morrisonhimself

Apparently very few people today, especially products of government schools, know about Operation Keelhaul, one of the most shameful episodes of a shame-filled history of the U. S. central government.

"Leaders" of the U. S. and U. K. governments were so eager to lick the boots of the second-worst butcher in human history, Josef Stalin, they almost blithely sentenced to death millions of anti- or at least non-communists who had fled Soviet Russia.

Some of those fleeing willingly joined armed forces fighting the Soviet armies, and many others were drafted into labor units and then often into fighting units.

Of the millions who had fled communist tyranny, many were women and children, but nothing mattered: They were all sentenced to be forcibly repatriated.

Operation Keelhaul was so evil, even the "news" media as well as the politicians (including Anthony Eden) and government bureaucrats have tried, ever since 1945, to keep this horrendous act covered up.

Only in relatively recent years have the facts been disclosed, about the lies told the prisoners and about the Allied troops literally using bayonets to herd the victims onto trucks and -- interesting optics -- cattle cars for the return, with many thousands of the prisoners being murdered immediately upon reaching Soviet soil!

"Red Danube" only barely hints at the other vicious and barbarous acts known as Operation Keelhaul. What is on the "Red Danube" screen is a microcosm, some quite specific acts by the Soviet authorities in the divided city of Vienna to capture and imprison individuals sought by the communist tyrants and butchers in Moscow.

It is sickening and horrifying that some reviewers here are "offended" by an accurate history of communist tyranny. What is worse is that Hollywood would not make such a historically accurate movie today.

"Red Danube" is not perfect, but in the context of accurate history of communist butchery, it is a must-see movie.

Not exciting, not engrossing, but still interesting for its clear-cut characters involved in daily life.

That life is being lived, or at least survived, in the frozen wastes of Maine ... and in fact the very first scene is snowy wintertime, with a temperature of 12 below zero.

To those of us used to sunnier climes, perhaps it is a puzzle just why anyone would want to be in any place that suffered through those kinds of winters; and that anyone could enjoy such winters is, honestly, beyond me, and I spent some three winters in North (brrrrr) Dakota.

Even more puzzling to us erstwhile desert-dwellers is that anyone could actually FARM such an environment.

In truth, though, that is part of what makes this movie as interesting as it is.

There really is a ring of truth: So many of the people do not, in fact, want to be farmers in snowy Maine, and that is the basis of some of the conflict that makes up this drama.

Most of the players are almost unknown today, although IMDb listing shows Shirley Temple in an unbilled bit. I didn't see her, but I'll look harder next time.

Despite their lack of fame, they show acting ability, and are nearly all thoroughly believable in this worthwhile film.

Last I heard, "As the Earth Turns" is available on YouTube, but for some reason in two parts and you will have to search for both. I hope you do.

Absolutely plausible prediction, based entirely on facts, that is, the obvious trends of governmental actions -- possibly even worse in Canada, where this animated short was produced, than in these increasingly repressed United States.

For several decades now (writing in 2023) there have been strong and even court-backed protests and opposition to right-wing and/or conservative and/or Christian attempts, and successful efforts, to impose moral beliefs into law.

In more recent years, a lot of those belief-system impositions, such as anti-gay laws, have been -- properly -- thrown out.

Perhaps buoyed by those successes, however, now the advocates, those previous victims, have taken the next step and started imposing their beliefs onto everyone else.

Beliefs, often claiming to be "scientifically proven," are being given the strength of laws and, far worse, government regulations.

Governments and their component politicians and -- again, far worse -- bureaucrats are using armed agents to tell people essentially how they "may" lead their own lives.

Everything in this little film has already, to one degree or another, and depending somewhat on where one resides, been forcibly imposed on the people. Everything, from what pharmaceuticals one may ingest to what clothing one may wear to what vehicle one may drive to, perhaps worst of all, what one may say and what one may read.

This animated short is very well done, even using bits of humor, but it should scare, maybe even terrify, every viewer. We are not totally fascistized or communized yet. A wide distribution of this little film might well help prevent the approaching tyranny.