This must be satire

Well, "Escape" with Robert Taylor and Norma Shearer about a similar topic and from the late thirties is also a bit cheesy, but that's how the novel by Ethel Vance was written:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032447/

Now that I'm reading "The Mortal Storm" by Phyllis Bottome, I realize that those early pre WW II movies were simply written that way.

Also, as a German I find it kind of strange that in both novels the English Garden from Munich is mentioned, but not Munich as a town name, even though both books partly take place in Munich.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Bottome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Vance

Just a reminder to all who've been writing their point of view on this thread :

[first lines]
[white clouds appear; they quickly turn to storm clouds]
Narrator: When man was new upon the earth, he was frightened by the dangers of the elements. He cried out, "The gods of the lightning are angry, and I must kill my fellow man to appease them!" As man grew bolder, he created shelters against the wind and the rain and made harmless the force of the lightning. But within man himself were elements strong as the wind and terrible as the lightning. And he denied the existence of these elements, because he dared not face them. The tale we are about to tell is of the mortal storm in which man finds himself today. Again he is crying, "I must kill my fellow man!" Our story asks, "How soon will man find wisdom in his heart and build a lasting shelter against his ignorant fears?"


With globalization , the whole world is concerned by the same topics and political tensions. When you put economy and finance over human society, you can only get wars, fears, and surely no wisdom. Each human being has something to be part of on Earth. But if a very small minority wishes to get the whole lot for itself and have quasi-slaves everywhere, no wonder some of these want to fight or murder because what else have they got to look for?

"Slaves" are not only the "poor" of the Southern world but also the well-to-do of Western countries or westernised populations who think that eating junk food, getting an honorable salary, watching TV programs (or being a geek) and being sure THEY've got the right religion... They won't even realise that they are slaves because they need to overwork to get ever more things they don't need to be a true human being.

In that sense, Obama, Bush and leaders of most of our "democratic countries" are producing more and more self-agreed slaves who even don't see what they are agreeeing upon. Some of you might think that it's freedom they are agreeing upon but look close on your behaviours and those of your leaders (political and economical), and you might see that brainwashing is often at the basis of them. News are dealing more with emotions than with facts: how may times do you hear or read about the two or more points of view of whatever event is happening somewhere? NEVER.

"How soon will man find wisdom in his heart and build a lasting shelter against his ignorant fears?"

This sentence is truer and truer. Please, don't forget that we are all HUMAN!

Sidney, I wonder if you had been a jew or a gypsy, or a homosexual, or a mental defective alive in Germany in 1939 if you would still find this movie campy or poor satire.

If you dare......watch it again with an ounce of empathy for the members of those targeted groups. I doubt any of us, alive in the U.S. today has ever known that level of fear or persecution. Frankly I find it terrifying.

The mess in the Middle east has forced us to shy away from some of our basic beliefs. But only a bit. Theres still no where else on earth I'd rather live.

[deleted]

Perhaps the story seems cheesy because the Nazis themselves were cheesy.

Satire is a mirror held up to life. History always repeats itself when the ignorant lead.