Thursday, June 13, 2002
We shan’t forget - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- Exactly one week ago, I was reminded that it was the 58th anniversary of the Allied forces landing on the beaches of Normandy. D-Day, as history has recorded it. I’m sure people older than me, and people in general, but more likely people who lived through the war will want us all to remember the sacrifices of those who fought and died. And last Thursday in particular, to remember those that braved the shores of France on their way to defeat Hitler.
Last Thursday morning, I caught on BBC Canada a showing of a film called A Foreign Field. Done in 1993, its script was writ by one Roy Clarke, who has scripted British television works like Last of The Summer Wine and Keeping Up Appearances. Director Charles Sturridge, who’s directed the epic telepics Brideshead Revisited and Gulliver’s Travels, has got a hell of a cast to work with too. Besides an Oscar for Bridge of the River Kwai and an Honorary Oscar, Alec Guinness is probably remembered for his part in Star Wars. The late Guinness stars with Leo McKern, who some will remember from Rumpole of Bailey; and screen legend Lauren Bacall and French film legend Jeanne Moreau. Also there for the ride are Edward Herrman and Geraldine Chaplin, the daughter of the Charlie Chaplin.
Guinness plays Amos, a war vet, who with buddy Cyril (played by McKern) return to France to see the grave of another war pal. Amos is mentally challenged, rarely saying a word, playing a harmonica all the time. During the war he took a shell in his head, thus the reliance on his old pal Cyril. Cyril, a crusty old Brit, puts up with Amos’ attacks and childlike behaviour because Amos took that shell for him.
While staying at a hotel, they’re joined by an American named Waldo (played by John Randolph) and his daughter and son-in-law. Daughter is Chaplin, who’s a difficult and intolerant woman. Edward Herrman puts up with her and supports Waldo as he searches for a French woman, who during the war, he had an affair with. Seems that the woman, is the same Cyril is looking for. Cyril and that woman -- Jeanne Moreau in her comical best -- too had an affair. At the same hotel is Lauren Bacall’s Lisa. A rich American who is there to visit the grave of her brother, also killed on D-Day. Moreau’s character Angelique turns out to be a prostitute who took the injured in, and as such can’t remember Cyril or Waldo.
As Amos and Cyril go off to see their fallen friend’s grave, Waldo and his family, with Angelique and Lisa go along for the ride. They reminisce about the war and about how great sacrifices were made. Amos suffers an attack and while he’s holed up in the hospital, Chaplin’s own cold demeanour to her father, his friends, and her own husband melts. They’re all in it together off to visit their dead, until Lisa (Bacall) reveals that her brother was a German soldier. Lisa, herself a German faces an immediate coldness from her American and British friends. Even Amos is disturbed. Cyril and Waldo are upset naturally, angry at Lisa’s ethnicity; until Amos notices the date of Lisa’s brother’s death -- June 6, 1944. Amos, who realises that that is the same day their friend died, salutes the grave. Cyril and Waldo follow suit realising that though they fought against “their” kind, the German’s gave as good as they got on the beaches of Normandy.
I liked A Foreign Field. It’s a little movie, with a great cast and a good story. It’s attempt at beating prejudice isn’t on the level of a To Kill A Mockingbird, but it is a charming piece that entertains. A sentimental bloke, my eyes weren’t dry at a couple of points during the film. Alec Guinness, who doesn’t have many lines at all, plays a wonderful character who breaks your heart. He epitomises the many faceless soldiers who were willing to give, and give so much. Guinness’ character Amos, says at one point, he’d want to give his life, so that the third of their triumvirate of Brit fighters could be alive today. He did take that hit in his head, which Cyril is forever grateful, and for which his life was forever altered.
Admittedly, I’d be scared to offer up my services for a fight like that. To fight so, would be utterly incomprehensible for me. I probably don’t have the guts in me to sacrifice my own life, as so many that died during the Second World War, and especially those that fought and died on the 6th of June 1944. When I think of those that lived beyond that war and came back, demons and all, I am forever grateful for their life’s work.
It is cliché to say that those that fought in the First and Second World Wars died in the pursuit of the freedom we enjoy today. I think most of us realise that, but I worry for those that forget. See the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan and see the horrendous reality of D-Day; you can’t help but feel for those that were there that unbelievable day.
Nothing will come from this piece, but this bloke’s eternal gratefulness. I’m a feckless, gutless, bastard who complains a lot, most of the time. That ability to bitch is probably thanks to the actions of those like the ones dramatised in A Foreign Field. Sometimes we need to take a moment for those millions who died in the combat of war. We also need to realise that there are some, who are still around, living with the ghosts of wars’ past.
Conflict is naturally inevitable. I won’t preach in this space and say that we should all make love instead of war. That’s a load of bullocks and I’d be hypocritical. We all need to fight when principle is involved. There’s nothing but nobility in that kind of battle. I’m proud and certainly, forever grateful. As they say at a certain time of the year, lest we forget.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .