Be Serious
Do you REALLY think the Nazis would have given a rat's ass about any of this- let alone taken the time and effort to let the POWs give a trial?
shareIf the film would have followed the book more closely, it would have made more sense. The Luftwaffe wanted to be sure that there was no involvement from any of their personnel in the murder, as it appeared to be a simple, cold-blooded murder rather than a prisoner who was shot while escaping, etc. Also, Visser wanted to find out the location of his stolen SS stiletto, and figured that it would appear more readily via a prisoner trial rather than a Luftwaffe investigation.
It's a shame this film did not follow the book more closely, as the book was much better. In the book, Lt. Hart was shot down in the Med in '42 and had been a POW for quite some time. His watch was given to him by his fiancee, not his father. In fact, his father was hardly mentioned at all in the book, although the author's real father was a POW in a Luft Stalag, having been shot down in a B-25 in the Med like Lt. Hart. The movie is missing some major British characters that were essential to the book.
Read it and see the difference.
As mentioned in other threads, I belive that the Germans allowed the courtroom drama to go on out of collective boredom.
shareAnd you sense the American educated Visser wants to see the trial played out to the end, hoping to get a psychological advantage over MacNamara from the outcome.
shareYeah, and that too I guess. Never thought of it that way before. Makes sense.
"check the imdb cast list before asking who portrayed who in movies please"
Yes, they were both competitive animals.
BTW not that it matters much, 8 months to respond?
Yes, very much so.
I wonder how a story would have played out if the positions were reversed, say that the Germans were in a POW camp in the US.
"check the imdb cast list before asking who portrayed who in movies please"