CAPTAIN WILLI HEROLD AND SS OFFICER ADOLF EICHMANN

Day 125 of the Lower Puna Eruption, and here is a link to the Star-Advertiser archive headlines.

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Yesterday was Labor Day, and, while I have many times reported on what that's all about, go to my posting of last year on the subject if interested.  Today, I'll write about two films I saw linked to Germany and World War II:

                                   Reviewers  Audiences  My Rating

The Captain                   79               100             A-

Operation Finale           61                 76             B-

Say during the final couple of weeks before the end of World War II in Europe you are a German private, who deserted his outfit and bump into a German captain looking fearsome in his impressive uniform?  You are accused to be a deserter and are thankful that this eminent authority, knowing that bit of secret, takes you on as part of his group.

Add on another lost team, then a large gun crew of two, and the Captain has an army.  However, this leader, himself, is a deserter, and all of 21 years old, who accidentally had stumbled upon an empty vehicle with a suitcase full of clothes and papers and stuff.  

This battle group commits atrocities and somehow ends up being led to a concentration camp of German army deserters, where, through an incredible series of circumstances, gain the authority to terminally execute 195 prisoners.  Captain Willi Herold gains notoriety as the Executioner of Emsland.  This is a true story, in black and white, plus subtitles.

I've too quickly simplified what really happened, for there was real purpose to this film.  To quote writer/director Robert Schwentke:

“I’ve always had a problem with Der Untergang, about Hitler’s last days in his bunker, because that film suggests that the Second World War was caused by a handful of sick minds with the biggest madman at the top. That is a dangerous lie, almost an excuse. National Socialism was a dynamic system involving many Germans. Hence many Germans carried blame after the war. The point is: everyone can wear an officer’s coat and commit crimes. The grotesque system of fascism and National Socialism is not a matter of 'then'. We have to keep wondering how such systems can return. That is why we must continue to make these films.”

Der Hauptmann (The Captain) was brutal and gripping, blackly comedic and ensnaring.  Who was Willi Herold (actor Max Hubacher)?  Went to school as a chimney sweeper, was called into military service and was awarded the Iron Cross First Class in battle at Salerno.  Relocated to Germany, he got lost from his unit as a  corporal, became this Luftwaffe captain and was arrested by a German commander, confessed to his crimes, but released for either being lauded as having the right attitude, or by mistake in the chaos of the war end (the film takes the former story).  He became a chimney sweeper, but was arrested after the war by the Royal Navy for, of all the ironies, theft of a loaf of bread.  He was then identified as a wanted war criminal, and with five of "his" men, executed by guillotine in 1946.

Then there is the story of SS Officer Adolf Eichmann, portrayed by Ben Kingsley (real name, Krishna Pandit Bhanji), who also played Mohandas Gandhi in 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor.  The story you know.  Captured by the Mossad in Buenos Aires, and snuck out to Israel, where he is tried, convicted and executed.

I was disappointed with Operation Finale.  There were technical and transition flaws.  The acting was so-so.  Missing was intensity and intrigue.  This was an opportunity to raise The Holocaust to a higher plane of horror.

It's possible that I was so taken in by The Captain, that OF appeared to resemble marshmallows.  It's worth a look, but don't do both on the same day.

Next?  What about another SS Officer, Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death, who practiced genetic research on inmates at Auschwitz.  He, too, escaped to Buenos Aires, then to Paraguay, and, finally to Brazil, where he was able to avoid extradition.

Mengele was the inspiration for The Boys from Brazil in 1978, portrayed by Gregory Peck, about clones of Hitler in a Brazilian clinic.


Then Charlton Heston took on the Auschwitz surgeon role in Ruen Algeum 5555:  My Father (the whole film, released in 2003).  Rotten Tomatoes had no review, for the release was limited.  Why?  Mostly because it was such a bad film.

Seems that a more accurate depiction of Mengele's life would be a worthy effort.  Nothing mentioned in the media.  However, soon to come is I am not a Witch, with a Rotten Tomatoes 100% reviewers' rating.

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Typhoon Jebi, the largest in a quarter century, made landfall over Kansai Airport, then Kobe, causing at least 9 deaths:

Hurricane Gordon will make landfall tonight, probably near or over Gulfport. 

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