Odessa File

[billmunny]

Hey guys--I just watched this film--made in 1974)--with Jon Voight. The cars were very cool, including an early Jaguar XKE roadster but a nice Grosser Mercedes, but the collective-German guilt stuff was kinda heavy. The reunion scene of the fictitous "Seigfried" Division reminded me of the reunion scene in the Night of the Generals of the fictitious "Nibelungen" Division..all those evil SS guys getting together to plot their takeover of Europe!

[DrMemory1701]

"Harsh management and harsh discipline...." Maximillian Schellshock

[Huntzman]

Yeah, this was one of my favorite movies for many years because of the accuracy of the police vehicles & uniforms used.

But the movie certainly did go a long way to portray the fear of the TR rising again.........

Andrew

[Texasuberalles]

The Blut und Ehre comment about the motto on Voight's SS dagger was offputting.

[Greg]

The Blut und Ehre comment about the motto on Voight's SS dagger was offputting.

The writers certainly got it wrong there, but they got other things surprisingly right - Voight's assumed character as the ex-SS man was supposed to have been at Flossenburg KZ, and when the Schell character asks him what he saw when looking up from the camp (after he plays stupid and says "the sky"), he says "the ruined castle on the hill." There is a ruined castle on the hill above Flossenburg!

My favorite part is the flashback to when the character's father in WWII is loading the Heer wounded onto a ship and the Schell character tries to commandeer the ship, and the father says "ich befehle hier, und keiner ander!"

[Adrian]

IMO one of the few films/books that are both good. Usually the film doesn't live up to the book or in some cases is much better but not in this case.

[billcarson]

A bloody good film, once whilst watching it with my old man he told me of a similar experience of his while stationed in Germany in 1960 to the reunion scene. He and a couple of lads were having a few beers in a rowdy pub listening to the Germans singing war songs and all that. The bloke who owned the bar upon hearing that a couple of tommies were in his bar went upstairs with some of his mates and came back down in full SS regalia and carried on the sing song in a good natured fashion. Somehow I can't see that happening anymore over there.
Cheers Bill.

[Larry deZeng]

One of my favorites for years, too. Like no other general exhibition theater movie that I can recall, it reminds me of the Germany I knew back in 1958-66, especially the Christmas shopping scenes in downtown Hamburg, the Bahnhof scenes, the lower middle class residential scenes and the like. There is a thread on this film over on Axis History Forum that mainly deals with SS-Hauptsturmführer Eduard Roschmann played by Maxie Schell, but also discusses the movie in general:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtop...t&sd=a&start=0

[Brien]

Great

An excellent movie AND Book. In my opinion one of the best to portray the evil machinations of post war nazi's in a believeable way. Before that every Camp TV show had a evil Nazi Scientist blah blah blah. Way too droll.

Another great movie IMHO was Night of the Generals with Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole based on the novel by Hans Helmut Kirst.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Admission

Okay, I admit I have this Movie and I like it. Dr. Strangelove has to give "The Odessa File" a thumbs up.

[Jono]

Never heard of it, will have to check it out now though

[army_sniper]

It's been a number of years since I'd seen the movie. But, when I saw this thread, I jumped over to Amazon.com and ordered the DVD. I first saw "Odessa File" in the theater in Fayetteville, NC when I was stationed at Ft Bragg.....