MovieChat Forums > Foyle's War (2003) Discussion > A Few Problems With This Show

A Few Problems With This Show

posted 9 years ago by emmaclarke781
5 replies | jump to latest

Okay, a few things first. I'm not American or British and I actually really like this show. But there are a few weird things I've noticed in the episodes I've seen. In the episode with the American guy (Fifty Ships) what on earth was so offensive in asking Foyle if his son was a policeman too? I don't see how thats at all tactless. And then Foyle saying afterwards : "Oh what do you expect hes an American." What?! What a stupid and nasty thing to say! The show would have never gotten away with saying that about Black or Chinese people. And yes, I know that the American guy was the villain of that episode, but that doesn't make his question tactless or Foyle's comment any less xenophobic.

And then at the end of the same episode, the local doctor beats up his wife. Since we just found out in the previous scene that she helped a German spy into the Country, it felt like the show was saying she deserved it. A Woman never ever deserves to be beaten up. And English People don't ALL act like emotionless robots as this show seems to suggest.

And in the first Episode, Foyle helps release the Austrian guy who's in a internment camp. But the whole episode's moral seemed to be that it was wrong for the local lord to use his influence to keep his German wife out of interment. So how come it was okay for Foyle to be corrupt but not him? Like I said I like this show but it's take on morality is odd.

history is a battle fought by a great evil,struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness

[–] blinkie1969 8 years ago

In the first show the Austrian had nothing to do in the camp.....there was no reason to put him and his wife there. A neighbor was telling lies about the things he should have been doing, that was untrue. The neighbor hated Germans. And for the remark about the American.....I did not think that was nasty, just a matter of speech in my opinion....

[–] Virginiana 8 years ago

The "Austrian guy" was Jewish, a refugee from Nazi oppression. Foyle was smart enough to realize that there was no earthly way he would secretly support the Nazi war effort. If he wasn't a security threat, there was no reason to intern him. Period.

Greta Beaumont, however, had a brother who was a highly-placed SS officer. That's a reason to intern someone, as she might legitimately slip information to him.

THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE.

[–] lilactime2014 8 years ago

it felt like the show was saying she deserved it

Not quite sure how you came to that conclusion. You might see something you want to see but I don't think the things you perceive are happening. Foyle, for the time, is one of the most well rounded, fair minded, non-judgmental characters ever written. Putting labels like "Xenophobic" on such a character from 1940 during a war (his 2nd war) is a little....unfair?

There's much more than 21st century politics at play in 1940s Britain during a fight to the death with the Nazis. That is why the show got such high ratings and is held in such high esteem by most (maybe not all) who have seen it. It is very realistic and doesn't always pander to what people would have liked to have happened or thought should have happened now. I loved the way he walked away from a couple of different characters giving them the opportunity to commit suicide by gunshot, good riddance to bad rubbish, 21st century social commentary would be up in arms but he did what was probably right for the time, better for the war effort to have it sorted quickly than waste resources on a trial and prison. In reality most coppers would have had the Gay Airman up on a charge, look what happened to Alan Turing over a decade later, Foyle doesn't misuse his power and to say Foyle is corrupt? Well C- for effort, go and watch it all again, he is so un corrupt and un-corruptible it is almost painful.

Not many from outside the shores of any country truly understand it, how it works and it's easy to get things wrong. In 1930s and 40s Britain most middle and upper class people were, if not Robots, then certainly emotionally repressed, we are not gushers prone to saying "Oh my Gawwwwd" at every opportunity, or at least we weren't until Diana died in 1997 and opened the bloody floodgates. Social class, status and etiquette were still well ingrained until probably at least the mid-1960s, possibly well beyond that. As Foyle might say "Never did me any harm".
'tler

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

i think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say the doctor 'beats up' his wife. he gives her one slap, that's all. he is understandably outraged and disgusted at finding she has given aid to a german spy. he goes on to say he wants nothing more to do with her, that as far as he is concerned she no longer exists. i imagine that was more painful to her than the slap. in fact, she is lucky not to have been arrested and charged with aiding and abetting the enemy, which would probably have meant a death sentence.