6 Burst results for "Sean Mciver"
Key Battles of American History
"sean mciver" Discussed on Key Battles of American History
"War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding right down to the present. War made the U .S. independent, kept it together, increased its size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history. Welcome to Key Battles of American History, a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars. Here is your host, James Early. Hello and welcome to another episode of Key Films of the European Theater of World War Two. This is your host, James Early, as always. And I have my good buddy, fellow Texan, fellow World War Two fanatic, Sean McIver, to help discuss another film. This one is going to go very nicely with the battle episode that I released earlier in the week because the movie is called Stalingrad. And actually, there's been more than one movie called Stalingrad. This is the classic, I think it's classic anyway, 1993 German film. This is not the later Russian one or any other version. Well, it's a German -Russian co -production. OK, I stand corrected, German -Russian. It's the middle one. It's not the one that's got powers booth as a Russian and it's from earlier and it's not the one that was most recent produced in the 2000s. Yeah, there was like 2014, the earlier powers booth as a Russian. I don't think I could take that. I love powers booth. Well, I like him. Yeah, but not as much as Chekhov. That's almost as bad as John Wayne as Genghis Khan. Yeah, almost. Well, let's talk about some of the basics of the movie and then we'll I'll hand it over to Sean to talk a little bit about the background production and those kind of things. So the movie is two hours and 18 minutes long. Of course, it's filmed in German. I watched it in German with English subtitles because I'm not fluent in German. On Rotten Tomatoes, the score is 88 % positive and that is an audience score only. There's not a critic score. IMDb 7 .5, good solid, well above average. The director is Joseph Wilsmeyer and it stars a group of, I presume, German actors. I'm sure there's some Russians in there, too, but the the lead characters are German. It's told mainly from the German point of view. And these are Dominique Horvitz, Thomas Kreshman, Jochen Nichol, Sebastian Rudolf, Donna Vavrova and Martin Benroth. Not exactly household names in the United States. But anyway, as you'll see later, they did a great job. Now, the original screen, Thomas Kreshman is kind of a kind of a name. I mean, this is his first, but he's he's been in lots of things. He was in the King Kong movie. And he's actually in like three or four of the films that we were watching this series. OK, that's yeah, that's true. Yeah, he's going to be in Valkyrie and he's in Downfall, but he's a German. He is a German actor. I think most Americans are probably most knowing from the King Kong movie from 2005. That's and it was in the PN. Yeah, yeah, it's been a long time since I've seen King Kong or the PNS. So, well, actually, I don't remember as well as you do. Yeah, most Americans would know him. He plays a Hydra leader, Baron Von Stoker, in the Captain America, the Winter Soldier and in Avengers, Age of Ultron. So that's probably his most high profile thing that he's actually been in. All right. Well, sorry about that, Thomas. I undersold you there. Yeah, no, but this is what Chris does do. He's the young lieutenant lieutenant. OK, yeah, the original screenplay was written by Christoph Fromm, but the producers disagreed with his more realistic direction and had it rewritten. Consequently, Fromm took his name off the film. Now, how much work realistic could this be? If it is already, I wouldn't know. Here he thought it is. Well, the movie won best production, best cinematography and best editing at the Bavarian Film Society. It was nominated for best director at the Moscow International Film Festival.
Key Battles of American History
"sean mciver" Discussed on Key Battles of American History
"There are already many episodes published and ready to listen to, but each one is relatively short, and so it won't take you too long to get into it. You'll be glad you did. And now on to the main episode. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Key Battles of World War II in Europe, our 10 ,000 -foot survey of the Second World War in Europe and the areas around it. I'm your host, James Early, as always, and my co -host, as always, is Sean McIver. Now, in our last episode, we talked about a major, major turning point in the war, and that was operations Barbarossa and Typhoon. Barbarossa, of course, was the German attack on the Soviet Union, a massive attack with millions of men, literally tons of tons of equipment, to be honest. And we saw how Hitler ordered three army groups into the Soviet Union, Army Group North, which was headed toward Leningrad and ended up putting it under siege, Army Group South, which is ultimately headed for the Caucasus and to gather oil, and Army Group Center, which was headed toward Moscow. We saw how at the Battle of Moscow, the Germans were halted, they were stopped. And a lot of what was going on was the Russian winter, as well as the Russian fall, the Rasputitsa, the Germans encountered all kinds of problems. Now, in this episode, we're going to continue looking at the Eastern Front, and we're going to carry the story forward a little bit. We're going to see what happened with the German army and the Soviet army in the rest of 1942 and in early 1943, including the crucial, crucial battle of Stalingrad. Sean and I were talking beforehand about how this is a very heavy subject, right, Sean? What were we saying? It's the most lighthearted part of the war. Oh, yeah, right. On opposite days. It is the grimmest battle in many ways in the war.
