Hang man also die! by Lang

[loreta]

This movie is a master piece and one of the best movies by Lang, under my humble point of vue. A little jewel. Based grosso modo on a real subject, Lang is able to give a vision of what was life under the Nazis. Made in 1943.

The film is loosely based on the 1942 assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi Reich Protector of German-occupied Prague, number-two man in the SS, and a chief architect of the Holocaust, who was known as "The Hangman of Prague." The real Heydrich was assassinated by Czech resistance fighters parachuted from a British plane in Operation Anthropoid, but in the movie, which was made during World War II before the full story had become public knowledge, Heydrich's killer is depicted as a member of the Czech resistance with ties to the Communist Party.

What is strange is that this morning I wanted absolutely to see this movie. I did not remember the title and I knew my husband had it. But where? He is so... bad organized with the movies. So I went to look and bang! I found the movie without looking further. There, in plain. What a strange coincidence.

So maybe you know this movie, maybe not, but if you don't know it and you are interested in Nazism and how it was to live under those psychopaths and crazy bunch of nuts, see this movie. It is a very rare movie, let me tell you. Some critics say that it is like a documentary before facts.

Enjoy it and tell us if you like it or not. I am curious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangmen_Also_Die!

 

[loreta]

I would like to insist of the importance of this movie that very little people know... This movie is so interesting because it is not only a very well done movie but because the subject is extremely important specially when we are seeing in what direction the world is going: an totalitarianism just at the corner of the street.

I saw this movie inside a Spanish program where 4 critics of cinema were debating about the movie they were presenting. The program was very known to people who love cinema and was named "Que grande es el cine" that means "How beautiful is cinema" or something like that.

One of the critics named, at one moment, the book of Sebastian Haffner, Defying Hitler! And that reminded me the extraordinary article written by Laura, Chaos and Consent: Working towards the Fuhrer.

http://cassiopaea.org/2012/01/28/rerun-chaos-and-consent-working-towards-the-fuhrer/

This article was a bombshell in my life. The same day I read it I bought the book at Amazon.uk for one cent! Then when I read the book I wrote an article in my blog. I was astonished. I never read a book like this.

So this movie, extraordinary movie, talks about Nazism and how people were living under the Nazism. The subject also is how fraternity is important when living under this circumstance.

There is almost nothing about this movie on Youtube, too sad. :(

In this scene look at the girl, her expression while his father is telling her by memory a letter to his son. Look at the sobriety of the scene and also the noises, very important in this movie... (in this scene the father is suppose to be executed after that). The letter that the girl memorize talks about liberty and how one day Nazism will dissappear...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HShvEaJxmFU

This is a very strange trailer of the movie, in German.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy-ipVokjD4&feature=related

And this is another trailer of the movie, also in German:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32DLvYBuCAA

 

[caballero reyes]

Re: Hang man also die! by Lang
« Reply #1 on: Yesterday at 07:20:51 PM »
Quote from Loreta.
I would like to insist of the importance of this movie that very little people know...


This is one of the few movies of this director that I have not seen and I have no doubt about its importance as movie, but I have not been able to find. It would be very interesting comment on it.Fritz Lang has influenced many directors, writers and public in general since his first and extraordinary silent movie of 1921:"The three lights"/"Destiny"(1921).

 

[loreta]

Re: Hang man also die! by Lang
« Reply #1 on: Yesterday at 07:20:51 PM »
Quote from Loreta.
I would like to insist of the importance of this movie that very little people know...


This is one of the few movies of this director that I have not seen and I have no doubt about its importance as movie, but I have not been able to find. It would be very interesting comment on it.Fritz Lang has influenced many directors, writers and public in general since his first and extraordinary silent movie of 1921:"The three lights"/"Destiny"(1921).

If you speak Spanish, and I think you do, (I think so), you can go to Youtube, look for LOS VERDUGOS TAMBIEN MUEREN, than you have all the parts where the critics of the program analyse the movie with very good extracts and excellent commentaries. The story of this movie is strange, even Lang, in an interview with William Friedkin didn't talk about this movie. How come? I am lucky to have this movie at home because we recorded it when the program passed on tv, some years ago.

 

[Iconoclast]

thanks for bringing this movie to my attention, i will check it out.

i have seen quite a few of lang's movies (mostly his US output) and found them to be of excellent quality.
of particular note is "Fury" from 1936 with spencer tracy. highly recommended for anyone who likes old movies.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027652/