Ngee Ann has a huge department in their library that loans out collections of video recordings (including movies and documentaries) and music cds (mini HMV... makes things clear?)
I went through their racks of VHS tapes and DVDs and found almost everything that i can imagine coming out of a library. There were German movies, Korean movies, Japanese Movies, Russian Movies, English movies and of course, Chinese movies. there were also documentaries and interviews and guides to everything like cooking, filmmaking, cosmetics, fashion, history and piano and violin and the other arts.
So this morning, before class started and all, i spent abt an hr watching a VHS tape (those huge tapes that play video... yup.. they're still around.) on pianists and i learned of many styles of playing. Some were energetic but unmusical, otherwise were simple but were great masterpieces...
Then after school... after lunch and al that.. i went up to the library myself again to watch this German show called,"Die Brucke" (pronounced, Dee B-gh-u-ck-eh) which means "The Bridge" in English. Shaun loaned it up for me and i spent the next hr and a half watching this monumental, powerful and moving piece about seven boys (literally... they were abt 15-17 years old) being sent to serve the Wehrmacht in 1944 as part the operation to fill up spaces in the German army during the march to victory of the allies to Berlin. Though they didnt fight in Berlin, they fought in, surprisingly, their own neighbourhood.
This story captures the essence of German boys, fantasized in the idea of the romance and glory of war, being called up for the army and the response of their guardians to it and the outcome of the boys when they suddenly get thrown into the heat of a small encounter with the americans.
This black and white movie produced on film in 1956 (arent u narrow minded movie watchers bored?) was intimidating to me. For one, it was entirely in German. I was truly shocked that the Germans spoke that way in real life! At one moment... a father speaks softly and caringly to his son, who is shouting his throat out in the most complex mix of throat and tongue control i have ever heard in my life... and the next moment, the father explodes in a fury of harsh and brutal-sounding mix of German vocabulary, even though what he said has no vulgarities at all! In other aspects, the German people portrayed in the movie were disciplined and ordered, unlike those of the Americans.
Secondlay, the wailings of a poor single-parent mother at a policemen to plead for her son to be put in jail so that he does not have to be sent to the army. neverheless, the boy was persistent and enthusiastic about being drawn into the military.
Soon all these seven friends ended up in the same platoon of some sort, performing non-sensical drills at the mercy of seasoned soldiers. Even through all these training, they were still very enthusiastic about being sent to war and abided by military doctrines at the most strictest as possible (saluting all officers that are around, responding to high ranking soldiers with the utmost discipline, even though the higher ranking person was at a more friendly state)
And then, in the middle of the night, they suddenly get appointed to defend a bridge. This bridge is the same old bridge that they played on since young. A tree house they build nearby meant for their Sherif and Indians game was used as a spotting post.
Their honorable in-charge left them that night, to contact witht he demolitions squad (the bridge was suppsoed to be destroyed once the americans come.. but the boys didnt know that). But he never got to it because of a squabble between a tensed guard which resulted in the in-charge riddled with submachinegun fire, after being chased by the his own countrymen on their twin bikes down an alleyway, levaing the inexperinced boys stranded.
The innocence and immaturity of the boys on war were also made eveident by their games of shooting tin cans with their pistol and pointing a gun at a civilian who warned them of the dangers that lie ahead.
Things took a turn when a convoy of the German army rumbled through. The loads of trucks were packed full of wounded, dirty and burning veteran soldiers. clung anywhere on the trucks: on the fenders, from the driver;s window, and some were literally sitting beside the engine of the vehicle since the engine cover went off. The brief dialogue of a middle aged, badly bruised up German on what he thought upon seeing this group of clean and gawking boys guarding a bridge plus him showing his compassion by tossing over a box of chocolates to them reinforced the inhumanity of the Germans to send their youths to war.
Soon morning breaks... and the boys came to the realization of war. It all starts when an American plane strafes the bridge and kills one of them, the youngest most quiet of them. A truck explodes as the strafing bullets hit. The boys forget all about theiir war fantasies and set up defensive positions to defend the bridge.
