Kampf um Norwegen
This 1940 German documentary on the invasion of Norway was only recently unearthed in an online auction. Now that it's on official hands, its ownership status could be disputed; a representative of the Norwegian Film Institute hinted that it could be considered a "spoil of war" as it may contain some footage shot by Norwegians in wartime.
First impressions:
The need for invading Norway is established primarily by an "if we don't do it, the British will" argument. The happy ending is the liberation of Norway from the Allied threat. The mismatch between this and the fact that Germans are shown fighting the Norwegian army in animated flowcharts is simply not addressed.
The German Navy is made to look like the underdog by parading the numerical superiority of the British Navy (always "die Englender"). The film quietly elides the relative numbers of submarines and seaplanes.
The Norwegian government and king are not mentioned at all, nor is there a word about Quisling. Presumably this would have been a passable rhetoric for the film's intended audience.
On the first mention of taking British and French land troops prisoner, ominous hints are dropped of captured plans for a British invasion on the 8th of April — the day before the German one. So you see, it was necessary after all. Watch for this tactic in an attack on Iran near you.
The German troops seem ridiculously ill-equipped and untrained for winter conditions. Soldiers can be seen trying to "walk" while wearing skis when they should be gliding instead; snowshoes are few and far between.
Their other big moment are the much-vaunted paratrooper drops; in the scenes pictured, the soldiers have a choice between landing on mountain-goat-leg-breaking rock, deep snow, or in a frozen lake. The voiceover brags about troops jumping with only a few days practice while the footage shows why this is a very bad idea, soldiers dangling precariously from their parachutes.
I didn't know you could actually land a Stuka on a timber runway.
..."Drontheim"? Where the hell did that come from?
This is pretty high budget, and so it ends in raising one of those goddamn flags over Narvik or wherever accompanied by a grand original score. My stomach is still turning.
First impressions:
The need for invading Norway is established primarily by an "if we don't do it, the British will" argument. The happy ending is the liberation of Norway from the Allied threat. The mismatch between this and the fact that Germans are shown fighting the Norwegian army in animated flowcharts is simply not addressed.
The German Navy is made to look like the underdog by parading the numerical superiority of the British Navy (always "die Englender"). The film quietly elides the relative numbers of submarines and seaplanes.
The Norwegian government and king are not mentioned at all, nor is there a word about Quisling. Presumably this would have been a passable rhetoric for the film's intended audience.
On the first mention of taking British and French land troops prisoner, ominous hints are dropped of captured plans for a British invasion on the 8th of April — the day before the German one. So you see, it was necessary after all. Watch for this tactic in an attack on Iran near you.
The German troops seem ridiculously ill-equipped and untrained for winter conditions. Soldiers can be seen trying to "walk" while wearing skis when they should be gliding instead; snowshoes are few and far between.
Their other big moment are the much-vaunted paratrooper drops; in the scenes pictured, the soldiers have a choice between landing on mountain-goat-leg-breaking rock, deep snow, or in a frozen lake. The voiceover brags about troops jumping with only a few days practice while the footage shows why this is a very bad idea, soldiers dangling precariously from their parachutes.
I didn't know you could actually land a Stuka on a timber runway.
..."Drontheim"? Where the hell did that come from?
This is pretty high budget, and so it ends in raising one of those goddamn flags over Narvik or wherever accompanied by a grand original score. My stomach is still turning.
posted by astutebee at 22:58
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