Reviewing Movies

Lies, deception, concealment; a story of what a boy will do to survive. It is a sad truth that North American audiences do not respond well to movies with sub-titles. If Marco Hofschneider had been fluent in English he had the matinee-idol good looks to have been a superstar. As it is his body of oeuvres is rather small. In addition to this movie Foreign Student received limited play and in The Island of Dr Moreau the ape costume hides him completely. As Ulrich in the movie Luther a mature Hofschneider has lost his boyish charisma.

In Europa Europa a coddled Jewish boy just past his bar mitzvah is suddenly jolted into manhood by Kristallnacht. What follows is one of those stories that is so remarkable that if it hadn't actually happened one would accuse the teller of embellishing the truth. Solly escapes from his homeland and separated from his brother is captured by first the Russians and then the Germans. In both cases his engaging good looks endear him to the troops and he gets adopted by the Germans and sent to an elite school for Hitler Youth. There he blends into an Arian Society while struggling to conceal amid the casual commaraderie of boys the fact of his own circumcised foreskin.

The movie ends with the German downfall and Solly's being rescued from a firing squad by his brother dressed in death camp rags. Together they take a whiz symbolicly exposing their common Jewish heritage. As the credits start to roll we meet the actual Solomon Perel—a wizened senior.

Somewhere among my memorabilia is "A Guide to Draft Dodgers in Canada" that was part of my enrollment package to University in 1971. It's as close as I've ever come to the US's War in Viet Nam. Spent a day with someone who actually served there while I was in Kansas City, Missouri; mind you we didn't discuss it.

The series "Tour of Duty" is memorable for the use of the Rolling Stones' lyric "Paint it Black" for its theme music. Inspired by the success of Platoon and the series "MASH", (on whose set in California much of it was shot), Hawaii and California stand in for Viet Nam. Though not a fan of war movies per se; this series, though it attempts to realistically portrait the common soldier's experience in Viet Nam, focuses on its effect on the morale, health, and social life of the men who fought it. The price the men who fought this war paid in divorce, mental breakdowns, and social dislocation is graphically illustrated.

It is amusing to note that the hot-shot heli-pilot McKay operated a machine that during the shooting of the series never made it off the ground. When one considers the number of bullets that fly and the ordinance that explodes all around them it is amazing that anyone survived that war. The inefficiency of "pouring it on" as a means of eliminating the enemy is certainly brought to the fore. In the final analysis one is left with a sense of the futility of the effort these men make. Those who fail to study history are destined to repeat it—something our military leaders might consider regarding the Canadian presence in Afghanistan and the American's Iraq campaign. Just ask Tony Blair.

Two cynically additions to this review:

1. If you're a guest star on a programme like this don't expect a long life-expectancy.

2. Apparently the price of using "Paint It Black" was too high as it doesn't appear anywhere on the DVD version of this show.

Tour of Duty ended; not with the ignominious helicopter escape from a hotel tower in Saigon; but with the men returning home. A black man makes his father incredulous about his ambition to go to "Old Miss". Griner goes home to parents who cannot accept that their son, barely out of his teens, is permanently blind. Roo leaves the jungles of South-East Asia for another jungle in Hell's Kitchen and finds it hard to feel safe anywhere. Purcell goes home to the prairie and finds himself treated like a leper because he served in Viet Nam. The hot-shot helicopter pilot, John McKay loses it from the absolute boredom of being a traffic reporter--cars stuck on the freeway just don't shoot back.