There is no better place to show all aspects of human nature than World War II. This may explain why most literary and art workers, whether or not they have experienced the war, have a unique love for the theme of World War II. The 2013 German TV series "Our Fathers" takes us back to a time that is far away but should not be forgotten. There is a rich history, a strong emotion, a severe criticism, and a pity. What Our Fathers pays most attention to is not those cold numbers, but real individuals. Five people, five lines, the plot is full and the plot is compact. People show all kinds of pain in war, but they convey hope for peace and freedom. The screenwriter has done a lot of research with admirable perseverance. The image of the person in the past has faded, and the scars are still clearly left. Based on the scars, the younger generation depicts the appearance of the fathers. 1 A different era "We were five friends when we were young and thought the future was ours and the whole world was in front of us. All we had to do was act and we were invincible; later we learned more ." This is a monologue of the protagonist Wilham. In 1941, on the eve of Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, five childhood sweethearts gathered in a tavern to say their last goodbyes. Accompanied by light and joyful music, various characters with distinct personalities were shown in turn in front of the audience: the Wehrmacht who had a firm belief in the Nazis. Wilham, an officer; Friedham, Wilham's younger brother, who was suspicious of Nazis and disliked war; Greta, who longed to be a star; Victor, a Jew who fell in love with Greta; the youngest who wanted to be Charlie, a field nurse serving the Führer. They were the epitome of thousands of young Germans at the time, with naive fantasies about the future, that the battle would be over soon, that they would be reunited in Berlin at Christmas, and that they had nothing to lose. However, as Wilham's commander told him, "We should say goodbye to the world in our impression." Everyone is inevitably involved in this war, allowing fate to be torn apart until broken. In addition to war, they had other choices in life, but because of the war, they had no choice. Next, the war and peace written by five people makes people want to say a lot, but they can't say anything, can't see clearly, can't explain clearly. Wilham was the only one of the five to have fought in the war before attacking the Soviet Union. He is a national hero, a subordinate trusted by the superior, and the pride of his parents. But the wars before that were not as tragic as this time. In the beginning, Germany was still strong, and Wilham was fighting for the honor of the country. Even if he can't bear it, even if his brother alienates him, he will follow the orders of the superior Kill Soviet captive soldiers. But as time passed, he also realized that "things are developing completely different from what we imagined", so this seemingly most loyal person became a deserter. Friedham is definitely the most commented character, not only because the actor Tom Schilling is beautiful (ฅ>ω< *ฅ), but also because this character can better reflect the complexity of human nature. Before entering the army, he also brought a few books, which were his last contact with that civilized world. He escaped and rushed to the front line, only to be called a coward by his comrades. He would look disgusted when he heard his brother shoot Soviet prisoners. He couldn't help rescuing a Jewish little girl abused by mercenaries, covering her mouth in fear when the little girl was suddenly shot dead. But Hermann Hesse's "Wandering Youth" could not save him from the bloody storm, but only deepened the depression in his heart. Victor, this kind and brave and affectionate Jewish boy, was the character who was insulted and damaged. Morally he is beyond reproach. Although he was lucky not to enter the concentration camp, he joined the Polish partisans by accident and faced the war. In his story line, there is a handsome Polish woman who has been helping Victor. Her story is ostensibly a Polish woman who was deceived and insulted by a German man. Her experience can be associated with the brutal German rule of Poland. . The Polish partisans kept Victor after they knew he was German, but drove him away after they knew he was Jewish. The embarrassing position of Jews in Europe and the rampant anti-Semitism in various countries made Victor suffer too many crimes that should not be tolerated. The love between him and Greta regardless of racial identity is embarrassing, and the two are ultimately separated from each other. The two girls who escaped the frontal battle throughout the play. Charlie, as a field nurse, also witnessed a lot of bloodshed. She was originally just a simple girl who wanted to contribute to the country, thinking that the Third Reich was eternal. She denounced the Jewish woman she trusted, and although she later regretted it, it was too late. Hearing the dying cry of the soldiers, she began to doubt the need for war. After that, whether it was helping a Russian girl or taking a vacation for a wounded soldier at the risk of a crime against national defense, it was like atonement for the crime at the time. Her relationship with Wilham also went through many twists and turns. If there was no war, she would not have such a painful expression on her face when she said I love you to Wilham. Greta escaped the war, but in order to help Victor, she committed herself to the sinister and cunning Gestapo, and she bravely pursued her dream of stardom, but this dream was not suitable for war years. She only went to the field hospital once, and she knew that the world was different from what we imagined, and Germany would not win this battle. 