(37) Watching Movies to Learn History: "Magnificent Mountains and Rivers" - the journey of a cannon!

Today's recommendation is an old American film - "Strong Mountains and Rivers".

The film was filmed in 1957 and is 125 minutes long. Directed by Stanley Kramer, starring Gary Grant, Frank Sinatra, sophia Roland.

Adapted from the Spanish novel "Giant Cannon", the film tells the story of the British naval colonel and the Spanish guerrillas who worked together to overcome many difficulties and finally break through the French headquarters during the Franco-Spanish War in order to prevent a huge cannon from falling into the hands of the French army.

Due to its age, the film's investment and box office are unknown, but judging from the big-name superstars participating in the film and the big scenes performed by thousands of people in the film, it was also a big production in that year.

Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, the film is a mixture of heroes and beauties, home and love, and the difficult journey of a cannon shows the will to resist and patriotism of the Spanish people.

Although it is a war theme, the film has always run through a witty atmosphere, and the fights between the two male protagonists are also quite interesting.

Although the final ending is a bit tragic, it sets off the theme of the title - "Magnificent Mountains and Rivers", whether it is love or life, it is secondary in front of the motherland! In this sense, the film is also a relaxed main theme film of another style.

Gary Grant, who wears torn clothes and is still handsome, also makes people plant grass, and the superstar demeanor of that year is not comparable to today's small fresh meat.

To say that the shortcomings, the biggest problem is that the length of the film is too long, and the whole look is actually a lot of fragments that have little to do with the main line can be cut.

Maybe watching movies was a complete pleasure for people of that era, and no one complained that the time was too long. Unlike modern people, busy watching a movie will also constantly calculate the cost of time.

Well, this is the introduction to the film, and we will review the history involved in the film as usual - the Franco-Spanish War.

It is said that at the beginning of the 18th century, Napoleon reached the peak of his power after a series of punches and kicks on the European continent.

His empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean in the west, the Baltic Sea in the north, the tip of the Apennine Peninsula in the south, and the eastern tip extended to the Dalmatian coast of the Balkan Peninsula.

Although he surpassed all the monarchs in French history, he could not be satisfied until Britain succumbed. The stubborn Englishmen, relying on the blessing of the strait, were very stubborn and resolutely refused to make peace.

The French Army was the first in the world at that time, and the Navy was directly unable to compete with the Royal Navy. How similar all this is to Hitler in World War II, and Lao Xi later chose to fight by plane and lost.

Napoleon had nothing to fly over at that time, so he thought of a fierce move - "continental blockade": all British subjects or goods found in france and its allies were seized and confiscated, cutting off all economic exchanges between the European continent and Britain, thus trapping and starving Britain.

The "continental blockade" was effective at first. Since the UNITED KINGDOM is an island nation, three-quarters of the wheat comes from the European continent, and the price of wheat in the UNITED country has soared from 66 shillings per quart to 117 shillings.

But, just as Prohibition flourished in the United States with the Detroit gangsters, Napoleon's blockade made Portugal on the other side of Britain very happy.

You, you actually dare to set up a stall by the sea! Napoleon was furious, and in October 1807, in order to close the Portuguese capital Lisbon Port, an "inexhaustible treasure trove" for the British, Napoleon brazenly declared war on Portugal, unveiling the curtain on the six-year-long "Peninsular War".

Because France and Portugal were separated by Spain, Napoleon threw a piece of meatloaf to Spain before the war. It is said that as long as Spain and France send troops to attack Portugal together, they can get half of the Portuguese territory.

Spain thinks it's good to be able to grab money and grab territory together! That's it!

The French marched 14 miles through Spanish territory, and without much resistance, reached the Portuguese capital on November 30, where the Portuguese government ran by boat, and everything seemed to go well.

Then, under the banner of marching into Portugal, the French army conveniently occupied Spain.

Speaking of which, I seriously doubt that Napoleon read Sun Tzu's Art of War, which is the most obvious "false way to cut down the road".

In fact, Napoleon has long been determined to annex the "ally" Spain, although the two countries are superficially allied, but the Bourbon royal family that ruled Spain, on the generations of Louis XVI's grandson who was overthrown by the French Revolution, and the alliance between Spain and France with a "murderous vendetta" can be imagined.

In Napoleon's own words, Spain was too weak as an ally and too dangerous as an enemy.

Moreover, after annexing Spain, it could also control the Strait of Gibraltar, choke the neck of the British sea passage, and naturally annex the Spanish colonies.

As an old colonial empire, South America at that time belonged to Spain except Brazil, which was much larger than the whole of France.

Since there are so many benefits, it is impossible to think about it or not. Next, Napoleon, who did not hesitate, trapped all members of the Spanish royal family in early May 1808 and replaced the Spanish king with his brother Joseph. In this way, Spain became part of the Napoleonic Empire.

The abacus was always good, and after some operation, it was basically realized, and as a result, the situation that had not been considered before appeared - the Spanish people did not do it!

The natural temper of the bullfighting nation is not small, starting from the Madrid Uprising, the uprisings throughout Spain have been wave after wave, and the French army has completely fallen into the ocean of people's war.

After all, The Emperor was not an ordinary person, could not accept defeat, and personally ran to suppress it. Barely able to control the situation, the result was that the gourd floated up, and the German side was not honest again, and Napoleon ran over there like a firefighter to extinguish the fire.

As soon as the front foot left, the British sent Wellington with a team across the sea to join in the fun, which was good, the British, Portuguese, and Spanish three-nation alliance fought the French army.

Napoleon concentrated 300,000 French troops in Spain at most, and fought for six years, and it was difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat.

In the end, it was Napoleon's new strategy that decided to take the lead of the war- the Emperor was about to attack Russia again.

In order to attack Russia, the elite French army left Spain, and the remaining French army was pressed step by step by the Tri-Power Coalition.

The fiasco of the War of Conquest of Russia wiped out 600,000 troops, and Napoleon could only continue to send troops from Spain to replenish his blood. Finally, at the end of 1813, the French army was completely driven out of Spain by the Triple Alliance.

In the Franco-Spanish War of 1808-1814, France lost more than 500,000 officers and soldiers, including 300,000 casualties. The two-front battle led to the French army's embarrassment, which ended in the initial situation of overwhelming superiority.

The Franco-Spanish War dragged Napoleon into an unmanageable quagmire of war, pressing the button of the emperor from the peak to the top of the collapse, and was out of control.

Years later, when Napoleon was imprisoned on the island of St. Helena, he looked back on the past and regretted it: "It was this Spanish abscess that destroyed me!" ”

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Let the film shine into history

Let history shine into the future

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