100 BEST WAR MOVIES #62. The Execution of Private Slovik (1974)

 

                “The Execution of Private Slovik” is based on a nonfiction book by William Bradford Huie published in 1954.  It was directed by Lamont Johnson.  He was nominated for an Emmy, as was the movie.  The movie won two Emmies for editing.  It also won a Peabody Award.  Originally, the movie was supposed to be made by Frank Sinatra who was interested in the story.  However, Sinatra wanted to use a screenplay by Albert Maltz, but that was during the Cold War and Maltz had been black-listed as one of the Hollywood Ten.  Sinatra was accused of being a Communist sympathizer and the Kennedy campaign put pressure on him to drop the project.

            The movie opens in January, 1945 in France.  The execution is being prepared.  A member of the firing squad mentions that no American has been executed for desertion yet.  The consensus among the twelve men is Slovik (Martin Sheen) has it coming to him.  No is thrilled to be part of the detail.  A chaplain named Father Stafford (Ned Beatty) bucks them up by proclaiming that “a higher authority has accepted moral responsibility.” (He doesn’t mention Eisenhower by name.)  Do your duty.  When one soldier proposes purposely missing, another says “I’m not going to miss… He didn’t care about how many of us got shot up, so I’m not going to care about him.” 

            The movie now flashes back to how Slovik got to this point.  The narrative takes the form of characters reminiscing about Eddie.  Starting with the warden of the prison Eddie is being paroled from for theft.  The warden makes a point of stating that he could have predicted that the “sweet kid” would freeze or run the first time he was in combat.  Slovik gets a job and courts the bookkeeper of his employer.  They get married and are living happily, if poorly, with the comforting knowledge that as an ex-con he is designated 4-F and thus not draftable.  This changes on their first anniversary when they find out he has been reclassified 1-A.  “Greetings” is not far away.  It’s off to boot camp where Eddie is a sad sack, but good enough to be a replacement. He is a terrible shot, but his drill instructor passes him anyway.  On his way to the front, he and his buddy Jimmy (Gary Busey) take refuge from a bombardment and it’s a turning point for him because he vows never to go through that again. This is realistic as undergoing artillery fire was one of the most traumatic things that soldiers faced. But this was during a war where fear was equated with cowardice. 

ACTING:                      B (great performance by Sheen)

ACTION:                      N/A

ACCURACY:               A

PLOT:                          A

REALISM:                   A+

CINEMATOGRAPHY:    C

SCORE:                        none

BEST SCENE:  the execution

 

BEST QUOTE:  Father Stafford:  “Give it another volley if you like it so much.”  

                “The Execution of Private Slovik” is like a well-acted docudrama.  I refer to it being semi-documentary because it is awesomely accurate.  You do not need to read Huie’s book.  There are no significant enhancements of the real story.  It shows you how entertaining the tale is even without enhancement.  But it’s not just the fact that you learn exactly what happened in the most famous case of military justice involving an American soldier in WWII.  It is more importantly a movie that helps right a wrong.  There is no doubt that the execution was an egregious injustice that taints the reputations of Gen. Norman Cota (commander of the 28^th Division) and Gen. Eisenhower.  Both of whom refused to commute the sentence. There were 21,000 convictions for desertion of American soldiers during the war.  This was the only one of 49 death penalties for desertion that was not commuted!  It was the only execution by the U.S. military that was not for rape and/or murder of a civilian.  (There were 102 of those executions.)  Slovik was the proverbial example that was made because morale was shaky at this point in the war and the upcoming assault on Heurtgen Forest was going to be a rough one.  Slovik had incredibly bad timing for his confession. But all of this you will have to get from doing research. Surprisingly, the movie does not intend to make Slovik a martyr. Sheen makes him an appealing character who is upfront about his cowardice, but he is certainly guilty of desertion and makes no effort to defend himself. He could easily have avoided being the only deserter to be executed. The film does not pillory Cota and Eisenhower (who is not mentioned), but you can figure it out for yourself that this naïve coward should not have been used to intimidate other cowards into risking their lives.

            The movie is very competently made for a movie that had a budget of less than a million dollars.  It definitely looks like a made-for-tv movie. The cast is minor with the only stars being Sheen and Beatty.  Sheen is outstanding and was nominated for an Emmy.  He nails the petty thief who is getting his life together when he is thrust into a situation he could not handle.  Surprisingly, the cinematography is noteworthy.  There is an intriguing mixture of high and low shots and some far shots.  The plot is not melodramatic.  It is a bit simplistic, but I have already mentioned that it is true to the story.  The decision to tell the story partly through narration by different people was a good one.  The movie does a great job as a tutorial on how a court-martial and execution worked in WWII.  It gets all the little details right.  For example, if the condemned was not able to stand on his own, they would be strapped to what was called a “collapse board”.

