MovieChat Forums > Battle of the Bulge (1966) Discussion > Better than I remember + some thoughts o...

Better than I remember + some thoughts on Hessler

posted 16 years ago by Fingaroo
5 replies | jump to latest

I just picked this up for 5 bucks in the bargain bin at Walmart. I wasn't expecting much and was pleasantly surprised. I suppose that is because over the years the versions I have seen omit many scenes with the result that large parts of the film made no sense at all. Take the scene where Robert Ryan orders in some 155mm artillery on flatcars. I could never figure out how that German tank managed to just show up in time, in exactly the right spot, to blast the locomotive. Lo and behold there is a restored scene that shows some of the 5th columnists, posing as Yanks, reporting on the departure of the train from the station, thereby making the attack on the train at least plausible. In the future, I hope that when Ted Turner decides to cut some scenes for broadcast, he'll cut out the ridiculous pasted-on love stories, like Telly and the French woman, instead of scenes that are integral to the plot.

One thing that strikes me about Hessler is that for a 1965-era German Army film villain, he comes across as a man with many admirable qualities--at least on the surface. Of course he is courageous, but more than that he is disciplined. He turns down the visit from the whore as well as the captured food rations, even though he could have partaken of both without anyone knowing. He has some notions of honor, as when he tells Major Wolensky, apparently truthfully: "I do not shoot prisoners!" He even shows compassion (of a sort) when he gives the nuns captured medical supplies. Even the one undeniably rotton thing he does (shooting the partisan's father) could conceivably be portrayed as merciful in his eyes. After all, the rules of war justified shooting the boy in the first place, and what father wouldn't trade places with his son? But he is not a cartoon villain. His true faults are buried so deep that it takes years for his own orderly, Conrad, to realize what a monster he has become. And that's why he is interesting.

While not a masterpiece by any means, all in all it is a much more cohesive film than I remembered. (I even somehow managed to forget that they were not real Tigers and Shermans duking it out. Imagine that! ) As long as you get the complete version then you may find it is worth a second look.

[–] SipteaHighTea 16 years ago

I think the only fault he had (although it was no fault of his own) was that he was one of those people who became addicted to war and didn't want it to end. It happens to some soldiers like George Patton and George Custer. Fighting a war is the only thing that seems to be what they are good at, and they are unable or unwillingful to find anything else that they are good at in life. In the movie, Patton, General Bradley told Patton that Patton does his job because he loves it. General Patton saw no glory in having to fight a war based on missiles and nuclear weapons because it would cut out individual combat achievements and there would be no glorious stories about heroic figures facing impossible odds.

[–] HenryCW 16 years ago

Hessler was among the first Germans in war films who were not uniformly portrayed as cruel or evil. He was undoubtedly valorous, though he could be ruthless. But as you said, he saw meaning in his life only in relation to war: in the film he did not seem to have a family and he had no interest in sex. He wanted Germany to continue fighting, even though that would have led the country to its destruction and even ruined the future generation.

Actually, the "Good German" in the film was supposed to be Conrad. It is interesting to note that Hans Christian Blech played a similar role (Major Werner Pluskat) earlier in The Longest Day. These characters were unlike the stereotyped Germans in war films in that they realized that Germany had lost the War; they were concerned with loss of human lives and regarded further bloodshed as meaningless. Such characters were something new for movies in the early 1960s. But after that, you see at least one Good German (or Japanese, depending on the context) in almost every war film.

[–] rsgre 16 years ago

Thank you for your comments Fingaroo and everyone else. I also bought a copy at Wal-Mart, mainly out of curiosity because the TV versions are obviously cut and "pan-scanned". Nice to see the uncut full screen version, and yes I agree, a pretty good film overall. Robert Shaw does an incredible job as the Arian,blonde, blue-eyed, white supremacist Nazi military officer. More German than any real german could portray. (Same thing was said about George C. Scott.."he was more like Patton...than Patton...!) Meticulously made film that still looks good today. Great cast, they got into their roles, but probably suffers from the same problem that "A Bridge Too Far" had later, lukewarm audience interest and response. Either you like war films..or you don't. Might have more...

RSGRE

[–] jeffyoung1 15 years ago

I want to extend my compliments on all the well thought out comments concerning the ill-fated panzer commander, Colonel Martin Hessler (played by the late Robert Shaw). Thank goodness no trolls ventured into this thread.

You're all correct. Colonel Hessler became caught up in the war as means in itself. Fighting and leading men were the only things he knew how to do best. Yes, there is some small analogy to the equally ill-fated George Custer. I note that both men were not obsessed with career rank advancement. Hessler was happy to remain a full colonel so that he could lead tanks into battle. As a general he would have been desk-bound, a fate like death to a man like Hessler. Even Custer gladly accepted mandated reduction in rank from brigadier general back to lieutenant colonel. This meant he got to command troops on the frontier.

