D-Day: June 6, 1944

73 years ago on this day the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy and changed the course of history for the better. It's a good day to spare a moment to be thoughtful and thankful.

Memorial Day in the Netherlands

A good read for the day.

Greece Demands €297 Billion in WWII Reparations From Germany

Good luck with that.

Movie Review: "The Imitation Game" (2014)

Demand the genuine article. 

  

This movie review is long delayed, but I promised La Parisienne that I would write one ... and a lady keeps her promises (even if she's not always punctual!).  The Imitation Game is Oscar-bait biopic filmmaking at its most quintessential, and even if the film ultimately failed to win that golden statuette for fangirl favorite Benedict Cumberbatch in his role as Alan Turing, it is still a largely solid project even if it (inevitably) takes liberties with factuality and (even more inevitably) verges on hagiography.  

In short, The Imitation Game is a movie you watch once and enjoy in the watching (hey, look, it's Tanner from the Bond movies, Tom Branson from Downton Abbey, and Tywin Lannister from Game of Thrones!), but it is also a movie that (aside from Cumberbatch's elegantly messy turn as Turing) I swiftly forgot when I left the theatre.  Maybe I should simply refer to the famous Turing Test for seeing if an intelligent machine can be mistaken for a human being.  This movie plays as a machine.  It's not human.  Oh, it tries.  Cumberbatch tries, and he tries on an Oscar caliber level.  But this movie both tries too hard and not hard enough.

I think part of the problem is that the movie keeps leaping among three different time periods: Turing's schoolboy days as an awkward adolescent, the thick of World War II and Bletchley Park's attempt to break the devilishly complex Nazi code enabled by the Enigma machine, and then 1952, when Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality (still criminalized under British law at the time).  The three separate threads do not come together into a unified whole, and so the final product seems disjointed and not a little incoherent.  Besides, Turing as a historical figure is far more (and far more interesting) than "tortured, persecuted genius," and I'm sorry to say that in the end, that is what the film makes of him, first and foremost.

Mad Minerva gives The Imitation Game the grade of B+.  Part of that grade is in grateful acknowledgment of how the flick resists the temptation to be a bloated, 3-hour-long, self-indulgent behemoth.  Another part is for Keira Knightley, who manages not only to be not annoying but actually interesting as a character.  Most of the B+, though, is for Benedict Cumberbatch, who is hands down the single best thing about this entire film.

The Imitation Game runs 114 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sexual references and some adult themes and situations.

Rotten Tomatoes gives The Imitation Game the Fresh rating of 89%.

The 2015 Rose Parade

This year's Tournament of Roses, one of my favorite New Year's traditions, has the theme "Inspiring Stories" to honor remarkable men and women.  I was surprised and delighted to see this beautiful float!

Recognize the motto "Go For Broke"?  It's from the 442nd, of which several veterans were on the float this morning.  If you aren't familiar with its history, please do look it up when you have a moment.

A Letter From 1944

Extraordinary letter to Mom and Dad from a son shipping out to war.  Here's a piece of it: "Do not pray only that I shall return, but that I will have the power to do my duty."

George Takei on the WWII Internment of Japanese Americans

Takei was 5 years old when he and his family were sent to the camps.  Here is Takei's story.  He also talks about the incredible 442nd Infantry Regiment composed of Japanese Americans.  Do take a listen to his thoughtful take on being American and on the ideals of democracy.  

A German Commander Reports on the Allied Invasion of Normandy

Here's something I hadn't come across before!  Take a look at a piece of Field Marshal Karl R. Gerd von Rundstedt's report:

I--Four facts which must be emphasized:
(1) The enemy's complete mastery in the air.
(2) The skillful and large-scale employment of enemy parachute and airborne troops,
(3) The flexible and well-directed support of the land troops by ships' artillery of strong English naval units ranging from battleship to gunboat.
(4) The rehearsal of the enemy invasion units for their task; most precise knowledge of the coast, of its obstacles and defense establishments, swift building up of superiority in numbers and material on the bridgehead after just a few days.

Normandy on D-Day and 70 Years After

Remarkable photographs from then and now.  See this too.

