David Skrenier offers some great ideas for wars that need to be considered in film and in scholarship. The Austrian Italian front sound like an expensive spectacular while in the Spanish Civil war stories of the International Brigades could be easier to produce in terms of locations. I would like to see a story of the capture of Constantinople circa 1450, a fantastic land sea battle with various heroic act, betrayals and desecrations ... leading to perhaps the greatest destruction of cultural objects in the shortest amount of time that humankind has ever experienced; for example the loss of more books than the burning of the Library at Alexandria. Edmond Chibeau Ph.D. Eastern Connecticut State U. 83 Windham St. Willimantic CT 06250 USA [log in to unmask] 860-465-4384 fax 860-465-5073 http://www.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/personal/faculty/chibeaue/index.html -----Original Message----- From: David Skreiner [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2000 5:09 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: WAR HELP There are several wars that do not seem to appear too frequently in film - or even certain aspects of those wars. Here's a few ideas from central europe: To start with WWII: Most films about the Résistance seem to either focus on the French, or on the catholic and almost rabidly anti-communist "White Rose". The fights of the "red" partisans against the Nazis in what used to be Yugoslavia were countered with barbaric retaliatory mass executions of civilians, but I cannot think of any film showing this area during WWII. Same for the "red" resistance groups in Germany - they are hardly mentioned in popular WWII fiction. (Were the communist/socialist movements an embarassment to anti-communist post-war Europe? They seem to be an embarassment for some Austrian politicians now: Austria's Minister of Finance refused to honour resistance fighters in the province of Carinthia, claiming they had been "enemies of this province". Hmmm.) Spanish Civil war: Well, there was this teary-eyed nurse- meets-writer-drama. But apart from that, few popular (if any) war films seem to cover this particular war, though it is very interesting: Thousands of volunteers sneaking out of their countries to volunteer in the People's Army... which was a shambles, almost no equipment, and internal strife: communists fighting socialists fighting anarchists. But they were the defenders of the righteous government, against Franco's fascist revolution... There are records of several heroic deeds and/or spectacular action during that war, but I can't think of any "war film" showing this war. World War I: Most of the films I know or I've heard about focus on trench warfare, be it in western Europe or in, er, Gallipoli. I haven't heard of a WWI film that focuses on, say, naval combat, or even on the alpine front (Austria/Italy - it got so bad there that they started blasting Mountains to take out enemy positions, and changed the map in the process) Further back in history, how about the well-organized Turkish invasions into central Europe in the 1600s (or so)? This is a bit of a political suggestion though, what with some politicians in Austria claiming that "Europe's cultural identity lies in the battle against the Muslim invaders"... Or how about Haiti's revolution against the French? Apparently, the Haitian revolutionaries defended themselves heroically against several invasion attempts. (Sorry if the word "Austria" pops up a bit too often. Yes, I'm Austrian, though at the momemnt I'm inclined to add the word "unfortunately".) Regards, Dave -- David Skreiner - [log in to unmask] ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu