jkw-ns

I saw this film for the first and the last time as a thirteen year old in the 1970's. I think that it was screened on ITV.

Holden is superb in the role, as are all the other actors, but the ending tears your heart out to such an extent that I can't watch it again. I openly wept and I'm sure that many other people did. If the purpose of film is to captivate and entertain then 'The Christmas Tree' gets top marks but if the purpose, in this case, was to instil a 'feel good' feeling into the viewer then the film fails...spectacularly so.

Well made, moving and well acted but so moving that it grabs your soul and makes you feel deeply, deeply sad.

The first thing that struck me in the description of this film was the word 'volunteers' in inverted commas. The Communists weren't the only ones who had volunteer units in their ranks and it can be safely said the The Condor Legion was comprised almost exclusively of volunteers.

The film itself is unusual by virtue of the fact that it's not a WW2 documentary for a change and, for once, it gives the winning sides account of the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway et al have monopolised the history of that era for eighty years. Now, at last, we see the other side of the story.

As with most war documentaries, it gets a bit tedious with explosions, men firing rifles at unseen targets and bomb after bomb hitting the ground. Karl Ritter, the director, almost certainly used some recreated scenes to fill in parts of the conflict that were difficult to film, the scene where a German spotter plane gets intercepted by Republican fighters being the most obvious one. Scenes where troops storm strongpoints are equally suspect but every war documentary director has done the same thing since WW1.

I found the most interesting parts of the film to be Condor Legion's return to Germany, disembarking in Hamburg and then on to Berlin for a review in front of Goering and a speech by Hitler. Other interesting sequences include the rapturous reception given to liberating Franco forces in various Spanish towns and cities, so much for Franco being "unpopular".

One unforgettable scene in the film is the questioning of captured members of the Communist 'International Brigade', including black members of the Abraham Lincoln Regiment and a rather chirpy sounding Welshman who basically implied that he came to Spain to fight because he was unemployed! What happened to these men? Neither side showed much mercy in what was a vicious ideological war.

I enjoyed the film. Together with Russell Palmer's 'Defenders Of The Faith' it's one of a handful of cinematic records of the Spanish Civil War from the Falangist perspective.

Well, I've never laughed so much for a long time. This side splitting romp had me laughing fit to burst! What? It's not supposed to be a comedy? Bad computer generated explosions, dodgy approximated rank insignia and a Knight's Cross that's awarded to our hero complete with Velcro backing (yes, just watch when Braun's CO 'sticks' it to his neck) make for a sub standard effort, even by amateur standards. The extras are obviously just jerking their MP40's and Sturmgewehr 44's when they 'fire' and the whole story takes part on an M.O.D. training site in Hampshire and at Neidpath Castle near Peebles in Scotland, which is supposed to be a Belgian château but betrays it's unmistakable 'Reiver' architecture.

Despite all the faults this film is remarkably entertaining. One can't wait for the next gaffe, the next instance of bad acting. I like it, but not because it's a good film. It's a bad film only surpassed by Cromwell Films 'The Bruce', a failure on a greater scale with a bigger budget.

I hope Braun reached the toilet in time before he received his Knight's Cross. Just watch the minute or so before that scene!