who took up the struggle during the Second World War and made the sacrifices to perpetuate the gift our forefathers entrusted to us: A nation conceived in liberty and justice."

Though the federal government donated $16 million to the memorial fund, it took more than $164 million in private donations to get it built. Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, who was severely wounded in the war, and actor Tom Hanks were among its most vocal supporters. Only a fraction of the 16 million Americans who served in the war would ever see it. Four million World War II veterans were living at the time, with more than 1,100 dying every day, according to government records.

The memorial was inspired by Roger Durbin of Berkey, Ohio, who served under Gen. George S. Patton. At a fish fry near Toledo in February 1987, he asked U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur why there was no memorial on the Mall to honor World War II veterans. Kaptur, a Democrat from Ohio, soon introduced legislation to build one, starting a process that would stumble along through 17 years of legislative, legal and artistic entanglements. Durbin died of pancreatic cancer in 2000.

The monument was formally dedicated May 29, 2004, by U.S. President George W. Bush. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it received some 4.4 million visitors in 2005.

Every Man Dies Alone: Wednesday Review

This is not the sort of story you want to read during the holiday season. It's damned depressing and makes you want to stop reading. But it's also exactly what the holidays, indeed what living, is all about. When you think of holidays you think helping those in need, caring, sharing, (and singing Christmas carols/watching Christmas cartoons but that isn't the point here).

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada in about a couple in Nazi Germany who try to inspire resistance in Berlin. I debated long and hard over what to write in this review. There's a lot going on, it's deeply emotional, scary, inspiring, and one of the best books I've read in ages. I went to Amazon and B&N to see what other people wrote about this in hopes i could better articulate my thoughts. Publisher's Weekly put it best, and that's probably why they're paid the big bucks:

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This disturbing novel, written in 24 days by a German writer who died in 1947, is inspired by the true story of Otto and Elise Hampel, who scattered postcards advocating civil disobedience throughout war-time Nazi-controlled Berlin. Their fictional counterparts, Otto and Anna Quangel, distribute cards during the war bearing antifascist exhortations and daydream that their work is being passed from person to person, stirring rebellion, but, in fact, almost every card is immediately turned over to authorities. Fallada aptly depicts the paralyzing fear that dominated Hitler's Germany, when decisions that previously would have seemed insignificant—whether to utter a complaint or mourn one's deceased child publicly—can lead to torture and death at the hands of the Gestapo. From the Quangels to a postal worker who quits the Nazi party when she learns that her son committed atrocities and a prison chaplain who smuggles messages to inmates, resistance is measured in subtle but dangerous individual stands. This isn't a novel about bold cells of defiant guerrillas but about a world in which heroism is defined as personal refusal to be corrupted.

I can't put it any better than this except to say some lessons should never be forgotten.

Wednesday's Reviews

I haven't had a lot of time recently to read, but this book interested me on many levels. Many moons ago, I saw the movie The Man Who Never Was. At the time, I didn't realize it was based on a true story, or if I did, certainly didn't care. It was a great movie, I adore Clifton Webb, and there you have it. End of story. Until the new book on the behind the scenes of it all, and just last week I read a BBC story on the case.

Operation Mincemeat is the true story of Ewen Montagu's book, based on the plot he helped to create, along with Charles Cholmondeley and...wait for it...Ian Fleming. Yes, that Ian Fleming, who really was a higher up during WWII.

The author could have livened up the prose a bit, it's a large book and extremely dry in many parts, and honestly if I wasn't so interested in the story itself I may not have finished it. But the history behind fooling every Nazi from those who found Glyndwr Michael's body in supposedly neutral Spain all the way up to Hitler is an interesting one.

I recommend the movie, the BBC companion, and the book for hardcore WWII buffs. I'm sure there's a simpler version of this fascinating operation someplace.

Makes me think about plots...

A date that will live in infamy

The USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor, USS Enterprise, Ford Island. Read all about it.

From wikipedia:

The Presidential Address to Congress of December 8, 1941 was delivered at 12:30 p.m. that day to a Joint Session of Congress by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, one day after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawai’i. The name derives from the first line of the speech: Roosevelt describing the previous day as "a date which will live in infamy".

Within an hour of the speech, Congress passed a formal declaration of war against Japan and officially brought the U.S. into World War II. The address is regarded as one of the most famous American political speeches of the 20th century.

Roosevelt purposefully framed the speech around the perceived low moral character of the Japanese government. He drew a sharp contrast between the "righteous might" of the American people and the aggressive and deceitful nature of the Japanese regime.

Full speech either below (haven't managed to successfully embed a video yet) or here.



Don't forget my Title Contest!

D-Day

Today marks the 65th Anniversary of the invasion at Normandy Beaches in France by American, Canadian, and British troops, supported by Polish, Norwegian, and some Free France soldiers. Not many veterans of that battle, or other World War II battles, remain. Unlike World War I, this war has been remembered and commemorated hundreds of times.

So if you know a Vet, say thanks. Even if they weren't on the shores of Normandy-Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, or Sword-thank them anyway.

And if you ever get a chance to visit The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, I highly recommend it. It's a wonderful experience with enough stuff to amaze even the more knowledgeable historian.