#wwiimovies

[swiftwordsforwhattheyare]

What I Took from Colditz

WARNING: SPOILERS. I will be giving out the plot. If you're interested in the movie, better to go watch it THEN read my thoughts and make a post of your own so I can hear what you think.

So I took a rainy day yesterday to watch Colditz, the 2005 British 2-part miniseries starring Damian Lewis, Sophia Myles and Tom Hardy. Let's just say it was a great movie to watch on a drizzly, cloudy, depressing day.

Let me preface this way: I love the WW2 period, and I love reading any book or seeing any movie set in the period. But the driving incentive to see this movie was Damian Lewis (-;) The only thing I'd seen him in was Band of Brothers (in which his performance was STELLAR) and I really wanted to see him in another role. And one quite unlike Dick Winters, which this movie fit the bill. So I probably would have seen this movie had not Damian been in it, because of the historical setting, drama, and let's face it, fascinating storyline, but Damian was the reason I saw it ASAP. So I come to it with a liking for the actor, though he does portray a bit of a jerk. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So even if you haven't seen the movie, chances are you know already the synopsis:

Three escaped POWs escaped from their camp and are about to be recaptured at the border of Switzerland. Only one, Scotsman Nicholas McGrade (Lewis) has a shot at getting away. Before he goes, his comrade Jack Rose (Hardy) asks him to look up his girl whom he met right before leaving London, and tell her... Tell her what? He doesn't expressly say. He'd told McGrade earlier he regretted not asking Lizzie (Myles) to marry him. But he doesn't tell McGrade what to tell her. Just says to find her.

McGrade gets back to London, gets promoted to Lieutenant, and is excited to get back to his life. He looks up Lizzie, tells her about Jack, and we can see he has a liking for her pretty much from the start.

Meanwhile, Jack is taken to Colditz, a castle where Germans are keeping POWs. He and his buddies start escape plans immediately. Their story runs parallel to McGrade's in England, but I'm going to focus on McGrade's.

McGrade sees Lizzie at a club one night and after some conversation about Jack (she can't remember what he looks like and she feels guilty ) and some pretty adorable flirting, they dance. We can see Lizzie is unnerved by Nick, and when he tries to kiss her, she leaves. He walks her home. Of course. Worked up and high on emotion, Nick tells her "we can do anything we want. We can be anything we want. We can have anything we want. I want you." At which point Lizzie kisses him, then runs away, distressed because of Jack.

I think it's important to legitimize that Lizzie and Nick had feelings for each other. He was the bad guy, he did terrible things, but I don't believe falling in love with Lizzie was one of them. I know it was his buddy's girl, but Lizzie also was attracted to him as well. He had much greater blunders to commit.

After their kiss, Lizzie wants to put distance between them. "I don't want you to come here again," she tells him. Here is where Nick makes his first AWFUL error, taken with the desire to have Lizzie: he forges a letter telling her Jack is dead. This is terrible and heinous, no way around it. Did Nick really think Jack wouldn't come back??

Well, his ploy works in bringing Lizzie, right to his door. And here is where I will clarify that Nick does not push or coerce her at all, to his credit. (I mean, beyond making her think her fellow is dead, which is probably worse than coercing her...) One blogger said something to the effect of "Nick convinces her to share his bed" which is not what happened. Lizzie came right to him. And despite his deception and all that, Lizzie does love him. I think that's important.

With Jack out of the way, Nick has Lizzie all to himself. They appear to be quite happy together. And then a Colditz man escapes, to the anxiety of Nick. He sees Nick and Lizzie together and recognizes her from a drawing he did for Jack in Colditz. Nick keeps falling lower and lower, meanwhile, mistake upon mistake. The escapee from Colditz knows his dirty secret and says so, and Nick kills him. He doesn't mean to. But it's done nonetheless, and Nicks wrongdoing strangles his happiness with Lizzie.

Jack escapes from Colditz. Nick finds out, and gives up the name of the safehouse he's staying at, betraying his country and their cause. Knowing he's soon to be caught, he asks Lizzie to marry him and go with him to America. "I want to be wherever you are," she replies, sealing their engagement with a kiss.

They don't make it out of the country. Jack finds them, and the two men have a face off. Nick ends up shot by fellow soldiers for treason, and it's Lizzie who comforts him, calling him a bastard even as she holds him close as he dies.