            “The Execution of Private Slovik” is a must-see for not only war movie lovers, but fans of American History.  It is one of the most accurate war movies I have seen.  It is an important movie as it brings a travesty to the public.  To most, even knowledgeable Americans, Slovik was a trivia answer.  Who was the only American soldier executed for desertion in WWII?  You would have to assume that he must have done something incredibly cowardly that cost the lives of other Americans.  In 1987, President Reagan was persuaded to allow Eddie Slovik’s body to be exhumed and reburied next to his wife.  Maybe as an ex-actor, he was influenced by the movie.  I would like to think so.

100 BEST WAR MOVIES #63. Uprising (2001)

 

                    “Uprising” was a miniseries that appeared on NBC in 2001.  Back when there were such things as miniseries.  It is a tale set in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and joined others like “The Pianist” and “Jacob the Liar” in the Holocaust subgenre. The score was Maurice Jarre’s last.

               The movie opens in Warsaw right before the German invasion.  Soon the ghetto is created by the conquerors and we meet the cast of characters that will inhabit the film.  Most of them are young men and women who are in the resistance movement.  The plot makes it clear why they risk their lives.  The alternative of cooperating with the Nazis is unacceptable and frankly, a dead end.  Excuse the pun.  This is exemplified by the futile efforts of the head of the Jewish council, Adam Czerniakow (Donald Sutherland).   At one point, he raises a huge ransom to save some hostages, only to told by the loathsome Nazi official that they have been executed anyway.  If you are looking for sympathetic German characters, this movie is not for you.  Or Polish characters, for that matter.  The Polish citizens are portrayed as unsympathetic at best, anti-semitic at worst.  While Czerniakow is doing the older generation “we have no choice” thing, the younger generation is gearing up for the “I’d rather die fighting” thing.  The “screw this!” group is led by Mordechai (Hank Azaria) and Antek (David Schwimmer).  It includes the hot-headed Kazik (Stephen Moyer) and Leelee Sobieski as the gender-busting Tosia.  All of them are historical figures. 

               The underground starts with the usual debate about how far to go. The deportation of many, including children, to Treblinka (and the subsequent knowledge of what happens there) galvanizes the rebels.  They start by killing German soldiers and acts of sabotage.  A crackdown causes them to rise up.  In April, 1943 Gen. Stroop (Jon Voight) leads an invasion of the ghetto to take it back.  The second half of the movie is a siege movie with house-to-house fighting and sewer transiting.  Clearly, most of the main characters are not destined to survive.

ACTING:                      A

ACTION:                      B  7/10

ACCURACY:               A

PLOT:                          A

REALISM:                   B

CINEMATOGRAPHY:    A

SCORE:                        B

BEST SCENE:  the first battle

BEST QUOTE:  Mordechai:  “Can a moral man maintain his moral code in an immoral world.”

                    “Uprising” stands out because of its cast.  You have the veterans Sutherland and Voight and a strong group of television stars that were also established movie stars.  Sobieski was coming off an Emmy-nominated performance as “Joan of Arc” in the 1999 mini-series.  She garnered a Golden Globe nomination for this one.  Schwimmer was seven years into “Friends” and beginning to take on dramatic roles.  He played Capt. Sobel this same year in “Band of Brothers”.  Not a bad year for his acting reputation.  Stephen Moyer was several years from “True Blood” stardom, but he takes acting honors here.  And we get Cary Elwes as the famous Nazi propaganda director Fritz Hippler.  In a twisted subplot, the charismatically vile director is there to cover the uprising.  He has already made the worst of the anti-Jew propaganda films -  “The Eternal Jew”.  Elwes sinks his teeth into a role that allows him to play the charming Nazi who needles the incompetent Stroop.

