Customer Reviews

Firestorm

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A new film by Michael Kloft, writer of "The Goebbels Experiment", Firestorm is a documentary about the lethal bombing campaigns that the Allies carried out against Nazi Germany. Winston Churchill specifically ordered cities to be targeted after attacks on German factories resulted in heavy aircraft losses; the objective was to crush German morale and reduce the number of workers that could power the Nazi efforts to make war. Civilian casualties were devastating. Firestorm includes rare, historic film footage, (much of it in color), along with interviews of historians, former bomber pilots, and survivors of the relentless assault. Bonus features include amateur film footage of Germany in ruins, and a filmmaker biography. An uncompromising look at the full might of the allied air campaign against Nazi Germany, and an oft-overlooked perspective of the Allies' brutality in war, which leaves the viewer to decide whether or not the extreme measures were necessary. 93 minutes, black-and-white and color.

Having lived what was reported on it is accurate and is one of the very few programs produced by the former WW-II Allies whhich questions the value of the bombing program and also brings to light the revenge factor, which most Germans have always felt was the main underlying reason for the attacks late in the war.

Told from a German point of view, this documentary looks at the devastating Allied bombing of Germany, done to try to get the Germans to surrender towards the end of the war. The footage of bombed out cities is excellent and rarely seen. The questions of why it was necessarily are well explored, and many doubts are raised, which may anger some diehards. Many priceless cultural artifacts and buildings were lost in the bombing. You come away with a sense of the astonishing waste that WW2 created on the ancient grounds of Europe. Besides the loss of human lives, what a different world Europe would be today had not all this destruction occurred.

You will view the real horrors of war when you view this video by Michael Kloft. Firestorm is very educational and very sobering. When you think of all the wonderful cities that were destroyed on both sides of this war and in the many wars before and after, you have to think, just how much culture and artifacts of our civilization has been wasted along with the rediculously high loss of life.

Matched with Kloft's excellent movie, The Reich Underground, Firestorm gives you a sense of why the German War Machine was moved underdground and just how many people had to flee for their lives.

Interestingly, many ask the question 'Why are they doing this to us?' Fascinating to me was a scene where in Eastern Germany, where one port city with refugees from the east, ie. Poland, were fleeing from the Russian onslaught, were bombed as they sat waiting for where they would move to after leaving the ships and boats that brought them there. One woman is asking the question above, Why? She herself was probably very young if alive at all when her parents would have at least seen atrocities against the Poles and others earlier in the war and before. No, it was not good that many of these cities were razed to the ground and to rubble, especially at the later dates of the war.

The sheer brutality of the Firestorms were were got to me. War is not glorious in the least, and this was a shame on the Allied efforts in the long run.

While watching this film I kept wondering: did Joseph Goebbels produce it?

The film is an astonishing Goebbels-like piece of propaganda that would have you believe Nazi Germany was a loving, sweet, peaceful country. Then those big bad Brits came along and started bombing them for no reason! Bad, bad Brits!

I am not making this up! While watching I kept gasping at the breathtaking distortions of reality.

FACT: I feel stupid stating the following but it apparently needs to be said. The Nazi's were very very VERY bad. They were brutal, vicious, and immoral in their attacks on Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR. Oh yea, and there's also that little detail called the Holocaust. The film of course conveniently overlooks all of the above and portrays the Germans as victims! Yep, you gasp!

FACT: Germany bombed England first. Why then were they surprised (and they were) that England hit back? Yet this film creates the impression that England was the aggressor!

The movie also makes clear that any bombing by the Allies after January 1945 was simply revenge (bad, bad Allies!), as there was no tactical advantage. Huh? The Allies kept bombing because the Germans WOULD NOT STOP WAGING WAR. Like Energizer bunnies gone mad, they just kept killing and killing and killing. Thus, so did the Allies.

(Oddly, the movie makes no mention of the horrific thing that DID happen to the Germans. After the war was over, the Allies were so brutal in their treatment of the devastated nation and its peoples that million and millions died unnecessarily (the estimates range up to six million). The Allies are actually guilty of war crimes but this shameful episode in history has barely been acknowledged, least of all by the Allied nations.)

So, why did I give the movie two stars? While the spoken words are appalling, the footage is stunning. Some of the best, if not the best, I have ever seen. War really is hell. When will humanity truly get this?