M&M: A Hidden Life

A while ago I watched the movie “A Hidden Life” from the year 2019 for the first time. It was on my imdb.com list of movies that I wanted to see and tells the story of the farmer Franz Jägerstätter from the small town St. Radegund in Austria, who refused to fight for the Nazis during the second world war.

Franz Jägerstätter really lived. Which was one of the reasons, why I decided to watch this movie. Normally I'm not at a point where I'm skeptical about watching “Nazi movies” or movies set around that time and avoid them. It should be noted that this movie is almost 3 hours long. One of the reasons why I hesitated watching it.

Franz Jägerstätter is played, convincingly, I think, by August Diehl. Valerie Pachner took the role of his wife Fani and I thought of her as equally fitting. As for the other actors, I didn't know anyone other than the one playing the priest Fr. Fürthauer, namely Tobias Moretti. Jägerstätter is conscripted to fight for the Nazis once, but is send home to his wife and three daughters. When a second letter for conscription arrives, he talks to Fr. Fürthauer, but quickly notices that he won't get much support from him for the resistance to fight in the war. So he has to go to war. When he refuses to swear on Hitler, he gets arrested. Fani and Fr. Fürthauer as well as others try to talk him into swearing on Hitler. The Nazis won't care what he really feels and thinks and his death because conscious objection will basically be inconsequential and therefore unnecessary. It's suggested he can go do medical service instead of being a soldier and fight. He refuses all of that. That's how important it is for him to truthfully and openly defend his point of view. First his wife and children at home get support, but then they all feel the hate from the other town people and they become outsiders, who have to work hard to keep doing their farm work without a husband and father to keep the farm going. In August 1943 Franz Jägerstätter is finally executed.

The movie starts by showing the calm and peaceful family life. Although set in a war time and being an exceptionally long movie, the viewer doesn't see a single shot fired. On the internet I read reviews that Fani should have fought harder and should have convinced her husband more to do what's necessary to stay alive. Watching the movie I did get the feeling that she tried for him to keep on living. His point of view and showing it openly was more important to him than his own life.

During my school time our religion teacher was enthusiastic about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who also resisted the Nazis and paid with his life for that. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Protestant priest, so it's not surprising my religion teacher liked him. I personally was more impressed by the simple farmer Jägerstätter and how he stood his ground and wasn't even going to pretend something else, if he didn't want those things. I don't want to badmouth Bonhoeffer or belittle him. I do believe however that for a priest the belief in god and acting according to his will is in the end a logical decision. The decision of farmer Jägerstätter to abandon his wife and children to defend his own view is rather impressive to me.

It's easy for outsiders to look back on this terrible time period and say, “I would have refused, too.” or “I would have been one of the good ones.” It's easy for us to say as our life right here and right now is not threatened. I believe that whoever makes those statements or similar ones recklessly, doesn't really have an idea about the general atmosphere of the people and the pressure people were under at that time.

The movie is long and takes its time. This seems fitting for me though in the depiction of the country life in contrast to the hectic city life and later also during the time in prison where just not much was happening. Although I was aware of the unusually length of the movie from the beginning, I didn't feel bored and it didn't seem long winded to me. I'm sure one could have cut an almost three hour movie somewhere. I wouldn't know where I would have cut it though. I didn't know Jägerstätter before the movie. Then again, he was Austrian and we didn't talk about people, especially people in the reistance movement, in other countries in school. According to the trivia comment section on imdb.com to this movie Jägerstätter and his fate wasn't known outside St. Radegund for a long time anyway and he was discoved by accident. The American Gordon Zahn came to St. Radegund in the 1970's and uncovered Jägerstätter's history and made it known. Now there are several movies about him.

M&M: Stand and Deliver

This movie from the year 1988 was based on the true life of mathematics teacher Jaime Escalante. Don't moan just yet without watching it first. This movie came before some of the others, sadly better known “real-life teacher stories”. By the way, the real Jaime Escalante is quoted on imdb for saying that the movie is “90% truth and 10% drama”, which seems pretty good to me.

Jaime Escalante was a really tough teacher. He had to be, teaching a class of Hispanic immigrant teenagers. He's played by Edward James Olmos. Some of you may know him from Battlestar Galactica where he was William “Bill“ Adama. Olmos got an Oscar nomination for his role as Escalante. The movie mostly focuses on the mathematics classes. But we do get to see glimpses into Escalante's private life. He's got a son, who is played by Olmos' real-life son, Bodie Olmos.

