An unsuccessful escape, two young lives, a profit-seeking businessman, and a lynching filled with outrage. Shooting in the 1950s, "Soul of the Battlefield Army" tells a witty story in 120 minutes.
Yes, what happened in the German prisoner-of-war camp has evolved into a comedy that is a fake, because the director and screenwriter of the film is called Billy Wilder.
This Polish Jew who escaped the Nazi slaughter because of making a movie cannot forget that his relatives died in a concentration camp, so he satirized the Germans in the movie. Even if Paramount executives asked him to replace the German officers in the film with Poles because of the consideration of the West German market, Billy Wilder remained indifferent, which paved the way for him to part ways with Paramount in the future.
In Billy Wild’s movies, the protagonists are small people, which may be related to his past experience. For a person who has lived in the toilet, the daily life of the little people in the big age is the most humane.
In "Soul of the Battlefield", Sefton, the actor played by William Holden, is such a small person, a smart businessman of the Bridish style. Although only some cigars, eggs, and opportunities for close contact with female prisoners of war, in the eyes of American soldiers who have been prisoners of war for two years, everything Sefton possesses has a fatal temptation.
Naturally, Sefton became a thorn in everyone's eyes and a thorn in the flesh. Who told him to smoke a cigar when everyone smoked cigarettes? Who told him to eat fried eggs while everyone was drinking potato soup? Who told him to have intimate contact with female prisoners of war when everyone could only use telescopes to spy on female prisoners of war in the bath?
Therefore, when all signs point to him as a spy who betrayed his comrades, the people who had long seen him displeased used lynching without any personal or material evidence. Well, this is the democracy of the righteous people, this is the public opinion of the democrats-dozens of people beat one up, and this is also the black humor belonging to Billy Wilder. Isn't the United States known as the most democratic country in the world? Then I will show your democracy to everyone.
Of course, the truth will come to light. Amidst the loud military songs of American soldiers, the real spy revealed the tail of the fox, and finally received the punishment he deserved. But this is not what Billy Wilde wants to tell everyone, because black is Billy Wilder's mark.
When all the dust settled, no so-called righteous person apologized to the wronged Sefton. Only one inmate said lightly: "We blamed you by mistake." What about the others? Naturally, I was busy punishing the real murderer, what an exciting moment, as if nothing had happened before.
What else did these righteous people do? They divided up a series of private collections of Sefton's wine, brewing machines, cigars and so on. As Kubrick told the audience in "Road to Glory"-many times, so-called patriotism is nothing more than the umbrella of villains.
Sefton, who was the same as Brad, didn't care about it, and there was no Scarlett fascinated him. Sefton, who saw through everything, rubbed a match on his inmates like many times before, and replied lightly: "Forget it." Because, at this time, the shrewd businessman had already planned how to escape.
"If you meet in the street in the future, please pretend that you don't know me." This is Sefton’s farewell to everyone, and it is also Billy Wild’s finishing touch. Who wants to be friends with you decent people? I didn't bother to say hello.
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