अपनी भाषा में प्लॉट जोड़ेंA mild-mannered school teacher in a German-occupied town during World War II finds himself torn between collaboration and resistance.A mild-mannered school teacher in a German-occupied town during World War II finds himself torn between collaboration and resistance.A mild-mannered school teacher in a German-occupied town during World War II finds himself torn between collaboration and resistance.
- 1 ऑस्कर जीते
- कुल 4 जीत
- Judge
- (as Ivan Simpson)
- German Second Lieutenant
- (बिना क्रेडिट के)
- Captain Schwartz
- (बिना क्रेडिट के)
- German Sergeant
- (बिना क्रेडिट के)
- German Sergeant
- (बिना क्रेडिट के)
- Young Woman
- (बिना क्रेडिट के)
- Courtroom Guard Who Brings Albert's Notes
- (बिना क्रेडिट के)
फ़ीचर्ड समीक्षाएं
Director Renoir manages to inject some originality into well-trod territory. Laughton is very good as the weak-willed Albert, and he's ably matched by the strong and beautiful O'Hara. George Sanders seems a bit wasted in his role as a collaborator, but he gets one really good scene. The biggest surprise was Kent Smith, an actor who I usually regard as a waste of space. Here, playing a daring resistance fighter operating right under the Germans' noses, he's charismatic and exciting. The movie won an Oscar for Best Sound.
One last bit of comparative trivia: This Land Is Mine was a big hit, with a record-breaking opening weekend. This was because it opened on a then-unheard-of 72 screens. Today, the big superhero movies open on thousands of screens.
One could argue (as had been done in the comments here) that Laughton's transformation from mouse to man is rather too swift. I myself found it totally convincing but it is in the nature of Hollywood to exaggerate these things to make a good movie.
The comparison to "inherit the wind" and "To Kill a mockingbird" is well made here, but the question remains, why is this film so little known? The answer, I think, is that those films make the middle classes feel good about themselves. Everyone fancies themselves to be an Atticus Finch who can recognise the ignorance of 'common people'. But TLIM points the accusing finger at the Atticus Finch's of the world, the men of learning and intelligence who are quite prepared to justify working with evil and persuading themselves that it is not so bad. As such it is as relevant (sadly) as it ever was.
Rather than saving his own life by following the instructions of the German authorities, Laughton chooses to use the opportunity presented by his conducting his own defense to launch a masterful indictment of the Nazi regime. His speech to the jurors and the packed, public galleries is delivered with the sincerity and authority which only an actor with Laughton's many talents, could hope to muster. Inspired by Laughton's speech, the jurors find the courage to acquit him and Laughton dashes from the court to the school where he is a teacher.
Having made such a speech, Laughton knows that he has signed his own death warrant. There is just time, before the German soldiers come to take him away, for one final speech to his beloved class of school-children. Once again, Laughton produces the goods in this very touching scene as he reads to the children articles from the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
Most of this film is typical, low-budget, World War Two propaganda but Laughton raises it above the mediocre. Maureen O'Hara is gorgeous as the fellow teacher with whom Laughton is in love. Also worth watching, as ever, is Una O'Connor as Laughton's mother.
He got the best possible actor for his protagonist. Charles Laughton could play tortured and flawed human beings like no other actor ever could in the English speaking world. Here he is a French schoolteacher, middle-aged, shy, and mother dominated by Una O'Connor. And he's afraid of his own shadow.
He also loves neighbor and fellow schoolteacher Maureen O'Hara and she's got a fiancé who's a collaborator and a brother in the resistance played by George Sanders and Kent Smith.
It's all these people's story and even the local gauleiter Walter Slezak is not a simple brute as Nazis are so often portrayed.
The story involves Laughton's growth as a human being, seeing what is happening to his town, the people around him, and most of all to the school to both the children and the teachers. The last twenty minutes of the film are almost exclusively his. In both a courtroom and a classroom, he has some brilliantly delivered speeches explaining to the town why they must resist the evil upon them.
For me the best scene is in the courtroom where Laughton is accused of murder and throws away a carefully prepared script that Slezak has offered him. He tells the town what they need to hear and then declares his love for O'Hara and the reasons for him doing what he's doing.
During that part of Laughton's speech the camera focuses totally on Maureen O'Hara and her reactions to Laughton's words. It's a beautiful crafted scene by a great director.
A film classic for the ages.
The mission worked. The film was a success and attitudes towards the French changed... two other Warner Bros films, also starring Bogart, made after Casablanca (and more importantly This Land is Mine), portray the French as heros and patriots with a just cause.
Brilliant acting, brilliant script, brilliant propaganda!
क्या आपको पता है
- ट्रिवियाThe singing of "Die Lorelei" by the German soldiers was a subtle dig at the anti-Semitic regime of the Nazis, since the words were written by banned Jewish poet Heinrich Heine. Many of his books, considered un-German, were burned in the book-burning episode at Opernplatz, Berlin, Germany, on 10 May 1933. However, his works were so popular that they were still published, but "author unknown" was the listed writer. In his 1821 play "Almansor," Heine also prophetically wrote "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen" ("Where they burned books, they will in the end burn people").
- गूफ़When Paul Martin is trying to escape by jumping from car to car in the rail-yard, one of the parked box cars to the side clearly has the Great Northern logo. Whilst Great Northern was a large operation, its rails didn't reach to Nazi-occupied Europe. Another car is clearly marked "SP" for the Southern Pacific railroad.
- भाव
[At Albert Lory's murder trial, the Prosecutor produces a "suicide note," proving that George Lambert killed himself. But Lory will not have it]
Albert Lory: The letter's forged, Your Honor. Major Von Keller told me last night... The prosecutor wrote that letter himself. I think he's trying to save my life.
[laughter ripples through the courtroom]
Prosecutor: This is no laughing matter! Your Honor, for the sake of the dignity of this court, I respectfully ask that the man who started that unseemly outburst be forcibly removed from the room!
Judge: The court agrees with you, Mr. Prosecutor! Which of you started that laughter? Please stand up.
[Silence. No one in the courtroom stands up]
Judge: I ask you again, who started that laughter?
Albert Lory: Excuse me, Your Honor. I don't know, but I think I can guess. Perhaps it was the Unknown Soldier.
- क्रेज़ी क्रेडिटOpening credits prologue: "Somewhere in Europe--"
- कनेक्शनFeatured in The Hollywood Greats: Charles Laughton (1978)
- साउंडट्रैकDie Lorelei
(1838) (uncredited)
Music by Friedrich Silcher (1838)
Poem by Heinrich Heine (1823)
Played on accordion by Kent Smith and sung by the German soldiers
टॉप पसंद
- How long is This Land Is Mine?Alexa द्वारा संचालित
विवरण
- चलने की अवधि1 घंटा 43 मिनट
- रंग
- पक्ष अनुपात
- 1.37 : 1