What first impressed me about the ruthless Hessler is that he was a true leader of men. When he first meets the general underground, Hessler's first thought is of his lowly car driver, and trying to find a bed for the tired man. The general simply ignores Hessler. The lesson ingrained into every commissioned officer in the United States Armed Forces is to think of your men and women first and foremost while keeping the mission 'always'.

Some of you remarked on his self-discipline by declining the services of a high-class escort. I'll be kind, she looked very expensive. But I argue that the director may have been trying to project American puritanical sensitivities upon COL Hessler. In real life history, there was no moral or ethical injunction against German officers partaking of such physical pleasures. For one, prostitution has been legal in Germany for as long as written history. Second, the continental Europeans have a much different view of sex than Americans. The credit I give Hessler is that he was a very driven man and his attention and energies are focused on his first love: battle. That said, sure, I can say that Hessler is self-disciplined, but for different reasons.

Hessler strenuously objects to the massacre of American POWs, but on practical military considerations. He was correct in that knowledge of prisoner massacres could only serve to incite and arouse the enemy. This is true in every war. Unfortunately, the Nazis dictated this kind of brutality in WWII. It wasn't the same as WWI where Imperial Germany had a king who at least tried to pay lip service to chivalry and the conventions of war.

[–] SipteaHighTea 15 years ago

In the movie The Dirty Dozen with Lee Marvin, Marvin got chew out for bringing prostitutes to the condemmed men. However, he pointed out that American officers did not have puritanical sensitivities when it came to having affairs with other women and/or prostitutes even though many of the were married. Marvin told the generals that they would have to court-martial about half or nearly the entire U.S. officer corp that was stationed in England. George Kennedy who play the legal officer had display an embrassing face because he probably had an affair with prostitutes and/or he would be doing a lot of paperwork court-martialing all those officers.

One American soldier during the Vietnam War stated that many American generals love the Vietnam War because many of them could get a mistress and live like the Roman emperors while doing a tour of duty in that country.

Not all German officers stay behind their desks. A good number of them were engaged in combat. Field-Marshal Rommel was one officer who spend a considerable amount of time at the front lines, and he led his men across a minefield during a fierce sandstorm. Field-Marshal Walter Model during the first winter 1941/42 on the Russian Front spend time going to the front lines and a number of times led his men in action against the Russians with a pistol in his hand.

In the movie Patton, there was a scene where Patton visited a battlefield that was fought by his men and the Germans last night and into the early morning hours. Before he left the area, he stated that he love it and god, that he love it which meant that he enjoy and love the war.

There are some other movie characters that enjoy soldiering and couldn't or wouldn't do anything else. In the movie Uncommon Valor, Gene Hackman play a former Marine colonel named Rhoades. Col. Rhoades told a person named McGregor played by Robert Stack that the Rhoades family was a military family and fought in every war that America was involved in. Rhoades told McGregor that soldiering was the only thing that the Rhoades were good at; however, Rhoades also pointed out that when it came to the actual fighting, the Rhoades were not alway good combat soldiers and that the Rhoades family was nearly wipe out at the Battle of Gettysburg.

In the short-live TV series The Raven, the Immortal Amanda, played by Elizabeth Gracen, came upon a World War I buck private American soldier who was also an Immortal. She meets him again in the 1990s, only this time he was an American Army officer who just recently fought in the 1st Gulf War (Liberation of Kuwait). This immortal had fought in every American war since World War I. Amanda asks him how come he was still a soldier all these years. The guy reply that he had tried to do other lines of work; however, being a combat soldier was the only thing that he was good at.

In the 1958 movie The Hunter, Robert Mitchum play a USAF fighter pilot flying over MIG Alley during the Korean War. He almost has an affair with another officer's wife. The wife asks him why he stay in the Air Force and what was he doing in Korea. Mitchum's reply was that the combat flying was the only thing that he seem to enjoy which is why he came to Korea.

I had just recently read December 2009 issue of The Watchtower or The Awake booklet that is distributed by the Jehvoah's Witnesses. One of the articles talk about a former Marine who became a member of that organization during his time in the Marine Corps. Before he became a Jehvoah Witness, he had done about two combat tours in the Vietnam War. He had applied for a third tour of duty; however, he was denied and was send back to the States because his superiors informed him that he had developed an unhealthy appetite for war (his superiors mostly like had met other people who enjoy and love war). In addition, the ex-Marine stated that he had experience no negative effects from his combat experience (which is probably why his superiors transfer him out ASAP, since they saw the same thing in other soldiers and marines). Last thing, they need is someone who loves war and suffer no negative effects from it; although, some people think that would make him the perfect soldier because you can use him again and again and again without worrying about his mental state of mind plus you don't have to pay for mental health care treatment.