Generation War is a 2013 German film directed by Philipp Kadelbach and starring Volker Bruch, Tom Schilling, Katharina Schüttler, Miriam Stein, Ludwig Trepte, who play the five central characters brothers Wilhelm and Friedhelm Winter, Greta, Charlotte and Viktor. The movie is a historical drama attempting at providing a non-conventional view on the Germans, Poles and Russians and their behavior and beliefs during the World War II. The movie has caused controversial reaction throughout Europe, the United States and in Israel. The main reason for that is a perceived attempt of the German director to reconstruct the history and somewhat justify non-Nazi Germans, who at first believed in the rightfulness and necessity of war, as well as proclamations of the government, but later realized that they were deceived, and the ideas of Hitler and his companions are inconsistent with their own morale. The movie portrays the 4-year life of the four childhood friends and Victor during the wartime, when all of them are found torn apart and scattered on the territories of Europe. As the central characters do their best to survive and preserve sanity in the atrocities of war, the plot unveils moral dilemmas, hard choices and breakdowns the characters have to face during the unexpectedly long war.
The movie starts with five friends gathering in the tavern in Berlin to say goodbye to each other before parting. Wilhelm, who is also a Wehrmacht officer, and his brother Friedhelm go to the Eastern front, while Charlotte, who is in love with Wilhelm, chooses to join the army as a nurse; Greta is an aspiring singer and a girlfriend of Victor, a Jewish tailor. Wilhelm still believes in the good cause of the government and is faithful to his country. Meanwhile, his brother Friedhelm is, to the contrary, very far away from being a soldier and a killer. He has a romantic and soft nature, which will be drastically changed by his war experience. Charlotte is also a patriot, whose views on the Nazi cause and war will change over the years spent in hospitals seeing thousands of heavily wounded and dead soldiers. Greta, as a singer, wants to become as big as Marlene Dietrich. She chooses to become a lover of Martin Dorn, an officer of Gestapo, in order to try and obtain the U.S. passport for Victor and save him from the concentration camps. Victor is the only one, who really understands that war will not end quickly. All of the characters have to face moral dilemmas: Wilhelm has to shoot a Russian officer because of the established orders, Greta has to sleep with the Gestapo officer to help Victor and also promote her career, Charlotte betrays Lilija, a Ukrainian Jewish assistant in the hospital, but regrets her decision right before the woman is captured, and Friedhelm has to refuse his romantic personality and become a harsh killer in order to survive, but he still saves Victor by killing his own patron (O'Sullivan). All five friends become disappointed with the government and fail to see romanticism in war and victory, as fate surrounds them by the non-stopping deaths and betrayal. The movie, inter alia, envisions the Red Army in a negative way, showing its soldiers as barbarian rapists, and portrays the Polish partisan movement as anti-Semitic.
The movie is not a documentary, and for this reason there is no need for historical accuracy, for the lack of which it has been heavily criticized. First and foremost, although the Red Army soldiers behaved outrageously, the soldiers of other armies are known to have raped women and killed innocent people just as much. Although anti-Semitism was widespread in Europe in the beginning of the XX century, and there is possibility that the Polish partisan movement Armia Krajowa contained anti-Semites, their assistance in fighting the Nazi regime and freeing Jewish people from the concentration camps is recorded, recognized and undeniable. Nonetheless, the director of Generation War tried to show the other side of the war, where not all Germans were Nazi and supported the regime, and not all Polish partisans and Red Army soldiers were saviors. The outrage of the critics is mainly caused by the overly apologetic plot describing the sufferings of the average citizens, who were not forced to go to war, but were rather supposedly blinded by Hitler’s speeches and, thus, could not make morally right decisions at first. According to Viv Groskop at The Guardian, “Generation War didn't ask us to hug a Nazi. It just asked us to imagine what it felt like to be one” (Groskop). And while there can be no apology to what average Germans agreed their government to involve them into, it is only advantageous to try and see the world during the war from the perspective of people, who did not have enough courage or common sense to make the right choices during the first years of war and several years into it. The superb of the leading cast increases the effect for the viewer and makes people sympathize with the characters’ problems and dilemmas without justifying them. The directors of the movie have also sugarcoated the facts and created a beautiful picture reminding of the Mad Man series for the more dramatic effect and to enhance the intensity of the viewer’s feelings (Groskop).
The movie is recommended for the audience above 16 years of age because of the violent scenes containing sex. While the older viewers might not be fascinated by the somewhat revisionist portrayal of the ordinary Germans, the younger audience, who does not know much about the World War II, might have many questions about the movie after viewing it, which might encourage them to research more about the history of those times. The movie may cause mixed feelings because of the well-known facts about the results of the War that, at the same time, conflict with the feelings of sympathy toward the protagonists, who go through a hard moral revolution during their experience. As a result, Generation War will not leave a viewer emotionless, as it provides food for reflection on the topic of moral choice in the conditions of war, where one’s friends are both victims and perpatrators.
Works Cited
Groskop, Viv. "Generation War: What Did You Make of BBC2's German Drama?" The Guardian. 12 May 2014. Web. 6 Dec. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2014/may/12/generation-war-bbc-nazi-germany>.
Generation War. Perf. Volker Bruch, Tom Schilling, Katharina Schüttler, Miriam Stein, Ludwig Trepte. Beta Film, 2013. Film.
O'Sullivan, Michael. "'Generation War' Movie Review." The Washington Post. The Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 6 Dec. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/generation-war-movie-review/2014/03/12/ace69d4e-a92e-11e3-b61e-8051b8b52d06_story.html>.
