I've decided to continue both the WWII theme and the Nicholas Lyndhurst theme with the silly wartime comedy STALAG LUFT. I grew up with the notorious prison camp Stalag Luft as a part of the childhood landscape of adventure, it being the setting of my top fave Hollywood movie THE GREAT ESCAPE. The story of so many men escaping from a Nazi prison at one time captured my imagination as a kid, as well as helping to define my concept of courage and self-reliance. The fact that it's a true story made it legendary and endlessly inspiring. It's very much worth reading about it if you don't know about it, and watching the movie is almost required for a lover of good movies! Very inspiring.
Well, this particular version is more of a Blackadder/three Stooges approach to the legend, a bit like a Brit version of HOGAN'S HEROES. STALAG LUFT is a one-off film, about an hour and a half in length. It stars three UK comedy regulars, Stephen Fry, Nicholas Lyndhurst, and Geoffrey Palmer, who, along with a great cast of stalwart goofballs, lampoon the otherwise dead serious story to great effect. Having just finished the full run of GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART, it was nice to see Lyndhurst in WWII again, and being a fan of Blackadder IV, seeing Stephen Fry in the role of an officious military git again was a tremendous treat. Not to say that Stalag Luft is equal to those shows; it is a bit sillier than my tastes usually allow, and it doesn't have the amount of time that those shows had to develop too deep an affection for the characters. In any case I laughed quite a bit, and it touched so many of my interests and fave shows...I couldn't help but like it.
Well, this particular version is more of a Blackadder/three Stooges approach to the legend, a bit like a Brit version of HOGAN'S HEROES. STALAG LUFT is a one-off film, about an hour and a half in length. It stars three UK comedy regulars, Stephen Fry, Nicholas Lyndhurst, and Geoffrey Palmer, who, along with a great cast of stalwart goofballs, lampoon the otherwise dead serious story to great effect. Having just finished the full run of GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART, it was nice to see Lyndhurst in WWII again, and being a fan of Blackadder IV, seeing Stephen Fry in the role of an officious military git again was a tremendous treat. Not to say that Stalag Luft is equal to those shows; it is a bit sillier than my tastes usually allow, and it doesn't have the amount of time that those shows had to develop too deep an affection for the characters. In any case I laughed quite a bit, and it touched so many of my interests and fave shows...I couldn't help but like it.