Then the rumbling of American tanks are heard from behind the farm houses.
it starts to get louder... but in an antagonisingly long period of time.
The boys peer out of their foxholes... machinegun ready to fire. One of them hides behind the tree trunk up on the tree. The other two get ready to fire with their rifles.
the rumbling still gets louder.
Till finally...
A body of iron turns into their sights. This is probably the first time ever that ive seen a tank in black and white film. It was marvellous. Witht he absence of colour, details start to become more prominetn. I was fixed on what was in focus. Colours really does call a lot of attention to itself.
The tank had a slight glean to it.
Then another tank rolls in from behind. it crushes a fence, rolls over grass and mud is dripping from its wheels.
the boys look on, waiting. One of them starts to cry. The other gawks. And another hides, praying. The enemy... the adults.. the soldiers.. wer within a stone's throw from them.
One boy picks up a panzerfaust (tank grenade) and lets one go at the tank.
BOOM!
the tank slowly rools towards his direction.. and explodes again.
Machine guns open fire.
the tanks start firing back, aimlessly, at the bulding behind them.
An american jeep appears from ebhind the smoke, infantry disembarks and rushes into a house nearby. they all start fring.
The boy on the tree fires a shot. He gets on american in the head. He smiles.
Ironically, since the action was tking pplace in their hometown, the house of one the boy, witht he wailing mother, was near the bridge. German officers look on from the window and onto the bridge, mocking at how idiotic the boys were resisting the americans. The officers wanted the american to roll in onto the bridge so that they can blow it up.
One by one throght out the story, the boys die.
I have never seen, in a movie, the intense emotins of a person who has just lost his friend, all shown on his facial and verbal expressions. and to add to that, some of them angrily crawl out of their foxhole and run straight towards the tank, commititing suicide in a way.
an encounter with one the boys who managed to dive/crawl into the house where the americans were earned another one of my points.
The americna soldier, after realizing the person he was about to shoot was a mere teenager, he said,"What are you doing in this freaking war?!"
The boy, frightned and sobbing, suddenly gives out a hellish yell and the tank behind him fires a round into the house, killing everyone inside.
At the end of it all.... only two boys were left. The americans have retreated after the stong opposition form the boys.
The boys walk silently back across the bridge. ....
...
A kubelwagon (German jeep) dries by. An oficer comes out. oblivious to at the state the boys were in now: bloody and dirty. He orders the other two guys in the jeep to set up explosives.
The story closes up by showing the outcome of the boys after the battle: traumatized.
A conflict sparked when one of the boys ressited the officer's intentions to bblow the bridge up, which resulted in both sides pointing up their guns at each other. then BANG. the other boy shoots the officer before anything could happen. Th etwo soldiers started making noise but the promptly drove away in fear when the boy started yelling in the most crazed and disturbing way you can ever imagine, in German.
Could you even imagine how much a young boy like that can be so traumatized by something that he starts turning into the likes of the devil? The agony and pain you see in this video will definitely make you think.
But before the jeep disappears, one of the guys shoots a bursst of gunfire at the boy, killing him.
the sotry finally closes with the other boy, heaving and crying out loud at the inumanity and insanity of war, dragging along his dead friend across the ground (and u can even hear the helmets dragging one ht sand)... finally letting go of him, as if he gave up on everyting in this world.
I know i ddnt do a good job in reviewing this movie (my chat windows suddenly got busy in the middle of writing, i lost momentum.) but i can assure you that this is just one spectacular and powerful piece of film i have ever seen about war and its social effects.
I came out of that viewing room in the library, slightly traumatized by the sights and sounds of wailing mothers and angry fathers and boys in torturous agony. It just wasnt one of those movies whereby you come out of the theatre and start thinking of where to go next.
I met up with Justin, shuan mitch, charlene and joyce aftet that at Galileo (some fancy named restaurant situated on top of a mudhill in Ngee Ann). And shuan kept asking if i was okay cause i looked "dazed and ill".
Now we all know why.
