“Generation
War” is a German miniseries set in WWII.
It is literally entitled “Our Mothers, Our Fathers”. The series was shown in three parts on German
television. It was well-received, but
has created some controversy. It follows
five friends from 1941-1945.
Charlotte
(Miriam Stein) will become a nurse on the Eastern Front. She is in love with Wilhelm (Volker Bruch)
who is an officer in Russia. His brother
Friedheim (Tom Schilling) is a book-worm who has joined the army and is shipped
east. Greta (Katharina Schuttler) is an
aspiring singer. Her boyfriend is Victor
(Ludwig Trepte) who is Jewish. In June,
1941 in Berlin, the quintet has one last party before their paths diverge. They make plans to meet again at the end of
the war. Their various paths will
converge several times before the war ends because this is a miniseries. Each character has a different arc. Greta achieves her fame as a singer by way of
an advantageous affair with a Gestapo officer.
Victor gets shipped off to a concentration camp, but escapes to join a
Polish resistance group. Greta works in
hospitals where she sees the horrors of the war and worries about Wilhelm. Wilhelm ends up in a disciplinary
battalion. Friedheim surprises everyone
by becoming a warrior. Not all of them
will make that post-war get-together.
The
series is well-cast with an attractive ensemble. Each character is distinctive and you care
about what will happen to them. And a
lot happens to them. Some of it is
unrealistic as the movie has a small world feel to it. There are a lot of coincidences. This was unavoidable given the need to
intersect the arcs for narrative purposes.
It gets a bit ridiculous towards the end, however. All five arcs make sense and take us to some rare
cinematic destinations. Greta in the
hospitals. Victor in the resistance
unit. Wilhelm in a punishment battalion. Most of what happens is unpredictable which
is something of a weakness in the end because none of them should have
survived. The series is clearly
anti-war, but it dilutes this with a relatively positive ending.
The
series shifts between characters seamlessly which means we shift from soap
opera (Greta) to medical drama (Charlotte) to partisan warfare (Victor) to
combat film (Wilhelm and Friedheim). The
battle scenes are of the new style associated with “Saving Private Ryan”. For example, Wilhelm suffers from sensory
deprivation at one point. The sets are
realistic and the weapons and uniforms seem to be authentic. These scenes are enough to keep the combat
junkies satisfied, but the movie is a traditional war miniseries similar to
“War and Remembrance” in that it concentrates more on human interaction rather
than combat.
The
series has been criticized for several theme choices. Some were upset with the depiction of the
Polish resistance as being very anti-semitic.
Victor has to hide his identity from his mates. The same critics were upset that Victor did
not get to the concentration camp. They felt the series did not reference the Holocaust
enough. I would argue that we have
enough concentration camp movies and it was a bit refreshing to see Victor
fighting the Nazis, instead of being a victim.
Ironically, another criticism is that the series seems to make the
Germans the victims. The four non-Jewish
Germans are not typical Germans in that none are Nazi supporters. The series gives the impression that young
Germans were caught up in the flow of a war they did not support. That anti-Nazi sentiment would not have been
common. These complaints are legitimate,
but as entertainment, with some basic education, the series works.
“Generation
War” is one of the better war miniseries.
Although legitimately criticized for being too sympathetic toward its
characters, it is surprisingly harsh for a German production. You certainly don’t wish you had been in
their shoes. It seems like the right
story for our times.
GRADE
= A-
There's no way to cover the full experience of a society with five people and I agree with you that there are already many great depictions of the Holocaust. Antisemitism in Poland was, as I recall, briefly touched on in "Winds of War" but otherwise seems much less explored. As long as the series isn't making Poland the real monster I think the theme makes sense in view of the character's story.
ReplyDeleteThe character that I (who have not yet seen this series) am more worried about is the singer. Her scenes are no doubt much less expensive to film and there will undoubtedly be a temptation to use those for filler and easy but boring drama (which sounds a lot like your allusion to "soap opera"). Still, you probably need at least one person to cover the home front and get a sense of how various tiers of German society understood the things that were happening in the war. If I had been in charged of this proeduction I probably would have given her a job in radio so that the series could clip in historical broadcasts from the era, or reenactments of those broadcasts if the quality of surviving originals is poor. But it could also work well with a singer, I suppose, if the writing is good. I'll try to keep an eye out for this series.
The series was a white wash in terms of both its implying that young Germans were not supportive of the Nazis and its portrayal if the Clean Wehrmacht myth on the Eastern Front.
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