The Great Raid

Members of the Sixth Army Rangers on the eve of the Cabanatuan raid.
Here is a good film to integrate into your history curriculum and/or family discussions about 20th century history—the dramatization of the largest military rescue operation in U.S. history, the liberation of 516 American prisoners of war from a Japanese prison camp on the island of Luzon in the Philippines during World War II. The prisoners, survivors of Japan’s Bataan Death March, were days away from being executed by their Japanese jailors at the Cabanatuan prison camp, when they were freed in January 1945 by several hundred soldiers of the 6th Army Rangers.

The film provides good material for discussing the war in the Pacific, MacArthur’s battle to return to the Philippines following the defeat of Allied forces in 1942, the cultural differences between the Japanese and Allied troops as reflected in their behavior on the battlefield and treatment of prisoners of war, the role of the Catholic clergy and Filipino guerrillas in the resistance, and the definition of the “just war” as discussed by Saint Augustine.


The film showcases the role of the young Captain Robert Prince, who formulated the plan for the raid and led two Army Rangers platoons to overtake Japanese defenses at Cabanatuan. Prince’s rescue plan, put assembled based on spotty intelligence, is still taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Prince received the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second-highest award for valor. The storyline also features U.S. nurse Margaret Elizabeth Doolin Utinsky, who organized a network to smuggle quinine and other medicine to U.S. soldiers, saving hundreds of lives between 1942 and 1945. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Harry Truman.
Although this film is rated R for violence and brief strong language, it is suitable for adolescents, with parental input: there is no gratuitous bloodshed, the portrayal of the Allied troops and civilians puts a high value on human life, and the religious life of U.S. soldiers and Filipino guerrillas is shown as a positive force in determining the outcome of the military action.

Let's Hear It for Feel-Good Films

Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy with son Micheal on the field at University of Mississippi, where he began his football career.

If you are going to drop $10.50 to see a film at the local movie theater (rather than waiting a few weeks for it to be released on DVD so you can watch it at home from the comfort of your recliner) you may as well enjoy the full silver screen experience. By this I mean that you should come out of the theater feeling happy and convinced that life is good--rather than despondent about the fact that Columbus discovered America (think Avatar), confused about precisely how an evil genius expected to take over the world (think Sherlock Holmes), or convinced that the human race will never overcome racism (think Crash) .

I give five stars to The Blind Side, the story of NFL star Michael Oher's adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy (and their biological son and daugher), of New Orleans. The family befriended and adopted Michael when he was 15 years old. The Tuohys have become national spokesmen for the adoption of older children out of foster care.

Pienaar and Springbok teammates in Soweto, at a rugby clinic with local children. Mandela sent the Springboks across the country to promote the national game under the slogan: One Team, One Country.

I also recommend Clint Eastwood's new movie Invictus, and not just because Matt Damon does a splendid job as Francois Pienaar, who led South Africa's Springbok rugby team to an upset victory in the 1995 World Cup. I like it because it's a masterful mix of sports drama and politics, and quite useful for educating children on the challenges of statesmanship.

Madela congratulates Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, who holds the World Rugby Cup. Pienaar told the press his team played for "all 45 million South Africans."

Can Hollywood Get Anything Right?

This story has everything: a romantic and dangerous port city, a gorgeous heiress in love with a French gangster, forged documents, corrupt government officials, safe houses, secret escapes over rough mountain trails. Moreover, it is the important and true story, of how a young American citizen—who remains relatively unknown to this day—saved more than 2,000 European Jews, Catholics, and others from the Nazis, working virtually on his own, with no official support from the U.S. government.