Tomorrow's a new day... im gonna watch a few more films....... whoel day in the library watching tons of films. Not bad eh?
I went through their racks of VHS tapes and DVDs and found almost everything that i can imagine coming out of a library. There were German movies, Korean movies, Japanese Movies, Russian Movies, English movies and of course, Chinese movies. there were also documentaries and interviews and guides to everything like cooking, filmmaking, cosmetics, fashion, history and piano and violin and the other arts.
So this morning, before class started and all, i spent abt an hr watching a VHS tape (those huge tapes that play video... yup.. they're still around.) on pianists and i learned of many styles of playing. Some were energetic but unmusical, otherwise were simple but were great masterpieces...
Then after school... after lunch and al that.. i went up to the library myself again to watch this German show called,"Die Brucke" (pronounced, Dee B-gh-u-ck-eh) which means "The Bridge" in English. Shaun loaned it up for me and i spent the next hr and a half watching this monumental, powerful and moving piece about seven boys (literally... they were abt 15-17 years old) being sent to serve the Wehrmacht in 1944 as part the operation to fill up spaces in the German army during the march to victory of the allies to Berlin. Though they didnt fight in Berlin, they fought in, surprisingly, their own neighbourhood.
This story captures the essence of German boys, fantasized in the idea of the romance and glory of war, being called up for the army and the response of their guardians to it and the outcome of the boys when they suddenly get thrown into the heat of a small encounter with the americans.
This black and white movie produced on film in 1956 (arent u narrow minded movie watchers bored?) was intimidating to me. For one, it was entirely in German. I was truly shocked that the Germans spoke that way in real life! At one moment... a father speaks softly and caringly to his son, who is shouting his throat out in the most complex mix of throat and tongue control i have ever heard in my life... and the next moment, the father explodes in a fury of harsh and brutal-sounding mix of German vocabulary, even though what he said has no vulgarities at all! In other aspects, the German people portrayed in the movie were disciplined and ordered, unlike those of the Americans.
Secondlay, the wailings of a poor single-parent mother at a policemen to plead for her son to be put in jail so that he does not have to be sent to the army. neverheless, the boy was persistent and enthusiastic about being drawn into the military.
Soon all these seven friends ended up in the same platoon of some sort, performing non-sensical drills at the mercy of seasoned soldiers. Even through all these training, they were still very enthusiastic about being sent to war and abided by military doctrines at the most strictest as possible (saluting all officers that are around, responding to high ranking soldiers with the utmost discipline, even though the higher ranking person was at a more friendly state)
And then, in the middle of the night, they suddenly get appointed to defend a bridge. This bridge is the same old bridge that they played on since young. A tree house they build nearby meant for their Sherif and Indians game was used as a spotting post.
Their honorable in-charge left them that night, to contact witht he demolitions squad (the bridge was suppsoed to be destroyed once the americans come.. but the boys didnt know that). But he never got to it because of a squabble between a tensed guard which resulted in the in-charge riddled with submachinegun fire, after being chased by the his own countrymen on their twin bikes down an alleyway, levaing the inexperinced boys stranded.
The innocence and immaturity of the boys on war were also made eveident by their games of shooting tin cans with their pistol and pointing a gun at a civilian who warned them of the dangers that lie ahead.
Things took a turn when a convoy of the German army rumbled through. The loads of trucks were packed full of wounded, dirty and burning veteran soldiers. clung anywhere on the trucks: on the fenders, from the driver;s window, and some were literally sitting beside the engine of the vehicle since the engine cover went off. The brief dialogue of a middle aged, badly bruised up German on what he thought upon seeing this group of clean and gawking boys guarding a bridge plus him showing his compassion by tossing over a box of chocolates to them reinforced the inhumanity of the Germans to send their youths to war.
Soon morning breaks... and the boys came to the realization of war. It all starts when an American plane strafes the bridge and kills one of them, the youngest most quiet of them. A truck explodes as the strafing bullets hit. The boys forget all about theiir war fantasies and set up defensive positions to defend the bridge.
Then the rumbling of American tanks are heard from behind the farm houses.
it starts to get louder... but in an antagonisingly long period of time.