               The length of the miniseries (151 minutes) allows for two separate movies.  The first is effective in setting up the uprising and developing the characters.  The second half is the battle and it is surprisingly well done.  The combat is realistic in weapons and tactics.  There is a lot of action and it is suspenseful.  Women fighters are highlighted. There is a remarkable visual of a woman tied to a chimney by a length of rope. She runs across the rooftop throwing Molotov cocktails. It gets claustrophobic and depressing as the resistance takes to the basements and sewers. Kudos to the cameramen for getting in tight spaces. The sets and production design are excellent. The closing scenes have authentic rubble. The soundtrack is understated and not used to build suspense. It's mostly classical music with some nice Jewish motifs. Unfortunately, for a movie about the failed Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, it does not have the R-rated cachet to show the horrors of the ghetto before and during the insurrection.  For instance, children are used to up the apprehension, but seldom are actually harmed.  And the ending is a bit out of sync with the overall tone of the movie (although accurate historically).

               I don’t remember watching “Uprising” when it aired on TV, which is a surprise because I usually would watch historical miniseries like this one.  I am a bit upset about that because I was quite impressed with it.  The cast is an appealing one and the plot is effective in its flow from building the fire to the bonfire of the uprising.  The main reason to watch it is its fidelity to history (see below) within the constraints of a major network broadcast.  A reboot today would be more hard-hitting, but probably less entertaining.  We already have enough bleak Holocaust movies.  “Uprising” is more in the vein of another made-for-TV Holocaust uprising film -  “Escape from Sobibor”.  If you are in the mood to see Jews fight back, in spite of the odds, those two movies are among the most satisfying in the subgenre.

GRADE  =  A

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  “Uprising” is surprisingly accurate in covering the activities of one of the main resistance groups in the uprising.  It concentrates on the Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB) which formed in 1940.  It took the opposite approach of the Jewish Council led by Czerniakow.  The Council did attempt to deal with the Germans, including the paying of ransoms.  The deceitful treatment of the Jewish leadership is accurately depicted in the movie.  Czerniakow did commit suicide when he was not able to prevent the mass deportation to Treblinka.  The movie treats him fairly as a man who thought his policy of placating the Germans would save lives.  The movie does a good job contrasting the naivete of the elders with the aggressive attitude of the resistance.  Men like Mordechai Anielewicz were determined to fight to the last for Jewish honor.  Tosia Altman did use her Aryan looks to act as a courier and arms smuggler.  She made contact with the Polish Home Army.  Antek Zuckerman was also in contact with the Home Army as a liaison.  He procured arms for the ZOB.  He was unable to get into the ghetto to participate in the fighting, but was able to aid the escape of some of the fighters.  Kazik Rotem was his main go-between with Anielwicz and was also caught on the “gentile” side of Warsaw when the April uprising broke out.  He finally made it back in after several failed attempts and helped lead Jews out before the fall. 

                The repulse of the January crackdown is accurate.  The ZOB and the right-wing Jewish Militay Union (ZZW) used Molotov cocktails and an assortment of guns to attack the invaders.  The movie understandably chose not to reenact the justified executions of Jewish collaborators by the resistance.   In April, Gen. Stroop took command under orders from Himmler and led a much more determined effort.  He was accompanied by the famous director Hippler.  The Germans were led by armored cars, not tanks.  The movie exaggerates the success of the defense as the Germans ruthlessly pushed their way into the ghetto.  Stroop’s tactic was to burn down buildings using flamethrowers and explosives used on basements and sewers.  His men were under orders not to spare anyone.  This is not really shown in the movie, but the film does show the use of gas to force the fighters out of the sewers.  The Jews did put up a good fight, but they were doomed from the start.  By May 8, the Germans had reached the last strongpoint - a basement where the main body of surviving ZOB members held out.  Most committed suicide using cyanide, including Anielwicz.  Six members, including Altman, made it through the sewers to freedom.  Unfortunately, she was captured two weeks later and died in Gestapo custody.  Zuckerman and Rotem went on to fight with the Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.  They both helped smuggle Jewish refugees into Palestine before the creation of Israel and became residents there.  Rotem lived until 2018!  Stroop, who the movie portrays as more bumbling than malevolent, was not the former and definitely the latter.  A kool-aid drinking Nazi, he was executed for war crimes after the war.  Besides the liquidation of the ghetto, his crimes included the execution of captured airmen.  Hippler was the head of Goebbels’ film department.  In 1940, he made one of the most repulsive propaganda films in all of history -  “The Eternal Jew”.  He filmed the “subhuman” Jews in the ghetto as part of his goal to dehumanize them in preparing the German people for the Holocaust.  I think the movie has changed the time frame by having him in Warsaw with Stroop.  No movie resulted from the Uprising.  In June, 1943 he was removed from his job partly because of his alcoholism and general cheekiness.  He spent two years in prison after the war.