Wow. Like an aristocratic Jack Bauer avant la lettre.
That was the impression I got when I first read it, but then I read it more closely to see if it really would make a movie. My answer is no, because there just isn’t enough action given the timespan involved, and if you give the quick story a much more cynical reading you get a very different impression.
It was 5 years from the invasion of France till Germany surrendered. In that time he helped the maquis take out a substation and some railroad tracks, then surrendered. He soon escaped and hung out in Paris for a month or so before contacting England. Some partying in London with hot babes, then a year later, shortly before D-Day, he blew up a munitions factory (perhaps too small to justify an aerial bombing, and how many French workers were inside?) and then he surrendered again. But then he escaped from a jail that had four guards, sat around for as while, and eventually joined up with some more resistance fighters – and surrendered again. But they busted him out. A year later, in April of 1945, he blew up a casemate on the French border – while the Russians were rolling into Berlin and the Americans were rolling through Germany. It probably wasn’t an important strategic hard point or it would’ve already been crushed.
Unless there are a lot of details and attacks left out, which is not unlikely, you’ve got three minor raids – each a year apart, usually ending in surrender, and always followed by lots of wine. Depending on the writing and directing, it could perhaps more confirm stereotypes of the French Resistance than dispel them.
“It seemed the heroes were two a penny, now that the danger had passed”
…would seem to support your analysis.
Hitler was then [1938] the great statesman of Europe
This is the most significant statement to me. 20/20 hindsight is easy. Determining the true nature of someone before they completely reveal themselves is something not many people are good at.
Who is that great statesman in America today?
Dennis Kucinich?
No, that’s not it.
Keith Olbermann?
John McClane.
George,
I’ve read that war is, days, weeks of overwhelming boredom, punctuated by seconds of stark terror. I can only imagine working under cover like that would skew it way out on both ends of the bell curve.
Wow.
And… Hollywood can’t come up with any new stories. That’s a seven-movie set right there.
You could attempt catching grizzly bears bare handed. And it might be safer.
Wow. What Al said.
Hard to top it. But this guy arguably matches it. I especially like the part about capturing the German general.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-obituaries/8568395/Sir-Patrick-Leigh-Fermor.html
Wow. Like an aristocratic Jack Bauer avant la lettre.
That was the impression I got when I first read it, but then I read it more closely to see if it really would make a movie. My answer is no, because there just isn’t enough action given the timespan involved, and if you give the quick story a much more cynical reading you get a very different impression.
It was 5 years from the invasion of France till Germany surrendered. In that time he helped the maquis take out a substation and some railroad tracks, then surrendered. He soon escaped and hung out in Paris for a month or so before contacting England. Some partying in London with hot babes, then a year later, shortly before D-Day, he blew up a munitions factory (perhaps too small to justify an aerial bombing, and how many French workers were inside?) and then he surrendered again. But then he escaped from a jail that had four guards, sat around for as while, and eventually joined up with some more resistance fighters – and surrendered again. But they busted him out. A year later, in April of 1945, he blew up a casemate on the French border – while the Russians were rolling into Berlin and the Americans were rolling through Germany. It probably wasn’t an important strategic hard point or it would’ve already been crushed.
Unless there are a lot of details and attacks left out, which is not unlikely, you’ve got three minor raids – each a year apart, usually ending in surrender, and always followed by lots of wine. Depending on the writing and directing, it could perhaps more confirm stereotypes of the French Resistance than dispel them.
“It seemed the heroes were two a penny, now that the danger had passed”
…would seem to support your analysis.
Hitler was then [1938] the great statesman of Europe
This is the most significant statement to me. 20/20 hindsight is easy. Determining the true nature of someone before they completely reveal themselves is something not many people are good at.
Who is that great statesman in America today?
Dennis Kucinich?
No, that’s not it.
Keith Olbermann?
John McClane.
George,
I’ve read that war is, days, weeks of overwhelming boredom, punctuated by seconds of stark terror. I can only imagine working under cover like that would skew it way out on both ends of the bell curve.