British War Films Daily Mail DVD Giveaway

[Frank63]

Anyone know if they are giving away a freebie tomorrow ( Saturday ) ?.

[Marky B]

There is a further seven to collect as from tomorrow.
Ta Ta
Marky B

[Captain Viking]

I got the free film early this morning from Smiths and as I just happened to be passing a Tesco this evening I thought I'd see whether any DVDs were left. There were, so I handed in my voucher and now I have two copies of Tunes Of Glory!

Well, it is an excellent film and the one I had been looking forward to getting the most!

[christoph404]

Originally Posted by Captain Viking I got the free film early this morning from Smiths and as I just happened to be passing a Tesco this evening I thought I'd see whether any DVDs were left. There were, so I handed in my voucher and now I have two copies of Tunes Of Glory! Well, it is an excellent film and the one I had been looking forward to getting the most!

Its one I've been looking forward too as well, my friendly local Tesco Metro staff gave me two copies of the film when I said it was one of my favourite films, I also said I didn't really want to take the newspaper out of the shop but would happily pay for it at which point the cashier said not to worry about buying the paper, they gave me the DVDs anyway! How kind is that!

[mariocki]

Originally Posted by Frank63 Anyone know if they are giving away a freebie tomorrow ( Saturday ) ?.

I think it's Carve Her Name With Pride tomorrow.

[Frank63]

Originally Posted by Captain Viking I got the free film early this morning from Smiths and as I just happened to be passing a Tesco this evening I thought I'd see whether any DVDs were left. There were, so I handed in my voucher and now I have two copies of Tunes Of Glory! :

I've been doing that all week I'm sending the 2nd set to my brother in law in Spain I know he'll enjoy them.

[stevie boy]

Carve Her Name with Pride is the latest film in this collection, The Malta Story will be the film on Sunday

[canon]

Sorry to keep harping on this - but does anyone know which film on which day for for the rest of this week ?

I only get the paper when I want the film.

[maninasuitcase]

Originally Posted by canon Sorry to keep harping on this - but does anyone know which film on which day for for the rest of this week ? I only get the paper when I want the film.

Malta Story (Sunday)
We Dive at Dawn (Monday)
49th Parallel (Tuesday)
The Lion has Wings (Wedneday)
Appointment in London (Thursday)
The Way Ahead (Friday)

[vanmunchen]

I got Carve her Name with Pride with the Mail yesterday. Watching this film for the first time after about 40 years, it seemed to me to be very disappointing. It takes ages to get going - almost an hour passes before she joins British intelligence. Her first mission is very unconvincing for all kinds of reasons. For instance, she is suspected of being a British agent and the Germans know where she is staying but no attempt is made to watch her or stop her leaving the town. But, more fundamentally, what I particularly disliked was the enthusiasm Virginia McKenna (as Violette Szabo) portrays on her second mission when killing the German soldiers.

It’s one thing to portray fighting between opposing military forces but here we have a woman dressed as a civilian who, with no real provocation, acts as a modern day terrorist, shooting down numerous young German men without compunction. For that reason I found it very hard to sympathise with her when she was captured – you can understand only too well that the German military would have no choice but to convict her as a spy. I’m sure that when I first saw the film I enjoyed it as another good example of the British battling the Hun. But attitudes change and I’m sure that if the film was made today, the character would require considerable more motivation before taking up arms.

[Captain Viking]

The paper cost £1.50 today. What a rip-off!

I was forced against my will to get two copies again to make it worthwhile!

[Captain Viking]

Originally Posted by vanmunchen I got Carve her Name with Pride with the Mail yesterday... I’m sure that when I first saw the film I enjoyed it as another good example of the British battling the Hun. But attitudes change and I’m sure that if the film was made today, the character would require considerable more motivation before taking up arms.

There was a war on. Her husband was killed at El Alamein and never saw their baby daughter.

[batman]

Originally Posted by vanmunchen I got Carve her Name with Pride with the Mail yesterday. Watching this film for the first time after about 40 years, it seemed to me to be very disappointing. It takes ages to get going - almost an hour passes before she joins British intelligence. Her first mission is very unconvincing for all kinds of reasons. For instance, she is suspected of being a British agent and the Germans know where she is staying but no attempt is made to watch her or stop her leaving the town. But, more fundamentally, what I particularly disliked was the enthusiasm Virginia McKenna (as Violette Szabo) portrays on her second mission when killing the German soldiers. It’s one thing to portray fighting between opposing military forces but here we have a woman dressed as a civilian who, with no real provocation, acts as a modern day terrorist, shooting down numerous young German men without compunction. For that reason I found it very hard to sympathise with her when she was captured – you can understand only too well that the German military would have no choice but to convict her as a spy. I’m sure that when I first saw the film I enjoyed it as another good example of the British battling the Hun. But attitudes change and I’m sure that if the film was made today, the character would require considerable more motivation before taking up arms.

