A military plane out on standard patrol flies over a small, coastal fishing village. Everything appears normal except … the wrong flag flies. A radio alert brings a cautious patrol of foot soldiers. Wary, and with rifles drawn, they approach. Something’s wrong, very wrong. There’s no human sound. No smoke from chimneys. The village is dead.
Not “dead” as in quiet or deserted, dead as in littered with corpses. Bodies carpet the ground. Soldiers, farmers, shopkeepers, mothers and daughters lie everywhere. A savage fight took place here. A battle waged with machine guns, rifles, swords, clubs, pitch forks, and fists. The massacre is a tangle of family, neighbor and foe.
Ann Sheridan
What led to the carnage was a debate among 800 everyday citizens over whether or not they would allow evil to stand. The villagers were realistic. The debate was not over whether or not they would triumph, for they knew they couldn’t. The debate was over whether or not the act of making a stand was worth certain death.
This debate took place at night in a church where no one dared look at the other. Worried about discovery, they could only stare straight ahead. Evil was watching and had to be fooled into believing this was just another church service.
Some wanted the fight, others, good people, believed the evil might pass, but the worst among them – the quislings – argued evil might be appeased. All, however, well knew the consequences. They weren’t the first village forced to make this choice. Just up the coast there was another who chose to fight. They lost, and the reprisals were unspeakable.
The questions raised in that small church might sound familiar: Won’t fighting back make things worse? Why die for something as old-fashioned as the idea of country? Is freedom worth killing another? Doesn’t killing them make us them?
The film is “Edge of Darkness,” produced in 1943 and starring Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston and Ruth Gordon. The flag that flew was a Norwegian one during the Nazi occupation.
Don’t let the date fool you, “Edge of Darkness” is about our present-day War on Terror, and unlike what we’ve seen from Big Hollywood these last couple years, “Edge of Darkness” answers those questions the only way they should be answered.
One of the great myths created by Those Who Write about the Movies is that WWII-era films are nothing more than simple, jingoistic propaganda. Set aside the fact that the real definition of “jingoism” is The Kind Of Patriotism the Left Doesn’t Like – that myth is a creation of those determined to deconstruct any and all things good and American.
“Edge of Darkness” is filled with more nuance and complicated relationships and situations than all of Big Hollywood’s pro-abandon-the-Iraqi-people films put together. Of course there are exceptions, but many, many WWII films are so beautifully crafted they still speak to us, which is why we still watch them. These films transcend the politics of the day because their stories aren’t about the politics of the day. They’re about timeless themes of liberty, bravery, honor and sacrifice. WWII wasn’t the story. WWII was where the story was set.
These are the War on Terror films you’ve been waiting for.
What is or isn’t showing up at your local Cineplex shouldn’t frustrate you. Everything you want from Hollywood has already been produced, and done so with smarter scripts, better special effects, real movie stars, and reasonable runtimes. If you’re hungry for heroes and self-sacrifice and the ennobling of the human spirit and to see evil confronted by good, you need not wait for Big Hollywood see the light.
“Edge of Darkness” isn’t available on DVD but Turner Classic Movies airs it now and again along with hundreds of other smart, sophisticated, complex films ready to fill the emotional hole Big Hollywood won’t.
Over the coming weeks this site will spotlight the War on Terror films you’ve been waiting for that just happen to have been produced during WWII. Not the famous ones we all know, but like “Edge of Darkness,” gems awaiting your discovery.
As long as there’s a civilization, Classic Hollywood’s World War II films will live on. As long as there’s cut-out bins, Big Hollywood’s “In the Valley of Elahs” will gather dust.
Thanks to Classic Hollywood we don’t need Big Hollywood.
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