It's also true that this film doesn't have much of a plot: the Nazis are trying to make their way to the U.S.A. and the movie details their various attempts to do so. There's no mystery, clever plot twists, or anything else; just an examination of their efforts and interactions with various people along the way.
The movie 49th Parallel was filmed in 1941, early in W.W. II. It's a Powell and Pressburger film: they were British filmmakers who collaborated on 24 movies together over the years. Several of these were about the war, including this one. They were eager to aid Britain's war effort; Emeric Pressburger was especially motivated because he was a German Jew who had fled the country when the Nazi party gained power in the 1930's. After the war, he found out that his mother had died in Auschwitz. Powell and Pressburger freely admitted that 49th Parallel was meant to be propaganda: "I hoped it might scare the pants off the Americans," Powell said, wanting them to enter the war. Pressburger remarked, "Goebbels considered himself an expert on propagana, but I thought I'd show him a thing or two." Certainly P &P wrote 49th Parallel with an eye on the American audience. That's why when the film was released in the States, the title was changed to The Invaders. Its message- one of them, anyway- was that Nazism wouldn't remain only in Europe... it could and would eventually arrive on North American shores. A couple of the characters speak to the futility of a policy of isolationism or neutrality: the trapper Johnnie, and the writer Philip Scott. Johnnie, who has been hunting up north for months, is unaware that war has been declared until Eskimo Nick tells him. He immediately thinks it's wrong that Canada has joined Britain in declaring war on Germany; what happens in Europe shouldn't concern Canadians, he says. Let them solve their own problems. Then, of course, the Nazis literally arrive on his doorstep. Philip Scott, on the other hand, intends to let the vulgar, brutish war go by while he occupies himself with intellectual pursuits- his books, paintings, and music. Despite being British, he has no animosity for the Germans; one gets the impression that to him Germany means Goethe, Bach, and Nietzsche, not Hitler, Goring and Goebbels. After the two remaining Nazis pay him a visit however, he realizes that should the Germans win the war, everything he values culturally will be gone, and with it intellectual and creative freedom. The clear message of these two parts of the film is that, you may not want to go to war, but war will eventually come to you, one way or another. The time that the renegade Nazis spend with the Hutterite community serves a couple of purposes. First, it demonstrates that regardless of what Hirth believes, all people of German blood aren't going to leap on the fascist band wagon just because they share common ancestors. What is important is not race or ancestry, but values, beliefs, and actions. The difference between living in a free country like Canada and what life would be like for them and- more important- their children under fascism is also clearly delineated. The Hutterites will not give up their present liberties to comply with Nazi ideology simply because they share common language and heritage. The final scene involves Hirth interacting with AWOL Canadian soldier Andy Brock. Brock is griping about his posting and about the government, and Hirth takes this to mean that he is dissatisfied with life under Canada's political system. Brock quickly disabuses him of this notion: he says that Canadians can criticize their government and whatever else they want, because they're free to do so. What would - and did- happen to those in Germany who took issue with Hitler? Where does one go to vote out a fascist dictator? It is because Canadians need have no fear of their leaders that they can be as critical as they want to be, of anything they want to be, and say so. I quite enjoyed 49th Parallel for a variety of reasons. It is not, however, without its flaws. Laurence Olivier plays Johnnie the French Canadian trapper, and his accent is well, not the best shall we say. The film's grasp of Canadian geography is also a bit suspect, especially directions and distances. For example, the Nazis start out walking from Manitoba to British Columbia. They can have no idea of how far this, because it would take an extremely long time; from Winnipeg to Vancouver is about 2313 km. Also, when the train is shown apparently crossing over the border into the U.S., it's actually going in the wrong direction. But really, these are mere quibbles. It's also true that this film doesn't have much of a plot: the Nazis are trying to make their way to the U.S.A. and the movie details their various attempts to do so. There's no mystery, clever plot twists, or anything else; just an examination of their efforts and interactions with various people along the way. These interactions, though, are quite interesting. One would think that the people they meet would have very little in common; what does a fur trader have to do with a member of a strict religious sect, with an aristocratic author or with an undisciplined soldier? At first glance perhaps not much, but as the Nazis attempt to force their ideology on them, what is the same is their repudiation of this evil ideology, an unshakable belief in their rights and freedoms, and a willingness to stand against those who would threaten these liberties. I'm always fascinated by movies which were produced during WW II, when no one knew how the war was going to end. This is one of them, as is Mrs. Miniver, Casablanca, and many others. Today, some dismiss these types of movies as propaganda, and seem to think that this decreases their value. I don't see it this way; in the midst of a terrible war which they might lose, the people who made these films clearly and unapologetically stated their values and identified the enemy they were fighting against. And I'm perfectly fine with that; I wish more movies today weren't so timid in proclaiming western values and identifying the actual threats to these values.
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