oh! "Our Fathers"
Wu Yingzhou
Our Fathers is a German film with three episodes of ninety minutes each.
The film is based on five Berlin youths and tells some of the past events of Germany during World War II from 1941 to 1945.
The five youths were: Welheim (older brother), Fried (younger brother), Charlotte (nurse girl), Grita (singer), and Victor (Jewish).
They are very good friends.
The Awakening of Wilheim
Wilhelm is a typical hot-blooded, patriotic youth, aspiring youth!
Of course, this is the impression he gave people at the beginning of the film!
When the Nazis decided to invade the Soviet Union, he volunteered to put on his uniform and went to the battlefield.
On the battlefield, he fought bravely, was not afraid of life and death, charged forward, commanded firmly, and was quickly promoted to lieutenant.
As a result, he became a standard combat hero, or a typical killing machine.
But he was still young and kind-hearted, and when he saw nazi soldiers slaughtering civilians, Jews, and prisoners of war, men and women, young and old, his heart was shocked, but he was uncomfortable.
As the war progressed, or procrastinated, he gradually began to reflect: What is the significance of this war?
This thought may pass in a flash!
But the war is still going on!
Due to the attrition of too many fighters, the recruits who were added were getting younger and younger, and some of them were only twelve years old!
When the recruit reported to him and was about to introduce his name, he said: If you are still alive in four weeks, I will tell you your name!
These childish teenagers are only number one, number two, number three in his eyes...
Is he really heartbroken and compassionless at this point?
unknown!
Maybe, maybe not!
However, when the war was in its later stages and Germany's defeat was over, his superiors ordered him to lead his soldiers to seize a radio station.
He was confused!
He said: Is it meaningful that the whole of Sicily has been lost, and that I have taken my life to seize half of the street, which is already in ruins?
But a command is a command after all! As a soldier, he had to execute unconditionally!
Sure enough, all his soldiers were killed!
Only he survived because he was stunned by a cannonball!
After that, he hid alone in an abandoned house and "lived in seclusion".
At this time, he has changed from a hot-blooded combat hero to a war-weary coward.
Shortly after, he was discovered by a German search team.
He was considered a deserter and sentenced to death.
However, just before the execution, he was sentenced to the disciplinary team to clean up the dead bodies and so on. - It is said that this was because the German army at that time was too short of manpower!
In the corrections team, his superiors asked him to burn down a house not far from the station. He walked over with a gasoline barrel, went into the house, and saw two old Russian people who were dependent on each other, and the old man invited him to sit down and drink tea...
He realized that this was the old man's home...
At this time, he has regained his humanity, and he can no longer do anything that hurts heaven and nature...
Seeing that he hadn't burned down the house, his superiors almost strangled him to death...
The war was over and Wilheim survived!
Fried's Metamorphosis
Fried was a typical literary youth, a man of letters, quiet, thoughtful, not blindly obedient, and war-averse.
He couldn't stand his father's taunting of his cowardice and pocket before he gambled on putting on his military uniform and running to the battlefield with his brother!
On the battlefield, his behavior was naturally ridiculed by his comrades-in-arms!
Call him cowardly, greedy, afraid of death, etc.!
His brother was deeply humiliated by him.
But his heart is good, sensitive, understands good and evil, and has a sense of justice!
And on the battlefield he witnessed many bloody, inhuman, and inhuman scenes!
One of the most frightening things was that when the SS drove away and beat up a group of Jewish civilians, especially when an SS soldier picked up a little girl of about eleven or twelve years old and beat her, many people turned a blind eye, but he couldn't stand it anymore and finally stepped forward to stop it!
At this time, a Nazi colonel came up.
The Nazi colonel told the SS to put the little girl down.
The little girl stood on the ground, and the Nazi colonel very kindly gave the little girl candy.
The little girl took it and ate it in a panic, and as she was eating, the Nazi colonel suddenly drew his pistol and shot the little girl in the back of the head...
Suddenly, blood splattered everywhere!
He was stunned!
In response to a quote he once said: "War can show the darkest side of human nature!" ”
What about him after that?
He can't sway the war! He can't sway others! I can't even sway myself! At this time, he only wanted to die!
When Soviet planes bombed at night, he deliberately smoked to expose the target!
So that hail bombs fell from the sky and burst into flames!
Afterwards, he was beaten half to death by his comrades-in-arms!
In a battle, his comrades around him were killed, and he was also caught in the search and suppression of the Soviet army.
So he was in a hurry, changed into a Soviet uniform, and fled back to his position in Russian.
However, when he approached his position, he was mistaken by his comrades-in-arms, and a shot came over, and the bullet passed through his chest cavity instantaneously, and he immediately fell to the ground!
