This will be the last posting of the semester, and as we have only one class day remaining, you need only respond once this week. You can respond to this now, or you can wait until we have finished the movie.
You need to do a little mind reading here. Why do you think I wanted you to see this movie? What about the story--the emphasis on the human reaction to war--makes it appropriate for inclusion in this class? I know the obvious answer is that it is about WWI and we studied poetry and a novel, but my rule for the texts we read (and the briefs you did) was that they must be British writers. So why this?
5 comments:
I could be totally off the mark, but I think the movie was chosen because it clearly shows the harsh reality of the war. No matter what type of picture you had painted for yourself regarding the battles, the reality that is displayed in the movie erases any assumed views and it brings everything out in the opening. There are no hidden messages like some of the poems we have read in class and there is no sugar coating with euphemisms; it is brutal and straight to the point.
The movie is brutally candid to depict the absolute horrors of warfare. It is from a first person point of view so the message becomes more personal and geniune. The main character from the movie is able to describe the countless burdens innocent soldiers go through because he was actually a soldier himself. For the brave soldiers who fight in this war, they are force to carry the dreadful recollections for the rest of their lives, especially with the memory of killing another human being. Fighting in the war really wounded the soldiers eternally; they are not only wounded physically but emotionally as well. The movie ultimately portrays how innocent soldiers are being slaughtered on the battlefield, and how inhumane war really is. Therefore, this movie is the perfect conclusion to the theme of all the poetry and books we read about war.
I think the main reason for this movie is what we discussed in class. To see the comparison between the English soldiers and German soldiers. In the novels and poems the idea that the Germans are men just like the English has been brought up a good amount. And while this is a nice concept I personally still thought of the German's as the bad guys. This movie makes the German's real people. There is this realization by seeing the movie that they were soldiers with lives and families just like the English. Another interesting thing I noticed in the movie is the usage of nature again, and the need for the natural world away from the unnatural. It is another reminder of who the German's are, that they are just kids.
The purpose of seeing the movie was to get an idea of how similar the German soldiers and British soldiers were when they think about the war. Both sides had the same goal, the same attitudes towards the war itself, and they put everything on the line for their country. Throughout the semester we’ve only known the British side of the story and now the movie helps us understand Germany’s. I agree with Maegan’s comment about the Germans being just like the English within the novels and poetry that we’ve read. Yet in the end the Germans were the cause of the war and they were the enemy.
The reason we watched this movie is because it relates to everything we read but from the German side. We spent the semester not learning too much about the feeling of the Germans in the war. It has kind of been one sided. The Germans were just as scared and just as hopeful as the English soldiers. They were not too different. The movie was also poetic and had the same feel as the war novels and poems we read. A soldier in the movie was forced to kill another man and it ate him up. He said that they could have been friends if it wasn’t for this war. It reminded me of the poem we read with the same idea.
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