Escalante has to teach those teenagers mathematics and he's really passionate about it, which certainly also helps the teenagers to get interested and pay attention during those classes. He's honest with the students and tells them that they have two strikes against them: their name and their complexion. That will make the world assume they know less than they do. Their bosses at work won't care about their problems, so neither does he. He still ends up helping out one of the girls in class when he finds out her parents took her off school and talks to the father. Of course the class also has a trouble maker. Escalante calls him “Finger Man” for obvious reasons. I like the way Escalante deals with him by teaching him some cool mathematics with his fingers. Judging from Youtube comments, I'm not the only one wishing that my teacher taught me that trick. You'll know what I mean when you watch the movie and get to that scene.

The students get well enough to do the AP Calculus in their senior year. Escalante has his students take summer classes in advanced mathematics in preparation for this. The other teachers start being cynic towards Escalante. They don't think the students are capable of it. But Escalante and the students prove them all wrong. They take the test and pass it, too. However the Educational Testing Service doubt the results. They accuse the students of cheating, since several students have the same mistakes. Escalante believes there is a racism problem behind this. In a short scene where they try to question the some of the students, one of them seemingly cracks and has just the right answers. Among the people questioning them is a fairly young Andy Garcia as Dr. Ramirez, by the way. You can clearly see him fight not to laugh along with the students, but at least he shows a short smile, before he and his colleagues go away. Escalante suggests the students take the test again. They're granted that wish with only one day to prepare for it.

How did they do the second time with the exam? See for yourself. Really, go watch the movie. I know it's an old one, but it's got some great scenes in it. Well worth it in my opinion.

M&M: Murder In The First

The movie from the year 1995 is based on true events. More later on just how true those events really are.

The plot begins in 1938. It tells the story of Henri Young (wonderfully played by Kevin Bacon), who is imprisoned as a criminal in Alcatraz, the famous prison on the island off San Francisco. The first 20 minutes are not necessarily easy to watch. Because Young is in solitary confinement after an attempted escape and is treated really badly, if not to say tortured. After several years in solitary confinement he's released to the general population again. At lunch time he meets another prisoner, Rufus 'Ray' McCain (David Michael Sterling), who had been with Young at the attempted escape back then. Young lunges at McCain with a spoon and eventually kills him, which in return leads him back to solitary confinement again.

The young attorney James Stamphill (Christian Slater) is supposed to defend Young at court for the murder of McCain. The story is actually told from his point of view. The case seams clear and nothing special at first. But it takes Stamphill a while to get Young to open up and in fact speak at all. The dialogue between the two, especially when Young is called a witness and forced against his explicit wish, to answer questions, are wonderful dialogues with much fun and humour, which speaks to me a lot personally. A beautiful interaction between Kevin Bacon and Christian Slater.

After Henri Young spent years in solitary confinement, it's hardly possible to speak of resocialisation, and in the end not only Henri Young has to explain himself at court, but also the guards and especially the warden have to justify themselves.

In the movie Henri Young is depicted as almost innocent, caught when he stole 5 dollars to provide for himself and his sister and otherwise, apart from the murder of the fellow prisoner, not a criminal. The reality is a little different.

Henri Young really existed. As well as the fellow prisoner Rufus McCain. Together with others they did attempt to escape the prison. That much is true. (Although according to wikipedia it was a year later than in the movie, namely in 1939.) But Henri Young was far from innocent. Even before he came to Alcatraz, the “real” Henri Young was a convicted bank-robber, who in fact was known to be aggressive with hostages. So there can be by far no talk of just stealing 5 dollars to provide for himself and his sister and being caught.

The argumentation in the movie is that it wasn't Henri Young, who was responsible for McCain's death, but the detention conditions and prolonged isolation, was really the argumentation of the defence. I won't anticipate the end of the court case in the movie, but will say this much: that Henri Young's life did not end the way Stamphill (Christian Slater) tells. The truth is that Henri Young was transferred to another prison in 1948. Henri Young's wikipedia entry talks about him “jumping parole” in 1972. Which means that he was allowed to leave the prison for while and under certain conditions. But he never came back from that release and his whereabouts to this day are listed as “unknown”. Having been born June, 11^th 1911, Henri Young would be over 100 years old, if he is still alive today.

