Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Movie Review: Stalag 17

Tania Says:

I wasn’t exactly jazzed about watching this war movie set in a German Prison camp during WW II. The description said it was about the American prisoners trying to escape – it all sounded a little too Hogan’s Heroes to me which is a show I have never found very funny. However, Hogan’s Heroes was not based on this movie – there was a lawsuit and everything. Anyway, that coupled with the fact that I am not a fan of war movies made this movie sound really unappealing.

Once we started watching it though I realized it isn’t really a “war movie” because there really aren’t any battle scenes and the movie is actually a lot lighter then it seemed it would be with the subject matter it was tackling. Anyway, I actually kind of liked it!

The movie is about American prisoners in a German Prison camp – but it looks like the happiest prison camp I have ever seen. But of course, they still want to escape and all their escape plans and fun times seem to be foiled by some mole in there camp who is giving the German guards info. The movie then is pretty much about trying to find the stoolie. The cool part is that they really keep you guessing and by the time they get to the reveal of the insider it was a surprise to me because I was clueless as to who it was. Then the stoolie gets his comeuppance and that is the end of the movie! It’s a fun movie with little bits of seriousness thrown in. I read somewhere that people where offended that a movie was made about WW II that was a comedy but I think that is sometimes a necessity – see MASH. This movie reminded me of MASH in way just because they were making a comedy out of a sensitive subject but I enjoyed it more then MASH because the guys weren’t as mean. Some of the comedy in Stalag 17 isn’t that funny and there are some annoying guys in it who are meant to be comic relief but aren’t. Overall though, I am glad I watched it because it really is not a movie I ever would have rented but I am glad I saw it!


Josh Says:

This is one of the few movies that I’ve watched since the movie The Usual Suspects (I AM NOT SAYING I ENJOYED THIS AS MUCH OR IN THE SAME WAY AS THE USUAL SUSPECTS) which had me completely clueless as to who the villain was an genuinely surprised at the end. Unlike The Usual Suspects, however, they are able to do this by essentially keeping the villain out of the main story line, thus exonerating him of all suspicion, which in my opinion is cheating.

I could have done without some of the campier humor such as that bearded guy’s entire part, but understanding that this was a result of the period in which it was made I was able, for the most part, to get past it and ended up really enjoying the story.

There are some interesting tidbits about this movie that illustrate how much power the studios in Hollywood used to have back in the “Golden Age”. For instance, this was by a long shot Billy Wilder’s most successful film, however he made very little money. The reason for this was because the studio informed him that he has lost money on his previous film and the losses would be deducted out of his share in this film. A great little racket the studios had whereby they could enter a project with virtually no risk at all.

Another interesting tidbit is that William Holden, who would end up winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for this film, actually refused the role (as did Charlton Heston previous to that) but the studio forced him to play the part. Though this obviously turned out well in his favor, it really shows that even twenty years in, SAG had a long way to go in terms of providing it’s members with protection against the powerful studios.

3 comments:

gadietze said...

One of the movies on your list so far I haven't seen. Is it worth hunting down?

Tania said...

Hey Gary - I think you would actually like it. It does what it sets out to do very well and is different then any war movie I have seen in regards to how it treats the camps. I say give it a try!

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