2 A DIFFERENT WAR In the storylines of Friedham, Wilham, and Victor, there are some war scenes involved. Truffaut once said, "You can't make an anti-war movie, because any war movie has a sense of energy and adventure, and that ultimately makes the battle seem full of joy. Indeed, in most American war films and even Chinese anti-Japanese dramas, the war scenes are portrayed too like a thrilling game. Even Hayao Miyazaki, who created a beautiful fairy tale for people, in his film "Anti-War" The phenomenon of "flying with cannonballs" is also controversial. It is undeniable that everyone has a hero complex and a dream of adventure in their hearts. Due to the "just" status of the US military in World War II, the audience followed the American hero to vent the violence in his heart. Desire, this act also seems to have acquired a kind of legitimacy. The thrill we feel when watching Lord of the Rings is different. It is a fictional story, the villain is a surreal orc, and Tolkien gives them pure Therefore, it is very pleasing that they are killed in any way. Therefore, even though the Elf Prince Legolas has killed countless enemies, he is worthy of the title of "Little Angel". Perhaps there are more movies involving war scenes. Young people will evoke violent tendencies in people's hearts, but war movies are always based on reality. They blindly pursue sensory stimulation and blindly shape the image of the protagonist Gao Daquan, which will only make people feel that fighting is quite fun. Even if the enemy deserves what he deserves, we have no right to use the painful experience of our parents for entertainment. The war scene in "Our Fathers" is obviously not for the purpose of stimulating people's senses. There is a crisis in every battle. This crisis not only refers to the death and death of the enemy and us on the surface, but also hints at the heart of the characters. Bestiality devours humanity, and numbness hides the crisis of sobriety. It shows the struggle between national responsibility and ethics. Since Germany was on the "evil" side of World War II, these two beliefs cannot be unified, and the battle is even less bloody. Feeling. Bitter expressions often appear on the protagonists, as if to say, this is war, and you are not a hero. Many people are vaguely yearning for the war years, which can explain why so many people like military affairs at home The forum pointed out the country. It seems that our current inaction is only because the times are not strong and there is no battle for us to fight. But if we are really in the war era, we will only change our way to be ordinary people at the mercy of others, but our The fate will be more tragic. The German youth of that year had unrealistic illusions about war. Wilham once said: "The greatest victors in wars are flies, and people feed them with flesh and blood. "Under the totalitarian rule of fascism, people lived on Hitler's false but beautiful promises. When Friedham's comrades in arms thought they would have a piece of land in the East after the war, Friedham just calmed down. The land told him that the land must be very fertile, because it was fat from our blood. The war scenes in "Our Fathers" are big-budget, lifelike and grand, but what's truly remarkable about the show is the nuanced emotion it brings to the fore in a complex storytelling. Instead of showing the war from a philosophical and historical point of view, it devotes most of its energy to portraying five young people who are trying to resist, which has caused controversy among some Western audiences, who believe that this will make the audience feel uncomfortable about the characters in the play. The group represented has compassion. However, the screenwriter only has a hidden heart for the protagonist. In the presentation of certain issues, there has been a historical responsibility that a certain country cannot match. Those sympathy, appearing in the works of Poland or other European countries are hypocritical and overthinking, and appearing in the "blood-related" descendants of the creators, it is completely justified. This drama is more emotional than rational, but it is more logical and thoughtful than other things that only know how to express emotions. The reflection reflected in it is probably not as deep as those thousands of historical and philosophical works, but it is shaping the characters. The aspect makes it difficult for most screenwriters to match. The Winter brothers became two of the most beloved characters on the show, and it wasn't just their faces. As we all know, characters are the soul of a drama, and in a good script, the characters must change in the story, otherwise they will only be reduced to a symbol. The Winter brothers left a deep impression on the audience with their distinctive personalities, and their