While you're thinking about the day, take a few minutes for:

• Jim Martin, the 93-year-old Ohio vet who will parachute back into Normandy to mark the occasion by making the same jump he did 70 years ago as a private in the 101st Airborne.
• A glance across the pond, where the BBC has Sir Patrick Stewart, Toby Jones, and Benedict Cumberbatch reading bulletins from D-Day in chronological order of their original broadcast.

Ave atque Vale: Chester Nez (1921-2014)

Mr. Nez was the last of the 29 Navajo Code Talkers of WWII.  The Code Talkers' work was not declassified until 1968 ... and the Japanese never did crack that code.

Auschwitz and Academic Freedom

Can you get in trouble for taking your students to Auschwitz to teach them about the Holocaust?  Apparently you can.  The situation seems very odd, though, and there might be legal action pending.

Nerd Notes: A Princeton Freshman Checks His Privilege

It's not what you think.  This little op-ed has blown up the Nerdverse, and plenty of people are unloading on the guy, but you should first read what he has to say.

You Don't Shut Down Memorials To People Who Once Shut Hitler Down

Photo of the week as WWII vets refuse to be barricaded out of their own memorial, government shutdown or not.  Seriously, in terms of cynical PR here, the Administration really blew it.  Oh, and more shenanigans at the Iwo Jima memorial.  

People aren't having it.  You know, when you provoke a bunch of 80-year-old war heroes to civil disobedience, you're doing it wrong.

Quote of the Day: Remembering D-Day

Ace of Spades:

You know what I did this morning? Maybe it would be better if I told you what I didn't do this morning. 

I didn't have to spend over 12 hours on a transport ship in choppy water, then clamber down a cargo net into a plywood landing craft, all while carrying up to 100 pounds of gear on my back. Then, I didn't ride through the rough surf in that little plywood target, only to have the steel ramp (the only part of the little plywood boat that was even remotely bullet-resistant) flop down and drop me into the cold ocean water in front of a beach filled with steel obstacles, mines, flying bullets & exploding artillery rounds. 

I didn't fly over enemy occupied territory at 1000 feet in a C47 cargo plane and then jump out of the plane into the teeth of enemy anti-aircraft fire. I didn't have to worry about my bright white silk parachute making me a good target for troops on the ground who wanted to use me for target practice, and after I landed, I didn't have to worry about engaging a vastly superior force with only the gear I carried with me (providing that said gear wasn't ripped off by the turbulence I encountered exiting the plane) with whoever I could gather together from the other troops dropped behind enemy lines the same as I was. 

... You know what? Now that I've told you what I DIDN'T do this morning, what I actually DID seems pretty freakin' trivial. Veterans of the Normandy landing are becoming scarce now that we're sixty-five years down the road from that horrible day, but if you know one of them, make sure to thank them on this day.

RELATED: The bagpiper of D-Day.

Letters From the Pacific Theater

As we observe Memorial Day, here's a bit of fascinating history in the form of beautiful correspondence sent by Corporal Jack Fogarty from the Army's 98th Evacuation Hospital in World War II.  More here.

Rescue Me

Tales of real-life heroism and derring-do from 1939 to 2009.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Here's some fascinating forgotten history, a tale of two siblings. While one brother joined the Nazi Party, the other helped Jews during the Holocaust.  Meet Albert Göring, the younger brother of Hermann Göring.  Yes, that Hermann Göring.

Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs (and Kittens and Bunnies and Ducks) of War!

While I can't say much for Buzzfeed's (in)ability to spell the word "soldiers," I'll happily link to its charming collection of mostly vintage photos.  #11 made me do a double take.  Hey, that puppy looks kind of weird ...

Fugly or Fabulous: A Fashion Statement in Luxembourg 1945

All I can say is, it takes some real guts to wear this into battle.  Kudos, sir.

Movie Madness: OK, Who *Isn't* in "The Longest Day"?

I'm watching this classic movie while I'm working on research, and I just have to say: "What famous face from the glory days of Hollywood isn't in this film?"  It's like a Who's Who of that cinematic generation.  A heck of an ensemble cast, that.  Great epic movie too, by the way, winner of several 1962 Oscars.