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Related: Film discussion forum.

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Related: Film discussion forum.

Telly addicts

Generation War: our mothers our fathers

79 replies

winkywinkola · 26/04/2014 22:27

Anyone watching this?

It's brilliant.

OP posts:

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eddiemairswife · 26/04/2014 23:34

Very good, and so interesting to see the war from the German point of view.

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winkywinkola · 26/04/2014 23:37

But so complex and not dismissed as homogenous followers of the Third Reich.

OP posts:

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MasqueradeWaltzer · 26/04/2014 23:37

Yes, really riveting and shocking to watch.

I'm both dreading and looking forward to next week's episode. This one was overloaded with moments that made me flinch, but so well written.

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limitedperiodonly · 27/04/2014 08:43

I've recorded this. Glad it's good. I like Das Boot, the 1930 film of All Quiet On The Western Front and Letters from Iwo Jima too.

The last two surprised me because they're American. I misjudged Clint Eastwood. I thought he'd have the Mel Gibson approach to goodies and baddies. But I liked Gran Torino too.

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LushAndVerdant · 27/04/2014 08:52

I thought it was very good but, yes, several moments that were very hard to watch.

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FuckyNell · 27/04/2014 20:27

I loved it! Looking forward very much to next week.

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napoleonsnose · 27/04/2014 20:31

Ooh, sounds like something I'd enjoy. What channel was it on? DH is away on business for the week so I have full control of the remote so I might be able to catch up.

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LAlady · 27/04/2014 21:46

Riveting viewing. Texted my nephew to watch it on catch up - he just has and thought it was brilliant too.

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LushAndVerdant · 27/04/2014 22:20

BBC2, napoleon.

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Twinklestein · 27/04/2014 22:21

So so good.

If you enjoyed this then check out documentary series on youtube.

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Twinklestein · 27/04/2014 22:22

(The Wehrmacht being the German army...)

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EBearhug · 27/04/2014 22:26

I enjoyed it, too. And I got through my whole ironing pile, and then I realised I was following some of it without reading all subtitles, which is good, because I thought I'd forgotten more German than that.

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Lambstales · 28/04/2014 20:49

Each episode has a different name. I think Saturday's was 'A different time' and next weeks is called 'A different war' focusing, perhaps on Viktor.

It was very watchable but also disturbing/upsetting at times.

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EBearhug · 28/04/2014 21:36

Miriam Stein (plays Charly) reminds me of Imogen Stubbs.

This realisation came to me at about 04:30 this morning. (I didn't have a good night...)

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MySweetPrince · 29/04/2014 13:31

Gripped by this - so well acted. Some scenes difficult to watch but brings home the reality of war.

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CleopatrasAsp · 01/05/2014 01:10

EBearhug I thought that too. She really does look like Imogen Stubbs and she has a lord of her mannerisms too.

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CleopatrasAsp · 01/05/2014 01:12

That should be lot not lord.

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Forlornhope · 02/05/2014 06:33

Loved the eastern front thing. Far more palatable to a uk audience ;)

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Forlornhope · 02/05/2014 06:34

If you have a GCSE kid they might like it. Son was riveted

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EBearhug · 02/05/2014 07:56

Why is it more palatable to a UK audience?

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Davros · 02/05/2014 12:24

Going back a bit, Clint Eastwood is a film maker of great credibility. Have you seen Invictus?
I thought thus programme was really good. Interested to see how they balance the idea that ordinary Getman people were just that with the view that ordinary German people allowed it to happen and mostly participated. Still, I won't let that get in the way of my enjoyment. The younger brother IS James McEvoy to me. I have a few German friends, I will be interested to hear what they thought and if they watched it at all.

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EBearhug · 02/05/2014 20:20

Interested to see how they balance the idea that ordinary Getman people were just that with the view that ordinary German people allowed it to happen and mostly participated.

I think that for a lot of people, if you weren't gay, Jewish, communist or gypsy, life under the Third Reich, at least at the start, was better than it had been under the Weimar Republic. Most people are basically law-abiding and just want to get on with their lives. Plenty of people complain about various aspects of life today, but how many actually go out protesting or standing for parliament or whatever? Most people are likely to just grumble and maybe change their vote at the next election, and yes, they don't agree with everything that's going on, but they're okay at the moment, and it's not like during WW1 or the hyperinflation in 1923, or the risk of Communist revolution as there was after WW1.

And that's why learning about the Third Reich is important - people were mostly normal, and had Britain lost WW1 or other things had gone differently, maybe Moseley or others would have gained power, rather than just mostly being on the sidelines.

I asked my German friends if they'd seen it, but I am assuming none of them watched it, on account of the lack of response I got (also all the bank holidays mean lots of people haven't been around that much.) To be fair, it's not really their thing in most cases. I need to watch some sci fi or fantasy show for that.

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Davros · 02/05/2014 20:25

This is set 2-3 years into the War though isn't it? I've got a book by a friend of my mum's who was married to a German Communist and lived in Berlin at the start of the War. I remember her well and I know they didn't think things were normal or better. Trouble is, I haveng managed to read the book because the typeface is quite small and I'm getting old and spoilt by kindle technology!

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EBearhug · 02/05/2014 20:56

Yes, it's 1941, about to go into the winter of Stalingrad (hence the Eastern Front setting.)

By that point, they'd know that if you stood up against the Nazis, you were risking your life. I don't know that everyone thought it would go that way in 1933, or at least thought it was the best choice of bad options. In any case, different people would have behaved differently.

People who were late teens in 1941 would have been born early-mid '20s and about 10 or so when Hitler came to power, so they'd have probably had a different outlook from their parents. German ex-boyfriend's uncle was (just) of an age to have been in the Hitler Youth, but I don't know what he remembered of things back then, and he died before I ever got the chance to work out if it was an okay subject to ask about and whether my German was up to it.

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janesnowdon1 · 02/05/2014 21:45

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada is a really good book (based on real events) about life in a working class apartment block in Berlin under the Nazis. There were party spies in each block and any dissent about increasing performance targets in factories meant a fast passage to a "work camp".

I was surprised that Vicktor and his family were still living openly in a city in 1941. The german officer is a seriously nasty piece of work - don't think that that the singer will make it to stardom somehow.