It’s the story of Varian Fry, founder of the American Relief Center, that operated in Marseilles, France, from 1940-41. Here is what the American Holocaust Museum exhibit honoring Fry said: “Varian Fry [made] heroic efforts to help political and intellectual refugees escape Nazi-controlled Vichy France in 1940 and 1941. An urbane Harvard graduate working as an editor in New York, Fry volunteered for the Emergency Rescue Committee’s project to bring 200 individuals from the French port city of Marseille to safety. Unable to gain cooperation from the French government or the American Consulate in Marseille, Fry established a clandestine operation by which artists, writers, philosophers, and their families — Jews and non-Jews alike — were spirited away to safety. By the time the French expelled Fry in September 1941, he and his colleagues had managed to save some 2,000 refugees, including Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Arendt, and Andre Breton. When Fry returned to New York, he recounted his story, but few listened. Fry died unexpectedly in 1967 with the pages of his memoirs scattered about him; the police officer who discovered them dismissed them as an apparent ‘work of fiction.’ Not until 1991 did an American institution recognize Fry’s work when the United States Holocaust Memorial Council posthumously awarded him its Eisenhower Liberation Medal. In 1994, Yad Vashem honored Varian Fry as the first American ‘Righteous Among the Nations.’|”

Now, how does Hollywood present the life of Varian Fry, specifically, Showtime’s 1991 film about his rescue mission, Varian’s War? Hollywood throws in the usual garbage: innuendo that Fry was a homosexual, gratuitous scenes of the leading lady discussing her sex life and attempting to seduce Fry, and a comical portrayal of the Nazi SS. Ugh! It compounds the offenses with multiple errors of historical fact and omissions. Marcel Verzeano, a young doctor who worked with Fry’s organization in Marseilles said of the film: “Among those that Fry's organization saved, there were Catholics, Protestants, Jews and people of other religions. There were rightists, leftists, centrists and people of other political affiliations. There were writers, artists, politicians, and people of all kinds of trades and professions. But they all had one thing in common: they had fought for democracy and freedom with every grain of energy they possessed. This is the essence of Fry's accomplishment. Very little of it comes through in Varian's War."

Better to read Fry’s own book on the rescue effort, Surrender on Demand, or seek out the 1997 documentary on the Emergency Rescue Committee, And Crown Thy Good. Or, for younger readers, In Defiance of Hitler: The Secret Mission of Varian Fry.

Last Chance Harvey: Worth a Look

Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson in Last Chance Harvey

There are several reasons to relax and enjoy this movie. It’s a credible, low-key love story between two not-very-young-anymore people. Kate, the 50-something female protagonist, has a workaday job at Heathrow Airport interviewing travelers for the British National Bureau of Statistics. Harvey is a somewhat older and behind-the-times ad man from New York rushing through the airport to his daughter’s wedding, where he plans to turn around as soon as possible to get back to a crucial Monday morning business appointment (his “last chance” to please an antsy client). What makes the story of their meeting so likable?

For one thing, Kate and Harvey look and act their ages. Kudos and thanks to Emma Thompson for doing her bit in this film to liberate the modern woman from the crushing expectation that she must retain the same dress size from adolescence to grave. Henry, in his rumpled trench coat, is refreshingly far from a glamorous leading man. Their appeal is more than skin deep.

Their appeal is in their disappointments and their dreams. Harvey prefers jazz piano to the jingles he writes for his advertising accounts. Kate mourns the child she aborted as a college student: “I didn’t think twice about it. That’s what smart girls did.” But, she tells Harvey, she has often wondered, if they—since the mother who does not bear her child to term often does not know whether it is a he or she it is understandable why the pronoun they sneaks in—were clever, or beautiful, or neurotic.

The appeal of their love story also lies in their fears. Harvey is saddened by the loss of his marriage, and the estrangement of his daughter, to the point that he nearly abdicates his duties as father of the bride. Kate is terrified of involvement, telling Harvey point blank, that the end will come, and bring pain along with it.

How do things develop toward the expected happy ending? Kate tells Harvey to act like a father, and drags him to his daughter’s wedding reception. Harvey tells Kate that he’s not giving up. And the viewer is left with the satisfying feeling that it all may work out.

The Hidden Power of Kindness

Carlo Maratti ( 1625-1713) Rebecca and Eliezar at the Well

The Hidden Power of Kindness by Lawrence G. Lovasik (Sophia Institute Press, 1962).

This is a wonderful book, packed full of kernels of truth that are immediately accessible and easily translated into action, but also worthy of quiet contemplation over days or months.

For example, a sampling of Father Lovasik’s comments on kind words:

“Kind words put an end to quarrels: One simple word of love is enough at times to bring about a reconciliation.”