The movie is really good and worth watching. Even though, as stated above, the first 20 minutes are not nice to watch. It's to be expected that a movie “based on true events” is often told fairly freely. However I find the very bold deviation quite frustrating. Especially since the end tells something that is absolutely not the truth, namely that Henri Young was in part responsible for Alcatraz being closed. The truth is that Alcatraz was closed in 1963, which was a good 20 years after Henri Young had spent time there. Also Alcatraz wasn't closed because of dubious detention conditions and/or in the end no longer allowed solitary confinement. There are many documentaries from 2000 or later about solitary confinement. Even though such detention conditions are just as dubious as they are depicted in the movie back then. By the way, it is just as wrongful depicted in the movie and stressed several times that the purpose of Alcatraz was resocialisation. In the German wikipedia-article there is the following note (my own translation):

“Alcatraz had 2 purposes:

1. Transfer of troublemakers from other prisons, to prevent escape, violence and suicide attempts.
2. Transfer from prisoners, to send them back to another prison with better behaviour. There was never talk of resocialisation.” (Emphasis mine.)

By the way, the reason to close Alcatraz, among others, was that the salt water affected the building over the years and the maintenance and repair was simply too costly and extensive. The reason was not at all the conduction of the prison.

With this generally good movie, I find it's a pity just how much the facts are twisted, Henri Young's life as well as the history of Alcatraz. I personally would have liked the note of Henri Young's disappearance without a trace, most of all because it would have been closer to the truth and in my opinion also more positive for Henri Young in the movie as well. Maybe it wasn't heroic enough for the movie makers. Then again, the real Henri Young was never a hero from the very beginning anyway.

M&M: The Flying Scotsman

Dear reader,

yesterday I thought: which movie am I going to review tomorrow?!

Then, unrelated to that, purely because I like Jonny Lee Miller in “Elementary” and wanted to see him him in other roles, I watched “The Flying Scotsman”. All right, I've seen him also in “Trainspotting” and “Hackers” before. So I don't only know him from “Elementary”.

The Flying Scotsman. A flying Scotsman? Oh no, I don't want to watch fantasy like that tonight. Okay, let's see what the movie is about. Aha! Based on the true story of the Scotsman Graeme Obree (Jonny Lee Miller), who loves riding his bike and sets a new world record – with a bike he build on his own! A bike, which consists of parts of a washing machine. Now, that does sound quite interesting. It does have a dark side to it though: Graeme has moments of depression and attempted several suicides.

In the movie Graeme is married to Anne (Laura Fraser) and the two have a child. In “real”life the two are divorced now and in 2011 he had a “coming out” and revealed that he's gay, as The Guardian for example reported: http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2011/feb/02/graeme-obree-cycling

As a child, he was bullied by other boys and one Christmas Graeme's parents gave him a bike for a present. He used it to get away from his bullies at first, but he enjoyed riding his bike in later life, too. So it's not very surprising that after he has to close his cycle shop, he starts working as a bicycle courier. While working there, he meets another courier, Malky (Billy Boyd), who's equally enthusiastic about bikes. When Graeme wants to set a new world record, he hires Malky to work as his manager. Because he builds his bike himself, sponsors of expensive bicycle companies fear for their money, so the Union Cycliste Internationale do their best to disqualify Graeme and make life difficult for him. But Graeme is creative and ambitious enough, to give them parole.

The film spares us many an amplified story telling and cliches and shows the enthusiastic biker Graeme Obree and his ambition. That certainly makes a movie well worth watching for other people, who enjoy riding their bike. The only sad bit about the film is that it starts well, and later seems to just rush through Graeme Obree's life. The childhood and beginning with Malky are in part very humorous. Then again he's just sitting there doing nothing at the harbour or at home. Seemingly depressive phases. (Today he's diagnosed as bipolar or manic-depressive.) But then he gets on his bike again and then the film ends. A bit sad for a film with such a good start. Especially worth mentioning for those daring to watch the film with the original audio, is the convincing Scottish accent of Jonny Lee Miller. Jonny Lee Miller was born in Kingston upon Thames, England, so truly a different accent.

The Flying Scotsman, for me, is a film well worth watching, despite the weaknesses towards the end, especially for bicycle fans (and fans of the Scottish accent). Quite worth watching and maybe also motivating for the viewer to get on their own bike a bit more again. We don't have to set a new world record though. Enjoy the ride!

Until next blog,

sarah

M&M: Patch Adams

Dear reader,

August, 11 this year was a strange day for me and certainly also for a friend of mine (you know who you are). On the previous evening we chatted about comedies and actors. We found that we both like Adam Sandler and also Robin Williams. I thought to myself that I wasn't aware of what he had been up to the past couple of years, didn't hear of him for a while. But I was too tired to check just then. I went to bed and the next morning I read in shock and total surprise my daily mails from the Guardian newspaper with latest news. Robin Williams was dead. When I went online with my chat programs, I read that my friend had already read the sad news, too.

