"New Movie "My Honor Was Loyalty"" Topic

I have Generation War – not watched it yet though.

Martin I read a review that described it as "think of 'Friends' set in Germany WWII" ….?!?

Some of the characters are quite interesting, and I won't spoil it by saying which one:)

Now I'm totally intrigued ;) My guess is Joey

The thing to remember is that the SS and Heer had restrictions on where they could get their soldiers. The SS was supposed to be limited to Hitler's bodyguard, police, prison guards (the worst of the lot) and non-German soldiers. The Heer got the rest (in theory).

I can believe that more than one LSSAH soldier got caught up with the Nazi propaganda and joined out idealism. It's easy after the fact to realize the lies and filtering of the truth. Not so much at the time.

That being said, I'm not all interested in seeing the film because of the likely optics of it.

One of my former friend, more interested in that than me, read a book stating that (can't recall which one for sure) maybe 12 th ss div in Normandy was staffed by veterans who knew they lost and just wanted to get back alive and youngsters scared and propaganda led there, soon put to right by realities and the vets.
If I remember well they were shooting all ammo quickly to be withdrawn as adolf did not want his propaganda toys hurt too much, declaring lots of wounded for same effects… No fanatics at all.
Not sure if true. Possibly self serving memoirs.

To judge by the memoirs of the British who faced them the German writings are self-serving memoirs. They seemed to have fought hard and long; they were respected as tough fighters … but not admired.

This will not be a film I shall be rushing to see but before demolishing it as a whitewash we had best wait and see what it offers.

Panda – "My guess is Joey"

I was thinking Rachel.

Now get back to gaming. Hope all is well.

V/R,
Jack

I read somewhere that the veterans [from 1st SS LSAH] gloried in their role as mentors to the HJ in 12th SS and still believed in their cause and ultimate victory as late as July 1944.

12th SS was pretty much wiped out in the Normandy fighting, youngsters and older men included. What was rebuilt for the Bulge was another unit entirely and may have exhibited the views in the memoirs.

Everything is pretty much slanted. I wouldn't trust what anyone said in a memoir and would want to cross check with other memoirs and sources.

I have read 12th SS did not exhibit much skill but were tenacious and courageous to a fault. Victims of Hitler's War in their own way too.

Personally, I'm looking forward to this film. I'm not expecting a masterpiece and am wary it might be exploited by the worst elements in society – huge Neo-Nazi problem in Europe and the US nowadays.

I wouldn't ban the film or limit its distribution in any way but then I'm very pro-free speech. I will try to get it early in case less liberal views make it hard to find.

My wife (Russian – who believes it will take 7 Generations to forgive) liked 'Generation War' and the (German) characters in it. This was not a Soap Opera or Sitcom by any means. Just watched about a week ago. Netflix. Just do a search; would recommend it.
The best war movies seem to come out of WWI, true of many of the books/novels too. Just an opinion.

I suppose there is a vague similarity between Gen War and Friends in that the leads are two women and three men.

But I don't recall many episodes of Friends where Joey gets sent to Auschwitz, Chandler develops a penchant for shooting people in the head and Rachel discovers that the Nazi state is a tad unforgiving.

Lol Martin people actually look at me strange when I have to explain that I never watched Friends (although I know the characters of course) so I'll have to take your word on the story lines 👹

Panda,

"…I never watched Friends…"
What was it like growing up in the Soviet Union?

V/R,
Jack

LoL …Jack as ironic as it is on a thread where I'm desperately searching for a TV show I want to watch, I actually watch almost no TV (there's a period of my life where I watched no TV or cinema for about 6 years (as I'm sure you're probably aware you know prison has changed in recent years ;)

edit:I emailed you about a gaming project you may be interested in

War Panda:
Generation War is a very good mini-series and well worth the watch. You can get it on amazon.ca and there are good clips of the movie on YouTube. It's well worth the price. Do not expect a happy ending however and there are no heroes in the film. Just human beings struggling to survive in a world gone mad.
If you are a fan of good war movies I would also recommend the Winter War, Private Peaceful, Beneath Hill 66 and Stalingrad. You will be almost suicidal after watching these so then you watch Come and See and that'll put you over the edge right quick.
Cheers and good viewing.
Rod Robertson.

Thank you Mr Robertson, you are a wealth of information as usual :)

I have Winter War. Pri Peaceful- never heard of it, B Hill 66 no and Stalingrad -yes

I'll take a dose of "come and see" if I feel life needs that :)

Why do they have to make war so depressing ;)

Thanks again my friend

Come and See is actually quite uplifting if viewed in a positive manner. It is visually stunning, even if the symbology is clumsily heavy handed (just how many mother Russia references do we need?), and I could watch the partisans snaking through the whispering forest for ever.

The brutality is quite disturbing of course, and a timely reminder of how warped ideology plays to the darkest side of human behaviour. And that neatly brings us back to "My loyalty was my honour".

Every one of those "devoted, brave SS men fighting for a lost cause" simply meant that more people would be gassed in camps, and more would die in the urban bombing campaign….
I wonder what my father and his brothers would think of this film?

Well – people impacted directly by events cannot be expected to have an impartial POV. Many older Koreans will never have anything but hatred for Japanese in general. I understand it but take a wider view because I am more removed from the events.

Same goes for this film that will glorify and humanize the individuals. It would be a dull film to watch if it did not ask us to empathize with the characters. My life was not directly effected by WW2 in any way I can identify. Some family members were involved but none were casualties. There is no one missing from my family tree because of WW2.

My mother worked in quality control on aircraft engineering and had a great time. Money to spend, dances, more freedom for young women than would ever have been countenanced otherwise. Her brothers all worked in engineering so were in reserved occupations. My father was in school. His older brothers were in it more directly, one making the ball bearing runs to Sweden and twice being fished out of the sea after being sunk. Another was in Italy, but a gunner so not in as much danger as some. All made it through to live happy if not always long lives.

To be honest, if this film got a wide audience and reopened debate about WW2 in the media it would be a really good thing. Let the apologists paint the SS as poor brave lads fighting for their homes and families – it is easy to shoot down that canard as at best a very small part of their story.

Sadly, I predict this film will enjoy a brief notoriety before disappearing entirely.

I'm withholding judgement until I see the movie. Looks like direct to DVD; I ordered a copy and will update this thread after it arrives.

So it finally arrived. I'll give it a 3 out of 4 stars. I'll do my best to stay away from spoilers. The movie doesn't glorify the SS. It follows one soldier through about a year of combat on the Eastern and Western fronts. He's a junior NCO and in charge of leading a small group of men as his doubts about what he's doing grow. The movie doesn't shy away from depicting war crimes. The equipment in the movie looks realistic (panther, marder II, and lots of halftracks). The production values are good, but not on the Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers level. If you get the DVD, you'll want to use the subtitles option. The movie opens with narration in English, but the characters all speak in German. So I had to restart the film and turn the subtitles on.

Appreciate the feedback Guineapigfury.