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49th Parallel (1941)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 1/14

49p
1/14: While watching 49th Parallel, I had been admittedly unsure if the story was true or not because I was positive the, mind you, English-speaking Nazis had never stepped foot anywhere in North America to start anything beyond the usual politicking.

Regardless, the propaganda film displays so many simple-minded stereotypes that I've been confused whether I should laugh or be dumbfounded. The Johnnie skit by Laurence Olivier, along with his accent, is clearly over the top to the point what I was seeing so far has become an insane farce. Oddly, it seems like he was insulting the French Canadian trappers by mocking their way of life.

Later on, the collective utopian socialist thinking of the Hutterite commune is funnily illusory. I was like, "Sure, life is awesome, and this totally makes sense." All they got to do is to make bread...lots and lots of them. Next is the clash between an ardent Nazi and an intellectual Thoreau who happens to live in a teepee with his valuable paintings (now, now...who the hell will do something like that?). Oh, man...the sight of despondent Ashley Wilkes over his trashed paintings has gotten too much for me to take. At that moment, I thought the tomfoolery was getting out of hand in a bad way, but it didn't end there.

Finally, the same ardent Nazi meets an American hobo on the train which turns out to be a pathetic battle of male chauvinism. Comically, the Nazi becomes too smart for his own good by falling into the trap of going back to Canada. The ultimate message of this particular moment is: Germans are dumb and Americans are smart. The end.

To top off the propaganda, everything doesn't take place along the 49th parallel. Equally funny is the concept of the English-speaking Nazis, in their autumn clothes, managing to walk for a thousand of miles across Canada in the freezing cold. Considering the fact that the Nazis froze to death during Operation Barbarossa, it's highly doubtful they were hardy enough to survive these Canadian wintry conditions in such state.

All in all, the idiocy of 49th Parallel is tempting for me to get drunk and yell, "O America, the land of the free!"