Although this is a commercial, it is so very well produced and acted that I have to watch it every Christmas. I find it very powerful, especially with that beautifully simple arrangement of Leaning On the Everlasting Arms in the background, and when they take up each other’s singing of Silent Night across the lines, it is quite powerful.
In all my years I've never seen the like. It has to be more than a hundred sea miles and he brings us up on his tail. That's seamanship, Mr. Pullings. My God, that's seamanship!
RedToo
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 3,072
Bolton UK
Christmas truces also happened in subsequent years during WW1. There is a very good book on them which I have in my collection, but I can't lay my hands on it right now. I'll keep looking.
Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel. Romanian born Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, Holocaust survivor. 1928 - 2016.
Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. C.S. Lewis, 1898 - 1963.
That Sainsbury's commercial is probably the most powerful and meaningful Christmas message I have seen. I remember watching it when it came out a few years ago (2014)... I was moved by it I don't mind telling you.
What a wonderful video semmern. Thank you for sharing that. I have never seen that one. I've never seen the movie this clip is from but I've always liked it:
Joined: Apr 2001 Posts: 121,478PanzerMeyer
Pro-Consul of Florida
PanzerMeyer
Pro-Consul of Florida
King Crimson - SimHQ's Top Poster
Joined: Apr 2001
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Miami, FL USA
As far as I know there were no Christmas truces during WW 2. The hatred there between the belligerents was much more intense compared to WW 1.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
As far as I know there were no Christmas truces during WW 2. The hatred there between the belligerents was much more intense compared to WW 1.
By design. Dehumanising your master's opponents' minions rather than realising that hey, they're peeps just like me. Can't have that, doesn't make for a good little killing minion :/
"They might look the same, but they don't taste the same."
Nope. The minions were different. You can’t compare the Nazi and Bushido indoctrinated minions of WW2 to the traditional soldiers of the First World War.
Completely different.
Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
Someday your life will flash in front of your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.
Joined: Apr 2001 Posts: 121,478PanzerMeyer
Pro-Consul of Florida
PanzerMeyer
Pro-Consul of Florida
King Crimson - SimHQ's Top Poster
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 121,478
Miami, FL USA
100% agree with OG. The German and Japanese regimes in WW 2 made the ones in WW 1 seem like Mother Teresa by comparison. Some of the individual soldiers were a different story though in my opinion.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
Such events probably didn't occur in WW2 because there were not fixed entrenchments mere yards from each other as previously; fronts being more fluid in the later war. Though in a slim volume written by a comrade of my father published in 1944 "I Was an Eighth Army Soldier" it relates how there were tacit agreements to cease hostilities on his part of the line with Italian Forces, though no meetings took place. Though the Gurkhas and Sikhs, not being of the Christian faith took advantage of the cessation to carry out their usual nocturnal mischief, engendering terror amongst the demoralised Italian troops.
The specific characters and events portrayed are pure fiction.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
When Hallmark still made pretty good movies, there is a Christmas movie of theirs that I really like and have on DVD. I believe the film claims to be based on a true story but I imagine its mostly fictionalized however it is still very good and well acted and a great Christmas movie with Linda Hamilton called "Silent Night."