The boys peer out of their foxholes... machinegun ready to fire. One of them hides behind the tree trunk up on the tree. The other two get ready to fire with their rifles.
the rumbling still gets louder.
Till finally...
A body of iron turns into their sights. This is probably the first time ever that ive seen a tank in black and white film. It was marvellous. Witht he absence of colour, details start to become more prominetn. I was fixed on what was in focus. Colours really does call a lot of attention to itself.
The tank had a slight glean to it.
Then another tank rolls in from behind. it crushes a fence, rolls over grass and mud is dripping from its wheels.
the boys look on, waiting. One of them starts to cry. The other gawks. And another hides, praying. The enemy... the adults.. the soldiers.. wer within a stone's throw from them.
One boy picks up a panzerfaust (tank grenade) and lets one go at the tank.
BOOM!
the tank slowly rools towards his direction.. and explodes again.
Machine guns open fire.
the tanks start firing back, aimlessly, at the bulding behind them.
An american jeep appears from ebhind the smoke, infantry disembarks and rushes into a house nearby. they all start fring.
The boy on the tree fires a shot. He gets on american in the head. He smiles.
Ironically, since the action was tking pplace in their hometown, the house of one the boy, witht he wailing mother, was near the bridge. German officers look on from the window and onto the bridge, mocking at how idiotic the boys were resisting the americans. The officers wanted the american to roll in onto the bridge so that they can blow it up.
One by one throght out the story, the boys die.
I have never seen, in a movie, the intense emotins of a person who has just lost his friend, all shown on his facial and verbal expressions. and to add to that, some of them angrily crawl out of their foxhole and run straight towards the tank, commititing suicide in a way.
an encounter with one the boys who managed to dive/crawl into the house where the americans were earned another one of my points.
The americna soldier, after realizing the person he was about to shoot was a mere teenager, he said,"What are you doing in this freaking war?!"
The boy, frightned and sobbing, suddenly gives out a hellish yell and the tank behind him fires a round into the house, killing everyone inside.
At the end of it all.... only two boys were left. The americans have retreated after the stong opposition form the boys.
The boys walk silently back across the bridge. ....
...
A kubelwagon (German jeep) dries by. An oficer comes out. oblivious to at the state the boys were in now: bloody and dirty. He orders the other two guys in the jeep to set up explosives.
The story closes up by showing the outcome of the boys after the battle: traumatized.
A conflict sparked when one of the boys ressited the officer's intentions to bblow the bridge up, which resulted in both sides pointing up their guns at each other. then BANG. the other boy shoots the officer before anything could happen. Th etwo soldiers started making noise but the promptly drove away in fear when the boy started yelling in the most crazed and disturbing way you can ever imagine, in German.
Could you even imagine how much a young boy like that can be so traumatized by something that he starts turning into the likes of the devil? The agony and pain you see in this video will definitely make you think.
But before the jeep disappears, one of the guys shoots a bursst of gunfire at the boy, killing him.
the sotry finally closes with the other boy, heaving and crying out loud at the inumanity and insanity of war, dragging along his dead friend across the ground (and u can even hear the helmets dragging one ht sand)... finally letting go of him, as if he gave up on everyting in this world.
I know i ddnt do a good job in reviewing this movie (my chat windows suddenly got busy in the middle of writing, i lost momentum.) but i can assure you that this is just one spectacular and powerful piece of film i have ever seen about war and its social effects.
I came out of that viewing room in the library, slightly traumatized by the sights and sounds of wailing mothers and angry fathers and boys in torturous agony. It just wasnt one of those movies whereby you come out of the theatre and start thinking of where to go next.
I met up with Justin, shuan mitch, charlene and joyce aftet that at Galileo (some fancy named restaurant situated on top of a mudhill in Ngee Ann). And shuan kept asking if i was okay cause i looked "dazed and ill".
Now we all know why.
Tomorrow's a new day... im gonna watch a few more films....... whoel day in the library watching tons of films. Not bad eh?
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Audi
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