with a couple of things in this film.
Would Stransky have attained the rank of Captain without having ever been awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class at least?
Also, would a line of German trucks continuously run over a flattened corpse that was one of their own? The helmet looked German to me. What disrespect to a fallen comrade and a morale downer.
Anyone feel the same way?
Career officer with no combat experience (just occupation duty), and no medals: why not?
As for the corpse... Could have been buried in snow, and surfaced during the thaw. Before it was discovered, it had become too icky for anyone to want to take care of it.
Mmm....maybe, but it's 1943. Late in the war. Seems a little far fetched but I guess it's possible.
As for the corpse. I doubt that Germans who are charged to pick up such bodies would think it's icky. That's why they got the job.
Getting an Iron Cross is the whole rationale for Stransky's actions. Sitting out the war behind the front would at best result in a War Merit Cross (or "Kitchen Defence Medal" as the frontline troops called it). Here we have an officer from a family where the forefathers have picked up Iron Crosses ever since 1813, and he has a cushy posting where nothing happens (well, he could have waited some 14-15 months, and he would have all chances in the world to earn the medal in France).
As for the corpse, I agree that it looks a bit hackneyed, but the message is that the Eastern Front has desensitized the troops. Living humans mean very little, and corpses even less. Also, as the Germans are in retreat, no one has the time to spare for recovering a squished corpse for a decent burial. Otherwise, the Germans were keen on recovering bodies and giving them proper burials. They took great care in making the cemeteries neat, with wooden crosses on individual graves, fencing, flowers/plants, etc. Usually, dead bodies were recovered of by burial details consisting of HiWis (Russian POWs in German service).
The Germans used Russian bodies to make mired roads drivable.
Don't Care What The Governments Say
They're All Bought And Paid For Anyway
- Sun Green
The body in this movie looked German.
shareAnd the body is clearly not part of a human road surface.
What I was clumsily saying is the Germans were clearly beyond the point of giving a crap about dead bodies, German or Russian.
Don't Care What The Governments Say
They're All Bought And Paid For Anyway
- Sun Green
Re: the body in the road. During WWI in the trench at the Somme (I believe), there was a dead soldier who had basically been walled into the side of the trench. This happened most likely during some shelling. His arm was sticking out of the wall. As the British soldiers would walk past, they would shake the guy's hand... kind of for luck.
War does odd things to people.
"Hitler! C'mon, I'll buy you a glass of lemonade."
Scipio I think you are correct. While the OP is technically correct that it is doubtful that the Germans would specifically be so callous as to run over their own dead comrade I believe that Peckinpah was artistically communicating the de-sensitization that war brings. I also think that there is a hint that the fortunes of the German army had deteriorated even during Steiner's relatively brief hospital stay.
My final verdict, technically it was wrong but it was communicating a larger truth correctly.