Key Battles of American History
"sean mciver" Discussed on Key Battles of American History
"We have a new podcast, and that is the history of North America podcast, hosted by Mark Bennett. The history of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States, Canada and Mexico from their deep origins to our present epoch. Join host Mark vinet on this exciting and fascinating journey through time, focusing on the interesting, compelling, wonderful and tragic stories of North America. It's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders, environment, and geography. I strongly urge you to check out this excellent podcast. There are already many episodes published and ready to listen to. But each one is relatively short. It won't take you too long to get into it. You'll be glad you did. And now on to the main episode. Allowing welcome to tea battles of World War II in Europe are 10,000 foot survey of the Second World War in Europe and the areas around it. I'm your host James early as always and my co host as always is Sean mciver. Now in our last episode, we talked about the Balkans. We saw how the small nations of the Balkans one by one fell into the axis orbit. They fell under axis control either by diplomatic pressure or by military conquest. Now, the primary reason that Hitler wanted all the Balkans to be under his control was so that his right Flank would be secure as he launched his long anticipated attack on the Soviet Union. He did not want to have to worry about an attack from his right or the south in this case. He had also secured Finland and brought them, if not directly under his control, at least to a position of not really an alliance, but an understanding which they would not attack him and he would not attack them. So now that Hitler has done all this, he's ready to turn east, and that is the name of our episode today. Hitler turns east. Operations Barbarossa and typhoon. The boy Sean, this is a huge, huge key battle. This is not just a key battle of World War II. This is a key battle of World War history. What a turning point, right, Sean? I mean, it is the greatest, the largest invasion in history. Based on an appeared and involved. Yeah, it is massive and you could do an entire podcast series just on this, but we're not going to do that of course.
Key Battles of American History
"sean mciver" Discussed on Key Battles of American History
"Hello and welcome to key films of the European theater of World War II. This is your host, James early, as always. And as always, I'm joined by my buddy Sean mciver. In our last battle episode, we talked about the invasion of France and the fall of France. And part of that was the story of Dunkirk, how several 100,000 British and other allied troops were trapped and how they were many of them, most of them were rescued by a combination of British naval vessels as well as small boats, everything from tugboats to yachts to trawlers to you name it. All kinds of small craft. So the movie Dunkirk, which came out in 2017, tells that story in a very dramatic fashion. And so that's what we will be discussing today. Let's talk about the basics of the movie as we always do and then Sean's going to tell us a little bit about the history of the making of the movie and give some other interesting fun facts and production notes. So the movie is one hour and 47 minutes. It's well rated on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics gave it an average of 92% positive and the fans gave it 81%. And I have a theory on why the fans are so much lower and I'll save that for a little bit later. The average on IMDb is 7.8, which is very good. Anytime you get 8 or above, that's excellent on IMDb. So it's really close to 8. The director is the famous action film director Christopher Nolan, and the film stars a cast, which is mainly people that are not super well known. A lot of these were new actors. There's a few veterans. What's that now? Well known as actors. Yeah, so stars and Whitehead, Tom Glynn Carney, Jack loudon, and of course this icon of the stage and screen named Harry Styles. Kenneth Branagh. So I'll give him yeah, he's perhaps the star of the stage. I think this is his first acting role at least major one. Kenneth Branagh, of course, he is a longtime veteran actor. Is it silly and Murphy? Silly and Murphy. I've never actually heard his name pronounced. And Tom Hardy. Don't forget, you're also done for getting marker islands. Mark rylance, how did I not get him in there? Okay, yes. That's the guy. Absolutely. Yes, it's based on an original screenplay and it did win some awards. And before I get into the words, I want to mention this. Dunkirk is the highest grossing World War II film of all time. It made $526 million worldwide even more than saving private riot. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah. Well, I think that's probably true, even if you adjust for inflation. But I can't say that for sure. But it received praise for its screenplay, its direction, its musical score, sound effects and cinematography, some critics have called it Christopher Nolan's best work. And one of the greatest war films ever made by anybody. The film received various accolades, including 8 nominations at the 9th Academy Awards. It was nominated for best picture and best director. And by the way, this is Christopher Dolan's first Oscar nomination for best director. It didn't win those, but it did win best sound editing best sound mixing and best film editing. The score, which is haunting. It's excellent. I wouldn't really say it's beautiful, but it's truly effective. It was done by the veteran musical movie score writer Hans Zimmer, who's written way too late to even list. Yeah, and Zimmer Zimmer has done almost all of Nolan's scores. Murphy and Tom Hardy are also regulars who work with Christopher Miller. Right, yeah. They're from the old Batman series. Christian Bale. Yeah. So tell us a little about the history of the making of this movie and any other fun facts that you think or were they mentioned. Right. Well, Christopher Nolan, who is, of course, filmmaker that he did to Batman movies and they did inception and he did my favorite movies interstellar as well as prestige and memento Christopher Nolan is a filmmaker British filmmaker who is well known for not traditional narratives and non traditional styles in his films. He had actually conceived the film a number of years before the mid 1990s. He and his then girlfriend now his wife and producing partner and Thomas had sailed across the English Channel and they took the same path that many boats took on the Dunkirk evacuation and he began thinking about the story. And he