It Happened Here: Difference between revisions

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An [[Alternate History]] film, set in a [[World War Two|Nazi-occupied Britain]], that explores the moral slippery slope leading to collaboration.

In 1944 the village of Shaftesbury is evacuated as part of a German crackdown on partisan activity in the area. Pauline, an apolitical Irish nurse, is accidentally left behind with several of her friends, all of whom are killed in a Resistance ambush. On reaching London Pauline finds nursing jobs are controlled by the paramilitary Immediate Action Organization, which she is reluctant to join. She changes her mind after witnessing the Organization efficiently putting down a brawl in which an IAO officer is brutally assaulted. Pauline has no interest in fascist ideals, but thinks [[Resistance Is Futile|resistance to the occupation is only making things worse]] and Britain should get back on its feet. Unfortunately she discovers that [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|separating herself from the more reprehensible actions of fascism]] is not so easy in practice.

 

 

The title is a reference to ''It Can't Happen Here'', a 1935 novel about a Hitler-a-like taking over the United States.

 

* [[Alternate History]]: An opening narration explains that Britain was invaded in July 1940, with a nascent Resistance quickly crushed without outside support. The film is set four years later -- the United States has entered the war and is supporting a resurgent partisan movement with carrier-based aircraft. Most German troops have been shifted to the Russian front to combat a Soviet breakthrough in the Urals, leaving the occupation of Britain to a token force, including volunteers from the British Legion of SS.

* [[As Himself]]: [[wikipedia:Colin Jordan|Colin Jordan]] and other [[Black Shirt|British fascists]] played members of the IAO.

* [[Completely Missing the Point]]: Reviewers condemned the film on its release for endorsing fascism, particularly the scene where genuine British neo-Nazis espouse their views. The creators included that scene in the belief that many people would not equate their own discriminatory views with those of the Nazis; however Jewish groups felt that the [[Viewers are Morons|"unsophisticated"]] public would not recognize this irony.

* [[Day of the Jackboot]]

* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]

* [[La Résistance]]: Subverted. The British civilians in Shaftesbury are clearly more afraid of the partisans than they are of their German occupiers.

* [[Les Collaborateurs]]: Subverts the popular view that only self-serving opportunists and power-hungry fanatics would work with an invading force.

* [[Moral Myopia]]: A female IAO Commandant reprimands Pauline for not showing "loyalty to the English people" (e.g. failing to denounce her friends). Also the IAO Political Leader at a funeral for a [[Black Shirt]]:

* [[Newscaster Cameo]]: Veteran wartime [[The BBC|BBC]] radio announcers Alvar Lidell and John Snagge gave their services free to voice reconstructed [[Newsreel|newsreels]] and radio broadcasts.

* [[No Budget]]: The reason why the movie took so long to make. The Internet Movie Database estimates the total budget as $20,000. The cast was filled with amateurs or professionals working for free. [[Stanley Kubrick]] donated film stock left over from [[Doctor Strangelove|''Dr. Strangelove'']]. Gill and Brownlow borrowed equipment. Colin Jordan and the other real-life British fascists got their controversial parts in the movie because Gill and Brownlow couldn't afford to pay actors.

* [[Propaganda Machine]]: A newsreel gives a revisionist history of British/German relations, ending with British and German soldiers having a snowball fight on the Russian front.

* [[Rare Vehicles]]: Actual vehicles, uniforms and weapons from the era were used, all donated by various collectors.

* [[Reassigned to Antarctica]]: Pauline is demoted and sent to the countryside, a move she initially welcomes as the country hospital has none of the fascist paramilitary trappings of the ambulance corps. {{spoiler|She then discovers the hospital is being used to euthanize foreign slave workers who have contracted TB.}} Also seen when a 'friend' tries to denounce Pauline for secretly trying to get some morphine. Fortunately her superior has just received a phone call announcing his reassignment to somewhere unpleasant (presumably the Russian front) and throws her out of his office.

* [[The Reveal]]: When Pauline learns the unpleasant truth about her new hospital.

* [[The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized]]: At the beginning of the movie, the SS are shown massacring civilians found in a restricted area. [[Book Ends|At the end of the movie]] the Resistance [[No Quarter|gun down unarmed prisoners]] from the British Legion of SS.

** Then again, how much would [[We Are Not the Wehrmacht|Bundeswehr]]-officers know about Nazi-uniforms? In fact, usually not more than the next man. It really was more a case of "[[Hilarity Ensues]]" than anything else (you know, German officers run into their dads'[[Unfortunate Implications|... uh... friends]] - and then ''approving'' them).

** In the Fifties there were still plenty of serving officers with WWII experience.

[[Category:Films of the 1960s]]

[[Category:It Happened Here]]