“Kind words soothe and comfort: Daily you come across anxious, excited, sad, and fearful people to whom you may speak a kind word….Do not let your indolence, reserve or selfishness keep you from opening your mouth.

“Kind words encourage: To praise your neighbor is an act of charity that brings joy. God Himself fashioned so fashioned the human heart that it needs praise, for the same reason that it dreads contempt….We nourish the bodies of our children and friends. But how often do we nourish their self esteem by giving them the hearty appreciation that they crave?

“Happiness follows close upon kind words: The double reward of kind words is the happiness they cause in you and others…. In your everyday life, you are at times confronted by problems and weighed down by trials. Your heart is gripped by worry and sorrow. Life becomes almost unbearable. Yet, if you still greet others with kind words and a cheerful disposition, the effect will be to put your own worries to flight and to lift up your spirits….”

This book should be on the New York Times best seller list!

A War Movie Worth Watching

The face of civilian fear

Director Ryan Little's recreation of the scene at 1944 Malmedy Massacre

I am not a fan of war movies, but this independent film is worth watching, and, in the context of historical studies of the 20th century, and World War II in particular, is suitable even for young people. It follows the attempts of a British paratrooper and four American soldiers to survive behind enemy lines with no food and few weapons in the freezing central European winter. Their mission is deliver intelligence on German troop movements to the American forces that will soon meet the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. The four Americans are survivors of the infamous Malmedy Massacre of December 1944, which occurred when Nazi gunners opened fire on 140 U.S. prisoners of war outside the village of Malmedy, Belgium, killing more than 80 of them. It was filmed for less than $1 million in the forests of Utah, and won more than a dozen awards for best picture of the year following its 2005 release.

The four Americans and their British companion survive in no small part as the result of the succor of a Belgian woman and her daughter, who are the only female characters in the film. Ready to stab the sergeant when he first enters her home, she willingly provides food and shelter when she realizes that he is an American. Once again, we have an answer to the question “what if troops were marching into your neighbor: What flag would you like to see flying over them?”

The Motion Picture Association of America originally gave Saints and Soldiers an R rating, citing a desire to protect younger viewers who might identify with its American heroes from the trauma of seeing their bloody deaths on film. Director Ryan Little reports that he “went to war with the MPAA to find out what it was that we did that constituted an R rating…. And again, it came to personalized violence. They said, you care about these characters, and you see them die in a horrific way [so it] is worthy of this rating.” Ryan edited the film to garner a PG-13 rating for commercial release. It remains realistically, though not gratuitously, violent, and therefore does require parental guidance. However, the emotional range of the film, which moves deftly across themes of guilt, remorse, faith, courage, and redemption, carries the viewer far above the horrors of war that it depicts.

Winton's Children

Nicholas Winton with children on board his Kindertransport from Prague.

Winton with one of his young evacuees.

In the late 1990s, the small town of Leesburg, Virginia began receiving unexpectedly large gifts from the philanthropist Irwin Uran, who had relocated to Leesburg after a successful investing career in New York City and fallen in love with the town. Before his death in 2007, Uran had donated $3 million for the construction of the first synagogue to be built in Loudoun County that is now home to Congregation Sha'are Shalom on Evergreen Mill Road south of Leesburg. He made numerous other donations to local fire companies, the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center and the Loudoun County Animal Shelter. Many of Uran's donations were not publicly announced.

Uran’s donation of $3 million to the Loudoun County Public Library funded a program to promote “better relations between all people.” This gift has enabled the library to build an exceptional collection of scholarly and popular works on the Holocaust, among them several dozen documentary DVDs. All My Loved Ones (Vsichni moji blízcí [1999]) by the Czech director Matej Minac, is included. This is a good film for adolescents and young people studying the Holocaust, and a good starting point for a classroom or family discussion of how one individual can choose to go good in the face of evil.