transformation Because there are a lot of details to foreshadow, the development is natural and convincing. But it also has to be said that these two characters have brought the current consciousness of the creators into them, which are special and not universal. Compared with his younger brother, Wilham has a simpler personality, but it cannot be said that he is not rich. His single manifestation is that he has always been kind-hearted, and his changes are more of ideological changes. Wilham narrates every line in the play, and from those murmurs we read his transformation of ideas. At the beginning, he was a soldier loyal to the country, idealistic, thinking that fighting abroad was for the future of the motherland. Because of the naive masculinity in his heart, he would even be ashamed of his younger brother who didn't want to rush to the front. The appearance of the Soviet captives caused the first turning point in his heart. Witnessing the murder of a little Jewish girl pierced his sore spot. The former can still be said that everyone is a soldier, while the latter is obviously the kind of crime that people and gods are angry with. He was still a respected and convincing commander of the soldiers, but the hesitant expression on his face became more and more. When he received the order to kill the Soviet prisoners, Colonel Feigl said to him, "We should say goodbye to the world in our impression." On October 7, 1941, the rainy season began, and floods paralyzed everything, The Blitz is over, as if God is also far away from us because of all the horrors we have brought, maybe it's a final test. On September 19, 1941 (the fall of Kiev, the largest siege in history), we captured hundreds of thousands of Russians, but they didn't give up, they held on to every house, the last of a giant before it fell. struggle. I'm still optimistic that we'll be home by Christmas, but this war is not what I thought it would be. In December 1941, 3 meters of snow, minus 40 degrees, water, and instantly turned into ice. The attack on Moscow failed, we were not prepared for winter at all, we made holes for ourselves in the hard soil, the deeper the better, like animals hiding in caves, afraid of freezing to death, things turned out completely different from what we imagined . In May 1943, two years ago, we said goodbye in Berlin, two years have passed, and it is not over yet. At first it was just a feeling, and now I know for sure that the German army is not invincible. How can I bring my own soldiers to fight a battle that I know no one will survive? The greatest victors in wars are flies, which are fed with flesh and blood. As the war progressed, he learned that Germany was not invincible. The mission to capture the radio station completely contributed to his transformation, a hopeless battle, and without reinforcements, his comrades might all die. He cried out to the commander Colonel Feigl, "The whole of Sicily is about to fall, but my people are going to die for half a street." This was the first time he collapsed in front of soldiers. He stood up from the ruins and chose to be a deserter, with a very determined look on his face. "September 1943. When we first joined the army, we fought for our country. Later, we began to doubt this, and we fought for our comrades. We can't leave our comrades behind, but what if all our comrades died? You are left alone, who are you fighting for?" After becoming a deserter, his struggle became more and more obvious. Even if he is caught, even if he learns that he will be shot, when facing the helpless Colonel Feigl, he said: "Anyway, the war has been lost, and people only need to think clearly, whether to die or to deceive." No. Shame and guilt, he no longer believed in the need for war. When he was forced to return to the battlefield, he told the truth of the war: "Most people think that war is made up of hard work, but it is not, it is waiting, waiting for the next attack, waiting for the next meal, waiting for tomorrow". This initially tough-guy hero, with a heroic attitude, did things that most soldiers were not ashamed of. He was full of blood, but conveyed the most negative and true view of war. Three years ago, when we started fighting the East, we thought it was to save our people, but instead we brought death, pain, and destruction to millions of innocent people. We were seen as heroes, but now we are murderer. In April 1944, we are back here again, where it all started three years ago, Army Group Center is exhausted, the Red Army is stationed on the Vistula River, Warsaw will soon fall, the war is over, but still It's not over, my brother is right, we are animals to be slaughtered in a huge slaughterhouse. In February 1945, the Red Army of the Soviet Union crossed the Oder River, less than 100 kilometers from Berlin, the war would soon be over, and when it was about to end, the hope would be realized, but I was timid. Wilham's transformation is portrayed in great detail. He is a hero, but the day when the hero's dream is broken, he realizes that it is false. Escape from the battlefield and find the kindness in my humanity, but there are still too many people who died in that war, and it hurts to miss them. Unlike Wilham, his brother Friedham was suspicious of the Nazis from the very beginning. There was