The very reason that most of the heroes who fought and often died was to preserve and to protect their country and families from the evil of Fascism. To succeed in this endeavour some fighters had to transform themselves from everyday folk into 'killing machines'. Some of those who survived had great trouble adjusting to civilian life and it is remarkable that so many of them managed to retain their sense of self after so many years of living with memories of the deeds they had to perform.

Acts such as you describe happened, young women did kill in that way. They were soldiers fighting a war. They were not terrorists, but the belief in a cause and the desire to fight for what they believed in was just as strong for them as it is for today's 'freedom fighters'.

Carve Her Name With Pride is an excellent film which portrays the life of a genuine heroine with great skill and compassion.

Violette Szabo and the others who fought with her deserve our utmost respect. IMHO the film is a fine tribute to a brave and dedicated lady.

[Marky B]

Originally Posted by vanmunchen I got Carve her Name with Pride with the Mail yesterday. Watching this film for the first time after about 40 years, it seemed to me to be very disappointing. It takes ages to get going - almost an hour passes before she joins British intelligence. Her first mission is very unconvincing for all kinds of reasons. For instance, she is suspected of being a British agent and the Germans know where she is staying but no attempt is made to watch her or stop her leaving the town. But, more fundamentally, what I particularly disliked was the enthusiasm Virginia McKenna (as Violette Szabo) portrays on her second mission when killing the German soldiers. It’s one thing to portray fighting between opposing military forces but here we have a woman dressed as a civilian who, with no real provocation, acts as a modern day terrorist, shooting down numerous young German men without compunction. For that reason I found it very hard to sympathise with her when she was captured – you can understand only too well that the German military would have no choice but to convict her as a spy. I’m sure that when I first saw the film I enjoyed it as another good example of the British battling the Hun. But attitudes change and I’m sure that if the film was made today, the character would require considerable more motivation before taking up arms.

A lot of young German men shot down innocent Jewish men,women and children without compunction. They shot down innocent French town people at Oradour-Sur-Glane without compunction.....
Ta Ta
Marky B

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by vanmunchen I got Carve her Name with Pride with the Mail yesterday. Watching this film for the first time after about 40 years, it seemed to me to be very disappointing. It takes ages to get going - almost an hour passes before she joins British intelligence. Her first mission is very unconvincing for all kinds of reasons. For instance, she is suspected of being a British agent and the Germans know where she is staying but no attempt is made to watch her or stop her leaving the town. But, more fundamentally, what I particularly disliked was the enthusiasm Virginia McKenna (as Violette Szabo) portrays on her second mission when killing the German soldiers. It’s one thing to portray fighting between opposing military forces but here we have a woman dressed as a civilian who, with no real provocation, acts as a modern day terrorist, shooting down numerous young German men without compunction. For that reason I found it very hard to sympathise with her when she was captured – you can understand only too well that the German military would have no choice but to convict her as a spy. I’m sure that when I first saw the film I enjoyed it as another good example of the British battling the Hun. But attitudes change and I’m sure that if the film was made today, the character would require considerable more motivation before taking up arms.

Go and read some history books. The history of the events would have been well known to everyone watching the film when it was first released so they didn't feel the need to include it all in the the film. I would have hoped that it would still be well known today, but apparently not.

The first part of the film shows that she's a fairly ordinary London girl, albeit one with a French mother. It's important to show that, and how she met and married a heroic (to her eyes), dashing young French officer. They married and had a child.

Violette had been brought up in France and in London. France had been invaded, London had been bombed, her husband had been killed without ever seeing their child, she had every reason to want to fight the people who did that.

When she does join SOE, her training also made it clear that she was one of the few people who could do the job, passing themselves off as a French native. She was also a very good shot and quite adventurous and athletic.

While she was working in enemy territory, it wasn't just the Germans she had to worry about. There were also the French collaborators, the Milice and other less obvious ones. Violette's first mission was to go into the Cherbourg area after a network there had been blown. She had to go in "cold" with no contacts, find people who were still at liberty and persuade them to put the network back together. Some members of the Gestapo were a bit suspicious of her, but she had a good cover story and good papers so they didn't have enough suspicions to arrest her. She was only there for a couple of days and she did make use of the air raid to travel around a bit while everyone was keeping their heads down

You may regard what the SOE did as terrorism, the Nazis certainly did and they killed many SOE agents. But without those agents and the French resistance that they organised, the D-Day landings might not have been successful and Europe might still be ruled by Nazis.

For her second mission she was dropped in the Limoges region on the day after D-Day where she helped organise various resistance groups to prevent the Panzer troops from the south of France going to strengthen the Normandy defences.

When they were discovered, Violette was fighting as a deliberate delaying tactic to allow the resistance leader to get away. And although they were "numerous young German men" they were members of an SS Panzer detachment who had already carried out quite a few atrocities and who, soon afterwards, were so upset by being delayed on their way to Normandy that they massacred the entire population of Oradour-sur-Glane.

So who was really the terrorist?

Steve