Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The One That Got Away
The first thing that struck me about this movie was what a likable rogue Franz von Werra was. Considering the destruction and death German bombers were wreaking on British Cities the relationship between these prisoners of war and their captors was all very polite and civilized. How much this movie version varies from reality I’ll leave to the reader to judge. The second impression is of the aplomb with which the British Guards ignore air raid sirens and the fact that bombs are dropping all around them.
Von Werra was a confidence man par excellence whose determination to escape brooked no consideration for the consequences his actions might have for his fellow prisoners or the dangers he might encounter on the lam. His first attempt ended in a mud hole with the exhausted prisoner lying in the pouring rain. What strikes me is the massive numbers of men mobilized to recapture one man. After his second escape he is shipped by boat to Halifax and thence via train to the wiles of Northern Ontario. Nothing daunted our intrepid Franz forces open a frozen double window and leaps onto a side bank of snow from a speeding train in sub-zero conditions.
What follows is a struggle of gargantuan proportions in which the lightly clad Franz struggles across the frozen St. Clair River only to discover that the river current has kept a lead open. He then stumbles back to the Canadian Shore and finds a heavy skow which he proceeds to single-handedly drag across the ice and hummocks until he reaches open water.
It was only after the movie was nearly ended that it struck me that although this last section took place at night I could not remember seeing any colour. After reviewing earlier chapters I finally discovered that I’d watched the entire movie in Black and White and had not missed the lack of colour. One other observation about which I’d appreciate comments from anyone more knowledgeable of architecture. What is it with the popularity of buildings shaped like the letter “E” in institutional architecture? I’m most familiar with St. Mary’s University in Halifax but that shape crops up often in this and other British films.
# posted by garthmailman@gmail.com @ 2:28 pm 