also a gap between the two brothers. The Winter brothers grew up in a good home environment and were well educated, so Wilham accepted what was taught at school. Friedham, because of his sensitive nature and a nerd, and his father always valued his brother and devalued him, had a prejudice against his brother. Despite this, they still value each other. Their happy fight in the snow is an unforgettable scene, and just after that, they experience their first "life and death parting". This life, this world, one life. The brotherhood between the older brother and the younger brother is the most touching thing in the whole drama. The younger brother expressed his dissatisfaction with his brother's unhesitating performance of the task, and his resistance to the Nazi system also affected his elder brother to some extent. Together, they witnessed the tragic death of a Jewish little girl, experienced the devastation of war together, but took different paths. After seeing the tragic shooting of a Jewish girl, Friedham stepped aside and wept bitterly. A corpse worm flew into his face, and he was startled to realize that the ground beneath his feet contained the bodies of Soviet prisoners. He knows he can't be alone, the witness of the crime is another kind of perpetrator, and his hands will always be stained with the blood of sin. On the eve of the war, when the five were laughing in the tavern, Friedham said that war brings out the worst in each of us. He first said this sentence, but it was a self-righteous prophecy of the literary youth, and it turned out to be a prophecy. -- (Wilhelm) War makes a man grow. -- (Friedhelm) War also brings out the worst in us. In the extreme weariness of the war, Friedham deliberately did not snuff out the cigarette in his hand, revealing their position and attracting the Katyusha rockets of the Soviet soldiers. No matter how much he hated war, Friedham couldn't afford to have his comrades die because of him. This incident also became an opportunity for his transformation. Struggle is useless, simply smashing the jar. The Polish poet Milosz wrote that "the formation of an avalanche depends on the rolling stone turning over", so he wanted to be the stone that reversed direction, but everyone rolled to the same place, life or death, depending on the ability. Whether or not to go with the flow. He offered to let innocent Russian peasants walk through the mine-strewn forest in place of the Wehrmacht, stand next to his brother, and say, "I'm right, war will bring out the worst in us." Wilham confronted The younger brother was shocked by the sudden cruelty. Perhaps in the eyes of the younger brother, he was just like that. Looking at the constant artillery fire, Friedham's blue eyes were full of pain. Only now did he understand the cruelty of those words. Listening to the Christmas carols from comrades-in-arms, they remembered the beautiful agreement of "see you in Berlin at Christmas" that night, but the war was endless. At the beginning of the second episode, Friedham has changed from the beginning. He came out of his brother's shelter and could calmly shoot enemies and obey the orders of his superiors and numbly kill Russian villagers, even though he had done all this with only confusion and helplessness in his heart -- (Wilhelm) You Yes, war brings out the worst in us. -- (Friedhelm) Yes, I know, but that doesn't change the fact that the fight will continue tomorrow. -- (Wilhelm) until all are down. -- (Friedhelm) Yes, until all are down. … -- (Friedhelm) Only when the war is over will we stop. We are the livestock in the slaughterhouse, heroes today and pigs tomorrow. -- (Wilhelm) That doesn't make sense. -- (Friedhelm) It doesn't make any sense at all, God abandoned us, and now it's just us, there are no goddamn generals, heads of states, just these people. If we're all dead tomorrow, okay, that's fine. But you have to lead us, and I want you to lead us. Time passed, and there seemed to be a reversal between the two brothers. A determined soldier becomes hesitant, and a kind-hearted teenager learns to be sinister. The elder brother who has been protecting his younger brother has to rely on his younger brother to help him rekindle his "fighting spirit". Maybe Friedham just wanted his brother to live a good life. The two brothers smoked and talked at night. Wilham apologized to Friedham. He should have stopped others from beating him. "It's not that easy to figure out what's right." ', when he was about to say something to Friedham when the sudden attack interrupted them. At the time, Wilham didn't know that if he missed this time, he would never have the opportunity to say what he wanted to say. - At the moment when he thought his brother was dead, he finally took charge of himself, showed his fighting talent, and became a Nazi soldier. Although his every crime was obedience to the orders of his superiors, he was no longer worthy of sympathy. While Friedham gradually became cold-blooded, he also clearly recognized his sins, but he was passively unwilling to resist. He had returned to Berlin wounded, the disappointment of his father, the cynicism of the people around him, and everyone was still in a frenzy of war. However, Friedham, who has tasted death, blood, comrades killed, and brothers killed in battle, can only