A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

I don’t know if anyone reading this remembers Connections, a British TV import hosted by the congenial writer and commentator James Burke that was broadcast here in the U.S. by the Public Broadcasting System in the early 1980s. This 10-part miniseries explored the intricate and seemingly strange connections between individual scientific discoveries and simple inventions.  It also showed how those links forged the chain of our modern technological society.   Considering its theme and scope, Connections could have been about as exciting as watching paint dry, but Burke’s wit and effervescence made it both fascinating and indelible. I mention this seemingly irrelevant tidbit because after I watched that series while I was in high school, I became more aware that history and historical events don’t just “happen” and leave no lasting legacy.  After all, if this were the case, there would have been no Second World War 21 years after the end of the First World War. However, as

World War II, for good or ill, has been the backdrop for hundreds – if not thousands – of movies produced by all the nations which participated in it even as it was being waged. Of course, though “combat” films along the lines of A Walk in the Sun, Battleground, The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan often come to mind when the term World War II movie is mentioned, the genre actually straddles quite a few other film styles that aren’t restricted to movies about battles, campaigns or the hardware of the war.  Many love stories, dramas, comedies and even science fiction films have been set or partially set during World War II. Naturally, the sheer scope of World War II – fought on three continents and involving millions of combatants – and its more or less unambiguous “good versus evil” nature resulted in the near-mythologizing of certain events by Hollywood and writers of fiction. One of the most popular subgenres of World War II films is the “sabotage and commando r