Thankfully, the bullet was off the heart by a centimeter!
When he was taken to the field hospital, the doctor thought that he was not saved, and it was his friend Charlotte, who was a nurse, who begged bitterly, and the doctor operated on him and saved him!
When he recovered from his injuries, he retired to Berlin, but when he got home, he was once again ridiculed by his father, and also ridiculed by a group of patriotic and indignant youth, so he ignored his mother's bitter pleas and returned to the battlefield!
When he returned to the battlefield, it was as if he had changed his personality: he began to shoot unarmed civilians, let innocent civilians walk in front of him to give him a landmine, and became the last executor of hanging...
He became what his brother used to be: cold-blooded and resolute!
He also became the kind of person he hated the most before.
A quiet, cowardly young man has become a qualified screw in the war machine!
Of course, there is still a good or righteous thing in his heart, such as when he saved his former friend Victor and shot the Nazi colonel who shot the Jewish little girl!
His last shot is: when he and his comrades-in-arms are surrounded by The Soviets, they write down testaments and tell them that others can surrender and save their lives, but he rushes forward with a gun and finally dies in a random gun...
He used his death to tell those around him: How to live!
Charlotte's innocence
Charlotte and a young woman with a simple heart.
Like Wilheim, she is also bent on serving her country.
And she has always had a crush on Wilhelm.
So when Wilhelm decided to go to war, she also signed up as a field nurse.
She also believes that serving the military is her greatest honor!
However, after arriving at the battlefield, what she directly faced was the dripping blood, the howl of tearing her heart and lungs, the hard and futile treatment, and the loss of one young life after another...
She didn't expect the war to be so bloody!
But she was not only simple in heart, but also brainwashed:
Out of "loyalty to the country", she went so far as to report a Jewish woman who had helped her as a nurse in a war hospital, Lilia...
But what was even more cruel was this: when she heard that her crush, Wilheim, had died, and when she begged the doctor at the field hospital to save her dying friend Fried, she gave her most precious to the older doctor who could be her father and was bald...
This is a complete hopelessness for life, this is some kind of reward for life, this is the ultimate tribute to life...
Her youth, her love, her life, her everything was ruined by the unprecedented war that Hitler himself launched...
One of the most memorable scenes is the heartbroken cry when she sees Wilheim standing in front of her alive...
This young woman with a simple heart was brainwashed, but the cruel war washed her brain again, especially after she betrayed the Jewish woman who was a nurse, she had a new understanding of the world and life!
She felt guilty!
She wanted to repent!
She wants to redeem herself!
So she did her best to take care of the Russian girl who served in the field hospital...
So she deliberately undermined the healing effect to delay the return of the wounded to the battlefield...
However, when the German army was defeated and her field hospital was completely withdrawn, she did not have time to get on the retreating car in order to find the Russian girl...
She and the Russian girl are still rescuing the seriously injured who have not been able to evacuate...
However, what is even more shocking is that when the Soviet soldiers captured this field hospital, they not only shot the seriously injured who failed to retreat, but also raped her...
Greta's childishness
Greta is a typical literary young woman who loves to sing and aspires to fame!
She has both a talent for singing and a natural beauty, and it seems reasonable for her to become a singing actress in normal times.
Yet war broke out!
Her three best friends have gone to war, and her Jewish lover, Victor, whose life is threatened...
However, under the temptation of fame and fortune, she became the mistress of Martin, a high-ranking Nazi official who controlled the power of life and death.
As the Nazi anti-Semitism and anti-Semitism became apparent, she begged Martin to give her lover Victor a pass to leave Germany.
Although simple and naïve, Greta is also very kind and understanding, and in order not to let her lover have more psychological burdens, she took the initiative, even resolutely, proposed to break up with her lover...
Naturally, she got her lover's departure certificate as she wished!
Naturally, it was done for her by her lover Martin!
However, what she never expected, or even what I did not expect, was that when Victor was preparing to leave the country with a pass, he was secretly arrested by Martin on the way!
Victor was put on a train to Auschwitz.
But Greta didn't know anything about it.
When Gritta gets tired of being played by Martin, or feels that Grita is threatening his family, Martin sends Grita far to the Soviet front in the name of comforting the soldiers in the front.
On the Soviet front, Greta not only met her other three friends, but also saw the cruelty of the war, and also saw the general trend of Germany's inevitable defeat!
After her return to Berlin, in a bar, she faced the patriotic youth who were still immersed in the situation, the drunken reservists, and she said: "We can't win!" ”
Just because of this sentence, calling her a spread of pessimism, disturbing the hearts and minds of the army, etc., he arrested her!
