Normally I would be angry, however, thunder and lightning don't come around so often in Portland or in Ventura, so it's kind of been awesome.
I love storms. I love the chaos they bring; knocking things over and flooding streets. People in awe but at the same time fearful. I think it's important that mother nature brings on these storms. To remind everyone that she's not just majestic trees and serene butterflies. She can be a crazy bitch, ya know?
Anyways, as much as I love this weather, it's sort of making me anxious because I can't go run on my favorite run at the beach. I mean, I could, but it would be miserable.
So instead, Im going to lay on my mother's couch and watch movies and drink hot chocolate and wait for someone to call. Not a bad replacement to a run.
The 1977 film, “Soldier of Orange” opens with black and white original scenes of the Dutch Queen returning (after she had fled) to the Netherlands. The War is over, all are rejoicing, and the brave and heroic soldiers can come home. Throughout this movie one can see the handsome face and built figure of Erik Lanshof. His heroism is evident as he fights for the resistance as an airplane flyer. Contrasting with Erik are the evil Nazis who torture, scream orders, and murder innocent people. The Nazis are indeed evil and Erik is in fact a definite war hero, however; WWII is not this black and white, or good and evil. The black and white images that start the movie are broken, for the complexities of this war cannot be put into just two categories. This can be seen with certain characters from the film, especially with the case of Robby. At first Robby appears and actually is a radio specialist working for the resistance movement. He secretly works in the garden shed trying to pick up signals and communicate with the Dutch resistance segment in London. Unfortunately, Robby is caught and is taken by the Nazis. Using Esther, Robby’s fiancé, as bait, he is forced to work as a spy for the Nazis or else they would send her to a concentration camp. Now Robby is even setting up his friends to get captured and even killed by the Nazis. Robby can be seen as an example of many similar foggy situations that took place during the war. Some would turn in hiding Jewish families to get food for their children. Others, like Alex from the film, would even join the SS. In Robby’s case he spied for the Nazis to protect his fiancé. Esther did survive, but Robby was killed by Gus for being a traitor. The events and people during WWII cannot be defined into either the collaborators or parts of the resistance. Some were heroes, some did nothing, some were the murderers, and of course, many, actually millions, were the murdered, such as Jan, the Jewish boxer from the film. Although it is easy to define either black or white, with such complexities, it is impossible.
ReplyDelete