underground

April 15 movie: Underground. I was deeply affected by this story about German anti-fascists who broadcast an underground radio station. Released six months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when a few Hollywood movies were out there trying to win American support for getting involved in the war. It was an incredible movie. Exciting, tightly plotted, suspenseful, sharp dialogue, strong performances. Stars Philip Dorn as the leader of the radio movement, and Jeffrey Lynn as his brother, a loyal Nazi soldier, were especially good.

I read later that many of the actors were themselves anti-Nazis who had fled Germany and the surrounding countries, for instance Dorn was Dutch. This lent the performances a visceral intensity. And .. okay, I can't continue my review because this movie has brought up some strong feelings for me. Maybe this was the wrong thing to watch the day before the torture memos were released. The movie is about people sacrificing everything to stop their government from committing atrocities. The movie never mentions the Holocaust, I'm not sure if the filmmakers would have known about it that early on. The crime the Nazis are shown committing is torture of captured resistance members. I know the movie is fictional, but people like that did exist. Tens of thousands of Germans were killed for resisting the Nazis. Well, we've just gotten proof of what we already knew: torture was the official policy of the US government for years. Why didn't the American people rise up in outrage against this? Why didn't I, where the fuck was I? Did I think sitting on my ass and hating George Bush was a sufficient response? Writing the occasional angry blog post, that was supposed to accomplish something? Eight years ago I would have called torture by the US government unthinkable. When confronted with the unthinkable, my reaction was so tepid. I'm deeply disappointed in myself.