laugh at their innocence. Whether it is the battlefield or his hometown, he is out of tune with it. So he returned to the battlefield despite his mother's pleading. When he heard from the Nazi officer that his brother didn't die but deserted, Tom Schilling's eyes conveyed a mixture of shock, heartache, anger, regret, relief, and helplessness in Friedham's eyes. In the middle of the story, a new recruit is arranged to stay beside Friedham. The recruit dares not kill innocent people. He wets his pants in battle. He always misses his mother. Ham constitutes the first and final stages of a soldier, and from the few passages the recruit asked Friedham, we can learn more or less how Friedham, who had become a ruthless soldier, felt about the war and about himself. True Thoughts of Identity. --(Soldier) How did you become like this? -- (Friedhelm) Try not to think of yourself as human, some people become this way and others that way, no one knows what will happen, everyone changes. --(Soldier) How did you survive until now? -- (Friedhelm) Hope that the person next to him falls, a good soldier is usually cowardly and occasionally brave. --(Soldier) Then you are not a good soldier. The rest of the characters, like Friedham's belligerent comrades-in-arms, do what we imagined Nazis to be. They better embody the banal evil of Hannah Arendt. Even if they had various conflicts with Friedham, they were born and died together after all, and they had already formed a friendship that was not deep but could still change a person. There is one scene in the play that is perhaps a little surreal and can be extremely metaphorical. Friedham met a wolf in the forest, the two creatures looked at each other, and the wolf sniffed Friedham and turned away. Audiences have different opinions on the meaning of this scene. Some people say that the wolf can't tell whether it is a human or a beast. Some people say that Friedham is now like a carrion, and even the wolf will not condescend to swallow it. About this scene , may not be able to draw a conclusion that he saw his former friend Victor, a Jew, in the woods, but the act of shooting the officer to let Victor escape is proof that he still has a good past in his heart. He didn't forget his past self, but he had to say goodbye to that self. When Victor left, he asked Friedham, what are you going to do, Germany has been defeated, it doesn't make sense, Friedham just replied, lost from the beginning. The commando was a very important person to Friedham, he was the one who slaughtered the little Jewish girl in front of Friedham and Wilham, and he was the one who told Friedham that Wil The news that Ham was alive was that he had Friedham shoot the escaping child and let Friedham pull the rope to hang the guerrillas. He counted one, two, three, and when he counted to two, Friedham shot and killed the little boy. He thought that Friedham had been trained well by himself, but this time, when he counted to two, he was It was himself who was hit. Friedham is somewhat similar to Love Bocht in "Hitler's Boys". He also loves literature and dislikes war. Lovely Bocht is a purer kind character, weaker, but able to maintain his kindness more firmly nature. Philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote a book, "Ekman in Jerusalem," based on the trial of Nazi executive Ekman, and it has a better-known subtitle: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Like Aikman, most Nazis weren't psychopaths, they were all ordinary people, terribly normal. Arendt wrote that "it was sheer recklessness that made him one of the biggest criminals of the day," which was reflected in the fact that I did what the superior said, and if it was wrong, it was also the superior's fault. The "banality of evil" seems to be forgiven. That would explain the situation for many of the people on the show, but Friedham is different. He was the most penetrating person from start to finish. It can be seen that the screenwriter has a touch of tenderness for this character, drama is drama after all, the screenwriter is the god of the world in the play, and it is his duty to pity everyone. Friedham is thus more of a theatrical figure than a typical case for reference. He can't represent most of the people of that era, he's just himself. The shaping of this character is extremely successful, it can be said that he is the the protagonist of the play. Wilham is a sympathetic character, portrayed as a man with many good qualities , but was deceived, a tragic figure who struggled to resist after finding the truth. Friedham's character has a wider room for interpretation, and the screenwriter also uses a lot of details to describe his changes without hesitation. His ending is incomprehensible, but it makes people feel that this is a matter of course. "People's subtext in the face of power is: what do you want, what I give. I am exactly what you want, I am your logic, and your position. Now you have nothing to say. If you make a mistake , that is your fault, your misfortune and powerlessness, and it has nothing to do with me. Your fault is yours, and mine is yours. Because I am you. In this way, the nature of the matter has changed: What was originally forced to lie has now become an active strategy." This is an excerpt from the preface written by