All My Loved Ones tells the story of Nicholas Winton, an English stockbroker who saved the lives of nearly 700 Jewish children by arranging their emigration from Czechoslovakia during the early days of the Nazi occupation. Winton, however, is not the story-teller: He, in fact, discussed his exploits with no one in Britain, not even his wife, who discovered his heroism decades after the fact by looking through his old scrapbooks. This film, part documentary and part historical reconstruction, was written based on the personal account of 11-year-old David Silberstein, who was sent by his family out of Prague on the last departure of the special trains Winton hired at his own expense to evacuate Czech-Jewish children--his Kindertransport. David left behind a loving family, no member of which survived the Nazi occupation of Poland, and his childhood sweetheart, who he never saw again.

Survivors of Winton’s Kindertransport call themselves Winston’s Children. Among them, they have over 5,000 grandchildren.

The Italian

Russian actor Kolya Spiridonov plays an orphan, adopted by an affluent childleses Italian couple and about to be shipped out of Russia, who is determined to find his mother.

Here is a wonderful film from Russian director Andrei Kravchuk that speaks directly to the power of God’s love as it is expressed in the bond between mother and child in the human family, at the same time it reveals the grotesque commercial aspects of the international adoption system, which more often than not treats orphaned children as commodities to be traded among desperate bidders. Kravchuk, a mathematician by training, was inspired to make The Italian after reading the story of an abandoned Russian child who learned how to read so he could search for his mother. His palette could be called drab and grey, were it not for the remarkable splashes of color that burst into its frames: the fly-away red hair of the teenaged orphan-prostitute who teaches the young protagonist his alphabet, the azure blue frames of the rural nursery’s doors, the burnt orange of the slum hovels in the nearby city. Likewise, Kravchuk’s theme could be characterized as dismal: a mafia of dead-ended never-to-be-adopted teenagers runs this orphanage; the dragon lady social worker threatens children with the mental asylum if they do not cooperate in her sleazy deals, and gangs of homeless juvenile thugs roam the streets of the local village. The Italian, however, is a firmly optimistic film, and well worth the viewing.

Genghis Khan Again on Film

The young Genghis Kahn on the Mongolian steppe

I recently watched and greatly enjoyed the first in a planned trilogy by Russian movie director Sergei Bodrov on the life of the early 13th century warrior and conqueror Genghis Khan. Bodrov’s movie, simply titled Mongol, is the fourth major modern attempt to capture the life of Genghis Kahn on film—the first being a 1956 The Conqueror starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward, the second, a Hollywood style epic filmed in 1965 with Omar Sharif and Stephen Boyd, and the third the Japanese-language To the Ends of the Earth and Sea (2007), which I am eagerly awaiting from Netflix. Hollywood’s productions were filmed in English; the 1956 version was made in Hollywood, but producers trekked to Yugoslavia with cameras for the Sharif blockbuster.

Mongol is the first production to be filmed in the Mongolian language and principally in Mongolia. It is a cinematographically beautiful film, with captivating costumes, jewelry, and music. Battle scenes are bloody, but unexaggerated. Modern moviegoers have been well-prepared by the film industry for mass slaughter (even in such youngster-oriented films as the Tolkein trilogy), and there is nothing particularly new here. Perhaps the second and third installments will educate viewers on the astounding military capabilities of the Mongol horseman, who could string and repeatedly fire his bow at an enemy advancing to his rear, while keeping his horse at full gallop. Genghis Kahn’s genius as a military commander is an aspect of his life that also waits to be more fully depicted in coming films.

What is so fascinating to film makers (and viewers like myself, I must admit) about an oriental warrior unequalled in his depredations against military opponents and civilian populations alike? A quick look at the historical sources reveals that Genghis Kahn created the largest contiguous empire in human history, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to Adriatic Sea by the time of his death in 1127. He created the Uighin script, the basis of the written Mongolian language, a system of law (the Yassa) affirming the existence of a single Creator, and established religious tolerance throughout his empire. Historian David Morgan notes that, in bringing the Mongols under his leadership, he transformed the society of the western steppe from that of a tribal system to a relatively more advanced feudal system. Bodrov’s film hints that his charisma was based on his elevation of the principle of meritocracy over that of clan/tribe affiliation, and an attitude of fairness toward his men, particularly in matters of discipline and distribution of booty. These tendencies may be considered to be the kernels of truth embedded in his system of rule, and intersection points, however weak, with the western Christian culture that suffered so grievously under the swords of his horsemen.