Jack pursues Lizzie, but she is shaken, distant and confused. "I don't know if I have any love left to give," she tells him. Her love affair with Nick haunts her, as I'm sure it did the rest of her life. As I said, I'm sure she really did fall in love with Nick. What they had was much different than the attachment she had to Jack, whom she met only three weeks before he left for the war. There is not a defined ending for Lizzie and Jack.

People who are at all familiar with the history of Colditz as well as the old Tv show are usually quite disappointed in this movie. Many claim it was basically just a setting for a dramatic love story, and it did history a disservice. I enjoyed it because I watched it just for the love story (hey, it pays to be honest) and I like stories set in WW2. I will say though that it gave more screen time to the plight of the POWs than critics led me to believe. Anyhow, I enjoyed it for what it was, being fond of romance, drama, angst and oh, yeah, Damian Lewis. It was nice to see him in a role where he was exuberant, outgoing, and yeah, human (cause face it: Dick Winters is a heavenly being of some sort). And he did a Scottish accent that was quite impressive to me. (Gee whiz, I've heard this Brit American, and Scottish now! How does he DO that?!)

It's a heck of a dramatic, frustrating, depressing story. Remember it on the next rainy, gloomy day.

[swiftwordsforwhattheyare]

This may come as a shock to anyone who's looked through all of my posts... (Yes, I'm being sarcastic)

But I REALLY wanna see this movie!

I read the general storyline and it sounds like such a fascinating story. And my dear Damian Lewis is not the inherently 'noble' hero as he was in Band Of Brothers. In fact... He sounds like a slime ball. 😳 (me, to self;.can he even do that??? *Shocked gasp*)

On second thought.. I believe the man could crush being a villain. Even though it doesn't SOUND like he was EVIL. He was just a little more human than Dick Winters. 😂 (LIKE THE REST OF THE WORLD)

Damian Lewis (Nicholas McGrade) in Colditz, 2005

[ingek73]

Vanavond op tv en in het @infocentrumwo2 (gratis te bezoeken) expositie over het filmen van #abridgetoofar Yup thats #seanconnery (#happybirthday ) getting a haircut on the set. #marketgarden #abridgetoofarmovie #expositie #exhibition #wwii #wwiimovies #behindthrscenes (at Infocentrumwo2 Nijmegen) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEzTAEznI-1/?igshid=1ur0w98p086f6

[bill-kelso-mfg]

“Memphis Belle” movie. 

[flippingoodfilms]

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[libbycleary99-blog]

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[hotrodsmitty]

I’m a couple days late watching one of my favorite non-traditional Christmas movies, so here we go... #Battleground #VanJohnson #WWIImovies #101stAirborne https://www.instagram.com/p/Br4I-JNAbxI/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4yrkl3zl1ep2

[jmw87]

Finally watched #dunkirk the other day and really loved it. One of the things I liked most was the fact that there wasn’t a ton of dialogue and it had amazing visuals. If you don’t know I’m a fan of #wwiimovies and other related films....and yes @harrystyles was good in the film, it was nice to see another side of him. #christophernolan #harrystyles #kennethbranagh #movies #history #historicalmovies #wwii https://www.instagram.com/p/Bog1q2mH8rc/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=i15z8vcjx38c

[twilighttimeart]

Concept art for Twilight Time's Blu-ray release of Eye Of The Needle. Based on Ken Follett's best-seller, Eye Of The Needle (1981) is a moody thriller set during the waning days of WWII and focusing on a ruthless spy (Donald Sutherland) operating covertly in England. Available September 13, 2016. #bluraymovies #twilighttimemovies #twilighttimebluray #twilighttime #twilight_time #twilighttimeart #twilighttimedvd #screenarchives #blurayart #bluraycover #bluraycollector #bluray #moviesofthe80s #films #movies #donaldsutherland #romantic-movies #spymovies #wwiimovies #movie #richardmarquand #katenelligan #christophercazenove #itsnotanoldmovieifyouhaventseenit #classicmovies #classicmoviestars

[floppyhairedvillain]

Trailer for period drama The Railway Man starring Colin Firth as a traumatized WWII vet seeking revenge on the soldier who tortured him during the war. Nicole Kidman and Stellan Skarsgaard also star.