Professor Cui Weiping of the Beijing Film Academy for the book "The Imprisoned Mind" by Polish writer Czeslaw Milosz. At the same time, he also wrote, "In the long run, the strategy will also become a mask of man, which cannot be removed from the face. One kind of emptiness is used to deal with another kind of emptiness, and a kind of emptiness is used to deal with another kind of emptiness. Of course, it doesn't take much effort to cover up to deal with the original cover up, just follow the trend." In this book, Milosz analyzed the mental state of intellectuals under Stalin's totalitarian rule, and listed several such as the above paragraph. The so-called "Kateman - Disguise". It might be far-fetched to say that, but Friedham acted like that strategy. There are two personalities that manifest in Friedham. A banal evil like Arendt's, the epitome of thousands of innocent-hearted teenagers turned brutal Nazis. The other personality retains sobriety and conscience, but looks on the evil personality with indifference, as if completing an experiment, and the soul of the coexistence of the two personalities suffers from the ravages of this experiment. In a trance, we can see from this character that the real mental state of the soldiers during the war is wonderfully intertwined with people's condemnation, accusation and reflection on the war after the war. 3 A motherland beyond recognition Finally, the Russians hit Berlin, but we see relief in everyone's face. The Italian writer Primo Levi wrote that moments of liberation are neither joyful nor lighthearted. Because most of the time, behind liberation is destruction, massacre and suffering. Only when they feel that they have become human again, that is to say that they have taken up the responsibility of life again, people can feel sadness. Primo Levi, prisoner number 174517 of Auschwitz, survived, but committed suicide in 1987. The protagonists seem to have returned to civilization, but will struggle with the pain of war for the rest of their lives. have seen hell, How do you view the "civilization" that is coming? Some people may think that the scene of the Soviet soldiers rushing into the field hospital and trying to rape Charlie somewhat damaged the image of the Allies. But here is a historical fact. Dr. Zhu Weiyi spent nearly 20 years contacting World War II veterans and searching for information to complete the book "Another Line of Tears in Germany - Search for German Veterans of World War II". It mentioned that in the history of world war, the military violence against enemy women is not uncommon, but the record of individual rape of civilians in the UK is relatively rare. From March to April 1945, the US military court tried a total of 487 rape cases. case. According to official German statistics, 1,198 women were raped by French soldiers in Stuttgart and surrounding areas, the youngest was 14 years old and the oldest was 74 years old. At the same time, according to the statistics of the military court cases of the German army in 1944, there were 5,349 cases of sexual crimes among the total of 17 million German soldiers, which was roughly the same as the proportion of sexual crimes after the US military entered Germany. Many veterans said they hadn't heard of the rape of Russian women because it was strictly forbidden. "In the historical data of World War II on the European battlefield, there is a record of mass rape of soldiers who have not been prosecuted, that is, the large-scale sexual indulgence of the Soviet army after the conquest of Nazi Germany." But because the victims belonged to the public enemy of the world, no The condemnation of the international community, and the only ones who are unforgettable about it, are the women who have been ravaged. The author wrote that "German women paid the heaviest price for the crimes of the Nazis, and the rape of the Soviet army was a collective shame for this mighty division that had won the most glorious victory in the history of human warfare." May 1945, Four years ago we said goodbye to each other, we were five good friends, we thought the war would be over by Christmas, and now the war is over where it started, in Berlin, or rather in the ruins of Berlin, and soon it will be Only Germans, no Nazis. What will we become? Wilham, Victor, and Charlie are finally reunited in a tavern that has become tattered and dusty. Only three of the five remained. What awaits them in the future? Maybe a wall, a Germany divided in two. Primo Levi's posthumous work "Submerged and Saved" has a paragraph in the conclusion: every German is responsible to a greater or lesser degree for the crimes of the Nazis, but it must also be clear that in the Behind their responsibility lies the vast majority of Germans who accepted the crimes of the Nazis at the beginning, the laziness of their souls, their short-sighted calculations and their stupidity; it is the whole country that is proud of Sergeant Hitler's "praise word" and follows him in his footsteps, as long as luck and recklessness still favor him; with his demise And swept away, tormented by death, misery, and remorse; Germany, which took years to recover; and all this, the result of an unprincipled political game. -- (Wilhelm) To Friedhelm and Greta.
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