In the interrogation room, Martin saw her. She said to Martin, "You can't make me go to jail!" Let me go to jail, even if your children are in jail. I'm pregnant! ”
However, what I never expected was that after Martin listened, he actually punched Gritta in the stomach.
Greta fell to the ground on the spot!
Subsequently, Greta went to jail.
In prison, after she thought about it, she was already in ashes!
A very gifted young man with ideals, in this way, is ruined by the times, or by some people!
However, when the defeat of Germany was decided, Martin came to the prison to find Grita, hoping that she would prove that he had helped the Jews!
But was rejected by Gritta!
Although she still did not know that her lover had not left the country as she wished!
Greta's words at this point are well said: "Does your life need to be protected by the Jews?" ”
But what still surprised me was:
Greta was shot by the Nazis before Germany surrendered!
Martin's "Bad"
In this film, the "bad" of the high Nazi official Martin is either obvious to all or in unison!
However, this kind of "badness" of his is innate? Or was it trained the day after tomorrow?
Did he become a high-ranking official because he was "bad", or did he become "bad" because he became a high-ranking official?
This may be a question similar to "chicken or egg first"!
Perhaps if he is not "bad", he may not be able to become a high-ranking official; after becoming a high-ranking official, in that evil system, he will not be allowed not to be "bad"!
Of course, his "badness" is not manifested in his use of power to seduce or seduce a literary young woman!
It's his overt and dark ones!
Mingli is humble and gentlemanly, full of righteousness, secretly fierce and fierce, and has no bottom line.
How can a person be so "bad"?
Such "bad" is not OK!
Heaven forbid!
Not to mention that he did the "departure certificate" for Greta's lover, was this done by a man with a slight moral bottom line?
And the weight punch he punched Gritta in the stomach! Is this something that a slightly rational man did?
When Germany's defeat was decided, he pulled out his gun and wanted to kill his wife and his five- or six-year-old daughter! Is this what a father and a husband did?
Of course, there is no shot of him shooting in the film, or the sound of gunfire, but this kind of inhumane and inhumane act, he must have done it, but it was "blurred" by the director for the sake of perception!
Of course, Martin is also smart!
People who don't have any brains at all, in that kind of system, are certainly not in the minority!
There's no doubt about it!
Because under the framework of a doctrine and an idea, no one will be allowed to have any distractions!
But a man like Martin, who has a brain and is good at change, must be even more powerful!
All the "bad things" since ancient times, especially some evil and heinous things, have been done by extremely intelligent people!
Just like the real bad guys in prison, they are all capable people!
The last shot of Martin in the film is still something I never expected:
Martin, a high-ranking Nazi official, was transformed into an employee of the U.S. military or an official of the West German government.
A few words
It is said that this film is based on real people and real events, and it is also very realistic.
It's as real as a documentary.
It was taken by the Germans.
It is also told from the perspective of the Germans about World War II.
But the whole film is full of reflection.
Reflections on all aspects.
The crimes against Germany itself, including the crimes against the world-class leader Hitler, including the crimes against the wrong line enforcers, should be undisguised!
It's a bonus!
Without reflection, there is no progress!
Who in my memory once said such a sentence: The greatest lesson of history is that we cannot remember the lesson of history!
Germany remembers!
The younger generation in Germany remembered it, which is why they made this film and named it "Our Fathers"!
They have no praises or denigrations against their fathers, this is a true record!
But reflection is everywhere!
A new generation of German leaders remembered it, which is why West German Chancellor Brandt knelt in Warsaw in 1970.
He said: "Acknowledging responsibility helps to wash away the conscience, and in the face of millions of victims, I have only done what a person should do when words are not enough."
It has been said that it is a Brandt who kneels down, and the whole of Germany that stands up.
It is also said that a nation that knows how to repent is a nation with hope!
Of course, the film does not hide its "crime" against other countries!
For example, in the case of anti-Semitism, this is true in Germany, so it is true in Ukraine, it is true in Poland, and it is also true in the Soviet Union.
The practices and nature of these countries are the same, and the difference is only the number of them!
It is quite surprising that the Germans who filmed the film actually said a few kind words to the enemy Soviet Union:
First, Lilia, the Jewish woman who was betrayed by Charlotte, escaped death and became the political commissar of the Red Army. When she found out that the soldiers had raped Charlotte, she immediately exclaimed, "We are liberators, not rapists!" ”
Second, after the female political commissar of the Soviet Red Army occupied the hospital, she immediately shot the Russian girl who was working as a nurse in the field hospital for "Russian rape", but left Charlotte alive, and when Charlotte asked her why, she said: "When is the retribution for wrongs?" ”
Many of the details in the film are remarkable! I won't dwell on it!
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