pmalt

SPOILERS

I just love the way one of these one-star reviewers says "It's not often I'm at a loss for words" --- and then proceeds to write seven single-spaced paragraphs about it.

As a female, I enjoyed it as unpretentious entertainment. I think some of the men shredded it because they wanted to establish what experts they are at diving and/or sharks and/or screen writing and movie making. Yawn. Not a one of them has ever brought a script to screen I'll bet.

And yes, the girls' constant screeching was excessive. But I was just watching for the adventure and not calculating how many millibars of whatever should have been left after so many meters under water or how they're supposed to attach the widget if the wind is from the south-southeast and the moon is in Scorpio. etc. etc.

There is just something warped about this entire series; I got a strong gut feeling that a German apologist had written it. I found the entire series difficult to watch without wincing. I am not referring to the photography and footage, which were excellent. But it was the interpretation that rang distorted.

First of all, the "godlike" intros by the thoroughly discredited, disingenuous Henry Kissinger were off-putting, but immediately following those, the series' odd and inescapable pro-German slant manifests itself in nearly every scene. It's often masked by all the anti-Stalin screed --- I am certainly no fan of that monster --- but there is way too much sympathy for the "poor" Wehrmacht (regarding which, it is now being revealed that the Wehrmacht was even more deeply involved in the slaughter of Russians, Jews, POWs, etc., than had formerly been believed, and they were not just good boys serving in a bad cause). Kissinger and the narrator never (or very, very seldom) mention the word "Jew" even in regards to the concentration camps, saying rather that "people" were killed. The positive portrayal of various Nazi-welcoming collaborators and collaborating ethnicities made me uncomfortable as well.

I felt that there was definitely an effort to absolve the Russians themselves from Stalin's crimes and portray their victimization; I have no argument with that. But the movie never or seldom focuses on German atrocities wrought upon the Russians. In fact, there is actually a whole scene devoted to "shocked" German soldiers unearthing the bodies of Polish officers that Stalin had supposedly murdered. It may well be true, but the portrayal of the most brutal soldiers the world has ever known solemnly shaking their heads at a mass murder almost turned the scene into farce.

Besides the predictable, relentless hammering on Stalin (I mean, if the guy went to the bathroom, this film would have found a way to portray that as monstrous, murderous and a lie), there is very little about Hitler, who is never shown as a heartless monster, as is Stalin in every scene.