MovieChat Forums > Battle of the Bulge (1966) Discussion > Once Again the PANZERLIED Scene ...

Once Again the PANZERLIED Scene ...

posted 13 years ago by HijodelCid
9 replies | jump to latest

... has been deleted from today's, 26 May 2012, showing on AMC. Why this disrespect towards one of the movie's best scenes???!!!

God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)

[–] Bry-2 12 years ago

I don't watch movies on AMC anymore -- they have no respect for films, not even bad ones like this, and are much more interested in having space for the commercials. I watch AMC for Breaking Bad, and that's about it!

TCM showed BOTB today -- terrible movie, but nicely presented!

--If they move, kill 'em!

[–] gribfritz2 12 years ago

You're still watching the butchered husks served up on AMC in 2012? Hopefully your provider has TCM so you can change the channel. This film was just on TCM yesterday (167 min runtime, 180 min timeslot).

[–] wegottableeder 12 years ago

I'm actually watching the end of that showing on TCM right now, and it even includes the "exit music" as it was originally shown in theaters.

[–] chrissso 9 years ago

I am sorry but I found this scenes totally ridiculous! I mean some of the boys are 14 years and thus they would never be a "commander" ... then they all break into their beautiful Nazis tank song ... and low and behold they have all been trained vocally! Heroic little Nazis boys going off to their death how truly rousing!

[–] MadTom 9 years ago

The Panzerlied is not a Nazi song. There is nothing political about the lyrics.

The first verse, which is repeated over and over in the scene rather than them singing all five verses, actually sounds like it could be a plagiarism of the US Postal Service motto of "Neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night..." The last verse goes to the other extreme and translates as, "When our luck runs out, our tank will be our iron tomb." The middle three verses are quite similar to the lyrics of the US Army's counterpart The Armor Song about how tanks will punch a hole in the enemy's front line and lead the way for the infantry and artillery. The Armor Song, however, has a rather pedestrian (pardon the pun) melody and-- I kid you not--- sounds like the Mickey Mouse March. I can guarantee you that no American tanker ever got his blood up for battle singing it in the 99 year history of the Armor corps.

The Panzer corps of both the German and Austrian Armies still use the Panzerlied, unchanged since before WWII. I can almost guarantee you that Arnold Schwarzenegger had to learn it when he was a tanker in the Austrian Army.

[–] chrissso 9 years ago

Even if there is nothing political about the lyrics ... it was still ridiculous! There were 14/15/16 year old boys in the group! Nobody makes a 14 year a tank commander! Then there is the fact that they sounded like professional singers. And yes they were all Nazis ... each one of those boys did ample time in the Hitler Youth.

So off ya go lil Nazis Boys with your toys ... how lucky you are to have your country throw you under the bus. Fear not heaven has a special place for you.

Please don't take it personally ... I just hated this film so much. 2.5 hours of tripe. You information above is exceptional!

[–] MadTom 9 years ago

Even if there is nothing political about the lyrics ... it was still ridiculous! There were 14/15/16 year old boys in the group! Nobody makes a 14 year a tank commander!

Prove that there were supposed 14 to 16 year old boy characters, let alone 14 to 16 year old actors in that scene. They were supposed to look young, but nobody had his birth certificate or enlistment papers hanging around his neck with his date of birth on it.

And one of Hitler's last public appearances and photos was pinning an Iron Cross on a boy in his early teens, much younger than any of the tankers in the singing scene. And there were plenty of 12 year olds among the German prisoners captured in the last weeks of the war, only four months or less after the start of the Battle of the Bulge.

[–] chrissso 9 years ago

Actually I have seen the Birth Certificates for all those young boys and 6 were under 17!

Seriously Tom your passionate defense of this is scary! Being moved by the brainwashed Hitlerjugend heroically being sent to their death ... all to defend the right to purge Europe of Jews ... is bad form. Those young people were lied to and used and if anything that scene is tragic.

[–] MadTom 9 years ago

I'm not defending anything. Just stating fact. I'm a retired US Army Armor/Cavalry officer and I'm no fanboy for the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS Panzers. The Panzerlied was politically neutral. I just always found it amusing how the lyrics of the middle verses were so similar to those of the US Army's counterpart song.

The teenage boy being decorated by Hitler and the countless other German 12 year olds getting killed or taken prisoner at the end of the war is just historical fact. It is what it is. Point out to me anywhere on this thread where I showed that I was "moved by the brainwashed Hitlerjugend heroically being sent to their death ... all to defend the right to purge Europe of Jews ..."