So with some delay now, this M&M today in memory of Robin Williams. Philip Seymour Hoffman is an actor, probably unknown or by not too many German speaking people. In “Patch Adams” he's a fellow student and room mate of Patch Adams. Philip Seymour Hoffman died this year (February, 2^nd) and I write this entry in his memory, too.

Patch Adams is a movie from the year 1998 and tells the true (as always with feature movies, for dramatic reasons not always the very true) story of Hunter “Patch” Adams. Okay, I know close to nothing about the real Patch Adams and many (online) reviews about this movie are rather negative. Since I know only very little about the “real” Patch Adams and this is a movie review anyway, I'll only stick to what's in the movie.


Hunter Adams is suicidal and admits himself to a hospital for treatment. His room mate is a man, who keeps him awake at night with a squeaking bed, because he needs to go to the toilet, but doesn't dare out of fear for the squirrels he sees. Adams starts a squirrel hunt then and shoots the squirrels (with his hand miming a pistol). After a wild squirrel shooting, the room mate is finally able to go to the toilet. Adams is impressed that he was able to help another person with humour and decides to study medicine to help even more.

During his studies, Adams notices that he doesn't have to learn much. We actually never see him sticking his nose in his books. (I don't know how much this was true. Although there are some lucky ones, who really don't need to do much to learn and remember things.) Adams notices something else, too: the doctors seem often very functional and stern and distant towards patients. Once they talk about a patient in the hospital as she's lying in bed, surrounded by the students and the doctor. They talk about her illness (diabetes with poor circulation and diabetic neuropathy), also treatment (shocked the patient hears the possibility of “amputation”). Then Adams asks, “What's her name?” All just look at him. “I was just wondering the patient's name”, he says. The doctor has to look at the chart. “Marjorie.” “Hi Marjorie”, Adams greets her smiling at her and addressing her personally.

In time he also makes friends with patients and is able to give them some treats and grant them wishes. Some find it “a little disturbing”, that he's sneaking into a room full of kids (the children's ward) and “acting like a clown”. Surely he was eccentric in that scene. Surely I personally couldn't get out of myself like that. Simply because I'm too shy and introverted for something like that. But “disturbing”? Because he's a man among children? He isn't a child molester! He wanted to make the children laugh and they were happy! What's so wrong about that?

Like many Hollywood movies, this one too can't come without a love story. Patch Adams befriends with female student. At first she only wants to study and not make friends, tells him that, too. Some say that Patch Adams is pushy and reckless, forcing his will and happiness on everybody else. I read that just now, as I was reading some comments at the imdb.com Patch Adams forum. All I can say is that I didn't see this movie and certain scenes in that way so far. Anyway, his girlfriend meets this mentally disturbed patient as the movie goes on, which leads Patch Adams to a faith and life crisis for a short time. (From what I read, this student/girlfriend never existed. One might wonder why all of that is in the movie then.) She meets this patient when she and others help Patch Adams starting a free hospital, even though they're still students. Because Adams is shocked when he sees that desperate relatives are first asked to fill out forms and give information when their sick partner is clearly in pain and in need of immediate help.

The fact that Patch Adams is always happy, seemingly never learning and still gets top grades and that he's practising medicine without a doctor's degree, leads him to almost not be able to finish his studies. So he goes to the court and that fight fills the last about 15 minutes of the movie.

Like I already wrote, I don't know much about the life and works of the real Patch Adams. It may also be questionable why Patch Adams gets this girlfriend, who has to go through what we see in the movie. I have no idea how eccentric the real Patch Adams is or isn't and whether Robin Williams' portrayal is realistic or not. Some critics ask in a provocative way if you really like to be treated by a doctor wearing a red clown nose. I'd like to tell those people one thing. A couple of years back there was a hot summer and I went to see a female doctor. It was so hot that most girls and women wore short t-shirts or sleeveless tops. When the doctor came into the room, she didn't have her coat on. She asked me, if I was okay with that. I don't remember, what I actually said to her. Certainly something affirmative. Today and in hindsight I might have asked her, whether her knowledge is in her coat or in her head and depending on it, I would have insisted on the coat or not.

Tastes differ. Nobody has to like the movie “Patch Adams” or watch it. I still think some thoughts expressed in that movie are important: being friendly to the patients, asking them every now and then, how they're doing or what they would like, instead of talking about then in their presence in a sort of “Mrs. Broken-Leg” and “Mr. Terminal Cancer” sort of way. Especially the American health care system is in need of a change. The idea of a free hospital therefore is commendable and worthy of support. For fans of Robin Williams, who didn't know Patch Adams and his works, at least he showed them that and I think that's a good thing.

Until next blog,

sarah