Timing’s a bit suss that all these movies and TV shows are coming out where we’re valiantly fighting the “Europeans” of some ilk, just while the government are gearing us up for em, “fighting” Europeans?

You read one of these articles and think “those silly people from olden times, how could they fall for such blatant propaganda?” Or “Silly yanks, they have no idea they’e getting manipulated with their jingoistic tubthumping”….

https://www.unilad.co.uk/film/these-movies-are-basically-just-u-s-military-propaganda/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism_and_cinema

Or is it all a coincidence/my confirmation bias.. after all, there are lots of movies that are released that are not about having a barney with the continentals.

Dunkirk started production way before Brexit and I couldn’t possibly count all the Churchill films released over the years?

It would also be difficult to think of a Churchill film not centered on WW2 bar Young Winston, who would watch a movie of 1920’s British politics and a rich tory middle aged politicians flirtation with the liberals?

I suspect most people in Britain have nothing but fondness for our European cousins….except for the French of course.

I suspect most people in Britain have nothing but fondness for our European cousins….except for the French of course.

You have not crossed my German wife this morning have you?

Related I think, OP whenever we go back to the UK or sometimes watch UK tv from Sweden, I always comment on all the “Great British…… ” type TV shows. It’s relentless ‘it was better then’ TV. Silly country 🙂

I’d be more worried about all the Avengers and Transformers propoganda.

Shit’s about to get real…

Can we get Michael Bay to do a Nye Bevan x Transformers blockbuster please?

just wanted to say TV one more time

it will pale into insignificance come May when Royal GB PLC kicks into flag waving overdrive

@ welshfarmer. I see your German wife and raise you my redheaded German wife!

There’s always been an element of propaganda/manipulation/revision in historical films, and not just war films.

timing wise I imagine the zeitgiest plays an element, Europe is in the news, and to a lesser and greater extent the news agenda feeds the films that are made, look at post 9/11 movies,  you’ve got revenge  fantasy terrorist plots, superhero films, invasion films are popular, 24/7…

tbh Shaving Ryan’s Privates fairly opened my eyes

There’s always been plenty of bullshit formulaic war propaganda crap on TV and film, I got pissed off with the pro-torture propaganda on “24” back when that was the latest fashion for example. Don’t think it’s particularly a brexit thing but it does certainly influence our culture and politics in a more general sense.

You do know Dunkirk is about a massive defeat?

It’s a fascination the have British for constantly looking backwards (some would call it retarded) progress and an inclusiveness are not qualities found in just over half the population.

There currently is a media bombardment turning against this particular view, the new HSBC adverts are poignant.

I think BBC 1 ought to be replaced with the channel Yesterday.

Chicken n egg innit

It’s a fascination the have British for constantly looking backwards (some would call it retarded) progress and an inclusiveness are not qualities found in just over half the population.

You do know a lot of people who were actually fighting WW2 are still alive?

You do realise what they went through so twunts like you could complain about “looking backwards”?

Both of my parents were in uniform during WW2 and my father was picked off the beach at Dunkirk, then was in North Africa, before spending 4 years in a POW camp.

You do realise what they went through so twunts like you could complain about “looking backwards”?

Indeed. Your point being? Should we voluntarily march around shouting Heil Hitler because previous generations fought to avoid it being obligatory?

as gobuchul’s response highlights its all part the false sense of exceptionalism that is spewed out by certain sections of the media about England’s perceived place in the world. Any victory was largely illusory in the end (what did we ‘win’)and the only good thing to arise in the UK was the creation of the welfare state and the NHS – those institutions are the lasting memorials to those individuals who fought and died (my grandfathers included – my surviving grandfather was strongly of this view). It seems ironic that the exceptionalist/tory/brexiteer ilk are the groups that likes to pray in aid of the ‘glorious dead’ and the ‘Dunkirk Spirit’ are the same people who seem to want to undermine those institutions now. The ‘Dunkirk Spirit’ seems to want to remember and venerate a society built on empire and the subjugation of others, at home as well overseas, which whilst needs acknowledging as a bad thing; it is not something to do so, ‘or look back upon’, with much pride. I respect those who fought and died and thank them for their service but I am certainly not going to venerate them and ascribe them some cult like status as to give guidance on how we should move forward 70 or so years after the event. If you want to honour those who served and died vote the Tory c**** out the next time you have the chance.

You do realise what they went through so twunts like you could complain about “looking backwards”?

Oh, chill out, he wasn’t aiming it at you or your parents, it’s a pretty standard comment that Nostalgia is (and always will be) a booming industry. “Things” were always better in the old days. (depsite vast amounts of data that shows they probably weren’t, but that’s for another thread.

perditus

Member
@ welshfarmer. I see your German wife and raise you my redheaded German wife!

Ooh.. Can I play, too?

Doubt I’ll get a many points, mind… Mine hasn’t made it as far as wife status and is half Persian.

Mine hasn’t made it as far as wife status and is half Persian.

Ah, a land of inbreeding, backwards values and religious fundamentalism

😛

I suspect most people in Britain have nothing but fondness for our European cousins….

You have not crossed my German wife this morning have you?

Is your wife your cousin 😜

Given that Brexit is happening I think we’ll need the Dunkirk/WW2 spirit – if they don’t sort out the customs agreements in time rationing will return 😉

“if they don’t sort out the customs agreements in time rationing will return 😉”

This completely.
If houses keep being built on perfectly good arable land at the rate our local council have promised there’ll be nowhere for crops to be grown in this area.
(Harrogate council so please don’t even mention the word ‘affordable’)

*This of course is a completely different topic to the OP, sorry*

I respect those who fought and died and thank them for their service but I am certainly not going to venerate them and ascribe them some cult like status as to give guidance on how we should move forward 70 or so years after the event. If you want to honour those who served and died vote the Tory c**** out the next time you have the chance.

This.

I am proud of and admire the sacrifices made by members of my family during the Second World War.  However, I strongly believe that over the years we have almost fetishised this and the First World War and used it to shore up a falsified view of our history.  This in an effort to legitimise and add nobility to the existence of and oppression caused by the British Empire.

I think this is especially true of a certain element of our political and media establishment, who have done this to support some dubious military action.  This in turn has given some Neanderthal right-wingers a distorted view of national identity, which is then used in turn to support the establishment in marginalisation of others and increasingly selfish, compassion-free actions.

“It’s a fascination the have British for constantly looking backwards (some would call it retarded) progress and an inclusiveness are not qualities found in just over half the population.”

What an utter load of tosh. You will find few nations more inclusive and forward looking than the British. And you completely forget that a lot of things that have progressed mankind have been British inventions and innovations.

The whole point of this is ‘lest we forget’ and what other mechanism is better than the odd war film to remind us of the sacrifices millions made so we can sit at our computers or smart devices and write twiddle like that above. Unfortunately one of the traits of human kind is that we are often at our best in times of trouble and strife and there is no more troublesome time than war, and iconic and inspirational figures emerge, often people who would have amounted to little under normal circumstances. Churchill was not a good politician outside of wartime but came into his own during war. It is an inspirational story for sure.

Yeah, go convince yourself of that.

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.

I am a twunt, a proud optimistic forward thinking twunt.