originally was going to wanting to work on a thumb that was improvised, but then he decided to write a screenplay. It was shorter than his normal screenplays, but he mostly was related to the structure of how he wanted to tell the story. And the story is told from three perspectives. And so the three perspectives are the land, which is one week of action, the sea, which is one day of action in the air, which is one hour of that the film is structured in a way that all of these things are occurring at once. And so if you're paying attention, you do see these sequences as a title at the beginning of each sequence. But they all occur not only at the same time as each other, but at different times from each other. So scenes may happen before something else. Seems to happen before something that's actually happened before in the chronological narrative of this story. I got to jump in and just say it's a very, it's definitely not a linear movie. I've talked to the past about how I prefer linear movies where this happens and then this and then this and the nest in the end. But this one it's ingenious. It's really thinking outside the box when you say Sean and oh yeah, as you said, you'll see some character here and he'll see one of the other people in the other plot line going by or something and then later sometimes it's in not even in historical order or chronological order and yet the first time I saw it half the time I had no idea what was going on I had to watch on two or three times before I really figured out what was going on. It's a puzzle and that's the way you really need to look at this. So if you watched the movie memento, memento you don't know what's going on until you figure out and it's going backwards. Backwards in time in sequence. In interstellar time is being played with inception the perception of time completely disappears and it's a different totally different thing. Dunkirk is a puzzle that's being put together. It's three puzzles that are being sorted out of the same basically the same picture, but they show a different perspective and they're being they're all mixed together and you've got to put the puzzle together. And really the way this film works, I think, is it's the three stories are all going to the same place. It's a snowball effect at the end. The snowball effect goes through the whole film. So it's really interesting. He actually worked on the screenplay, but then he kind of sat on it for a number of years as he was going through his career, and he didn't have the he really wanted it to be a large scale sim. And he didn't have sufficient experience or clout to really get this type of film. They after the success of memento and the huge success of The Batman movies and really The Batman movies kind of gave him cart watch to be able to do the stories that he wanted to do.
Key Battles of American History
"sean mciver" Discussed on Key Battles of American History
"War has played a key role in the history of the United States from the nation's founding right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history. Welcome to key battles of American history, a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars. Here is your host, James early. Hello and welcome to key battles of World War II in Europe are 10,000 foot survey of the Second World War in Europe and the areas around it. I'm your host James early as always and my co host also, as always, is Sean mciver. In our last episode, we saw how Hitler was beginning to rearm and re fortify and build up to his armed forces and then he started taking pieces of other countries we saw how he took Austria he took part of Czechoslovakia. And he was looking for a war, as we said, but the Western Allies namely Britain and France would not stand up to him. So he did not get his war. Will he get it this time? We're going to find out. We're going to see that all hell is about to break loose, right, Sean? That's right. Yeah, he's going to turn it up to 11 this episode. So let's get right into it. We, as I mentioned, he'd already taken a reoccupied the Rhineland. He took Austria, Hitler took the Sudan land and eventually all of the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, and his next target was Poland. Britain and France had promised to help Poland in the event of a German attack. However, this would be difficult. Because Poland was on the other side of Germany. Moreover, the British and French leadership at the time did not have the will to take on Hitler, as we have seen. And then
Key Battles of American History
"sean mciver" Discussed on Key Battles of American History
"War has played a key role in the history of the United States from the nation's founding right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history. Welcome to key battles of American history, a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars. Here is your host, James early. Hello and welcome back to key battles of the Mexican-American War. This is your host James early, as always. And I'm joined, of course, by Sean mciver. As I have been throughout this series, we're already up to the 7th episode now. Of 8. So we're getting close to the end. In fact, this is really the last war episode. We'll do an epilogue next time as we always do. But let's go back to what you say we are at the penultimate episode. Yes, I would say that, Sean, that's very good. Pet ultimate. Okay. Fancy schmancy words here. You're such an intellectual, Sean. Okay. So let's recap. Let's talk about what happened last time that I'm going to use small words. So we started the whole Winfield Scott amphibious assault and his march toward Mexico City. We saw how he landed an army of 12,000 at Vera Cruz laid siege to the city, took the city which surrendered to him, and then he and the army trying to get out of yellow fever country. They marched inland and they had a battle with the Mexican army at Cerro gordo, Santa Anna was trying desperately to halt the advance of Scott and his army, but just couldn't do it. And then after the victory at Cerro gordo, Scott continued marching, he took the city of puebla, and then sent to Anna retreated to vicinity of Mexico City to improve the defenses there and to continue to recruit soldiers. We saw the battle of Padilla, AKA Contreras, and that was another American victory. We're getting close to Mexico City now. And then we wrapped it up with the bloody battle of churubusco. Which was a fortress, very close to Mexico City, just south of town. And we saw there that the Mexican casualties were about 700 ish, but they also had between 1 million 202,000 captured. The Americans also had a total of about a thousand casualties.