The 1977 epic war film is underappreciated in the U.S., perhaps because it depicts one of the great military disasters of WWII. Its production gets a superlative history in Simon Lewis' new book.
Love this! Never entirely convinced by Dirk's casting as Boy Browning. And at the time it caused no end of a stink. Letters to The Times. Daphne du Maurier and the rest...
I can understand why. Browning comes across as more loathsome than Maximilian Schell's German general whose tanks flatten Arnhem. Historically unfair but in filmmaking it's easier to have one or two figures represent the indifference of British military rather than the whole lot.
Incidentally, Dickie Attenborough's 'Oh! What a Lovely War!' (1969) is a minor masterpiece, I think. I'll be covering it at some point. Such a great film- again, despite the dodgy history.
Yes. Absolutely. Dirk's performance- dramatically brilliant, as he always is, is hideously unfair to poor Browning. Browning was a fop, sure, immaculate uniforms and the rest, but that bit when Browning tries to cover up the photo-reconnaissance alert... when they discover Waffen SS units... it's as if they're pinning the entire blame on one man, rather than Montgomery and the General Staff, as a whole. Dodgy history.
Love this! Never entirely convinced by Dirk's casting as Boy Browning. And at the time it caused no end of a stink. Letters to The Times. Daphne du Maurier and the rest...
I can understand why. Browning comes across as more loathsome than Maximilian Schell's German general whose tanks flatten Arnhem. Historically unfair but in filmmaking it's easier to have one or two figures represent the indifference of British military rather than the whole lot.
Incidentally, Dickie Attenborough's 'Oh! What a Lovely War!' (1969) is a minor masterpiece, I think. I'll be covering it at some point. Such a great film- again, despite the dodgy history.
Yes. Absolutely. Dirk's performance- dramatically brilliant, as he always is, is hideously unfair to poor Browning. Browning was a fop, sure, immaculate uniforms and the rest, but that bit when Browning tries to cover up the photo-reconnaissance alert... when they discover Waffen SS units... it's as if they're pinning the entire blame on one man, rather than Montgomery and the General Staff, as a whole. Dodgy history.