WORLD WAR The Resistance II Movie Review

World War II: The Resistance on Screen

Hollywood has always loved the resistance fighter, and it's easy to understand why. The handsome young partisan who evades the authorities, the world-weary libertine whose cynicism is a pose, the plucky young woman who outwits the Nazis—they're perfect movie heroes. They were wildly romanticized during the war, but in recent years, the trend toward fact-based stories has resulted in films that re-create unforgiving realities.

Hollywood's first story of resistance to Nazi occupation is one of its finest moments. Casablanca can no longer be judged against other films of its kind. It exists in our collective cinematic imagination in a place by itself, where actors are no longer playing characters, and such silly contrivances as the letters of transit make perfect sense. You don't criticize it. You just play it again.

Ernst Lubitsch takes equally bold liberties in his brilliant comedy To Be or Not to Be. It was made at a time when Nazi power was on the rise, and so its sharp, sad humor has a gravity that few comedies can claim.

Watch on the Rhine, also made in the early days of the war, treats resistance as a sacred obligation. The filmmakers deliver their messages with a heavy hand, and their dramatic sensibility owes more to the stage than to film. Two more energetic espionage adventures made toward the end of the war, 13 Rue Madeleine and O.S.S., pave the way for the spy movies of the 1960s.

The White Rose, a Dutch film little known on this side of the Atlantic, tells a true story of German students who organize comparatively mild acts of protest against their government and learn how narrow the limits of tolerance are. Judy Davis is the spirited heroine of another fact-based story, One Against the Wind. The overachieving made-for-TV production has the sometimes erratic and illogical plotting of real life, and ends on a surprising note.

Except for Casablanca, these films have not received much attention, even among fans, and for the most part, they deserve better. They tell good stories, and even the creakier, older efforts have a nostalgic appeal.