Classic old movie on Netflix

[Bob Womack]

I just watched an old OLD war flick on Netflix and thought everyone might be interested.

There are a few caveats:
1. The movie was shot a year after the battle using actual participants so the acting isn't very good.
2. The movie glosses over the titanic failure of the mission and focuses on the magnificent feat of arms performed by the Brit Airborne in one location.
3. The other services involved are left out almost entirely.
4. The combined docu-drama format can get corny. REALLY corny.

But, there is a payoff:
1. The movie uses the actual people and shoots on the actual locations of the battle. When possible, it actually uses the buildings involved.
2. There is excellent footage of Panther V and Tiger I tanks maneuvering and firing.

The movie is Theirs is the Glory. It is the story of the Market/Garden operation of 1944. They actually went back in 1945, rounded up survivors and shot this in Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Nijmegen, etc., using the shells of the buildings involved. At the end there is an appearance by Kate Ter Horst, a Dutch woman who gave her home to the British as an aid station, tended their wounded, and read the Bible to them as they died, earning her the nickname the Angel of Arnhem. She and her husband were made honorary Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1980.

If you watch closely you can pick up hints of the origins of lines and subplots from the later A Bridge Too Far.

I tend to look at period films as a piece of history in and of themselves because they often served a different purpose than pure entertainment. This is no exception.

Bob

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