Atonement

Site Issues 2008 Archive Room
#1

A bit of a ‘chic-flick’ but a great one.

Well worth it for its portrayal of the Dunkirk beaches.

One scene - in which our heores are discussing the state of the world - goes something like:

[i]" Why the f*** should we give a fg f about the fing Poles, any-f****g-way?

Let fg Hitler fg well have fg Europe. We can get by with fg Africa and f*****g India!"[/i]

And then, as they enter a room crammed with a bout fifty Tommies singing lustily to the tune of 'Bless 'em All!"

“F*** 'em all! F*** 'em all! The long and the short and the tall; You’ll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so hang on me lads F*** 'em all!”

Aaaah - to be back among friends! :smiley:

Check the trailer out - stay with it.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ATtSfe_DaJU

#2

My Grandad says that they never swore that much in the 40’s, maybe bloody etc. Another case of movie licence eh!

#3

Well, my grandaddy was with the L.F.'s in the first wave on the Somme. He said they always used the good old Anflo-Saxon ‘F’ word and more, and he continued to do so throughout his life (as they do in the film). However, he was a cockney-geezer.

Was you grandfather ‘Chapel’?

‘Bloody’ and ‘Bleeding’…surely that language is for use when in polite society?

I remember, as a child, we used to say ‘Flipping heck’ and ‘Blooming heck’ - always wondered what it meant.

No duff - it’s about ‘time and place’.

#4

I visit an old lady, in her mid-eighties. She used to nurse soldiers during the war. One of the places she nursed them was the Brighton Pavilion. http://www.royalpavilion.org.uk/palace/the_palace.asp

Something she once told me, which I find rather ineresting, is that they used to place a lot of the Indian wounded there, as it reminded them of home.

She also mentioned that when the soldiers were halucinating, they would swore a lot, but then when they became corpus mentis, they spent ages apologising.

At Rorkes Drift, the padre went along the ramparts beseaching the men to try not to swear so much when sending the poor savage to his doom. A good morale raiser, as it cracked the fellas up. :smiley:

Sorry to go on, but I just thought I’d share those little tiddies.

#5

I wanted to see this but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. When my hubby is gone we wait til he gets back to watch movies we both want to see. lol. So it will be a while for me.

#6

Please give your review when you all see the movie!

#7

I just finished watching this film with my wife. Her favorite movie is “Pride and Prejudice” from the same director so she was excited to watch it. We were both disappointed. I my opinion it failed as a “chic-flick” and as a war movie. To be fair, it wasn’t trying to be either of those, but I still haven’t figured out what it was going for.
I expected the scene at Dunkirk to be a little longer. It was an ok scene but there is archival footage in the film that is just as good. I really don’t want to comment too much since I don’t want to give away the plot to those who haven’t seen it yet, so I will just leave it with two out of five stars overall (one out of five stars in the war movie category).

#8

The BBC version of P&P with Colin Firth is truer to the book and a far better film with better acting than the new Kiera Knightly version. However I find that with almost every one of the Hollywood versions when they come up against the BBCs. I have a copy of Atonement now and am FINALLY under a month and 1/2 till hubby returns from deployment so I shall hopefully see it soon!!! lol. I am hoping it follows the book well.

#9

She also has the BBC version. I don’t think she watched it as many times as the other version because it is 5 hours long. She does like them both.

I haven’t read the book but I heard it is pretty close (but shorter of course). The cinematography was beautiful but I just didn’t care for the story. If you like the story in the book you will probably like the film. From what I have read, the only parts of the book left out were non-essential to the story.

#10

Isn’t it amazing how differently we view and interpret a story, book or film? I thought Atonement was excellent.

I rather liked this drama aired by the BBC last night:

http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/miss-austin-regrets-coming-to-bbc-one/

#11

I watched the movie last week on DVD. A chic-flik for sure, but very sad.

The ending showing the actual fate of the main characters was very touching. Typical of so many during those horrific times. The scene taking place in the London underground in October 1940…

#12

I hadn’t heard about this one… I watched Becoming Jane, a fictonal tale of her early life… this one looks interesting… the last batch of JA adaptations from BBC were sexed up a bit from the actual books but they are still beautifully done and excluding Billie Piper they have excellent casts.

#13

‘Sexed up a bit’ makes it more real for me, gracie. One of the reasons, if not the main reason, I enjoy period drama is that it brings historical characters to life (much as historical novels do) particularly when done well. They may not always get it right, but it does breath life into our past.

I don’t equate Billie Piper with classic drama, but she seems to be flavour of the month, right now. Fortunately she doesn’t appear in most of what I enjoy.

#14

If I remember correctly, they bricked up the area with the bodies and left it as a tomb:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/49/a6439449.shtml

#15

If I remember correctly, they bricked up the area with the bodies and left it as a tomb:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/49/a6439449.shtml[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the link 32Bravo,

Very tragic…the tomb idea reminds me of the fate of the sailors on USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.

Was this the same station depicted in the movie? If so, it looks as though all the deaths were due to trampling and not flooding. I wonder how many were actually killed?

I have been tossing the idea around of possibly starting a thread based on newspaper articles from those times. Not the headliners, but the lesser known stories on a more personal level that might be found deeper in the papers. Stories that may be almost forgotten by modern readers, but nevertheless would be very touching and interesting if they could be brought back to our attention. Especially considering the broad audience that we have now with the Internet.

#16

Yes, it was balham tube station featured in the film.

There is a picture in the link of the bus in the bomb hole:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/webingres/bedfordshire/vlib/0.children_teenagers/0.images/ww2_fighting_blitz_bus.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/webingres/bedfordshire/vlib/0.children_teenagers/ww2_fighting_blitz.htm&h=82&w=108&sz=9&tbnid=Atm_RRFudG4J:&tbnh=82&tbnw=108&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dphoto%2Bof%2Blondon%2Bbus%2Bin%2Bblitz%2Blondon%2Bunderground%2Bww%2B2&hl=en&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1

#17

Yes, it was balham tube station featured in the film.

There is a picture in the link of the bus in the bomb hole:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/webingres/bedfordshire/vlib/0.children_teenagers/0.images/ww2_fighting_blitz_bus.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.galaxy.bedfordshire.gov.uk/webingres/bedfordshire/vlib/0.children_teenagers/ww2_fighting_blitz.htm&h=82&w=108&sz=9&tbnid=Atm_RRFudG4J:&tbnh=82&tbnw=108&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dphoto%2Bof%2Blondon%2Bbus%2Bin%2Bblitz%2Blondon%2Bunderground%2Bww%2B2&hl=en&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1[/quote]

Thanks 32Bravo,

London Underground accidents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_accidents

during World War II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_accidents#World_War_II

Balham
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_accidents#Balham

On October 14, 1940, during World War II, a bomb fell in the road above Balham tube station, with the blast penetrating into the tunnel 9 metres below. The water mains and sewage pipes were broken, causing flooding and the loss of 68 lives - 64 shelterers and 4 railway staff. The station and the tracks between Clapham South and Tooting Bec (then called Trinity Road, Tooting Bec) were closed until January 1941.

Balham station
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balham_tube_station

during WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balham_tube_station#World_War_II

During the Second World War, Balham was one of many deep tube stations designated for use as a civilian air raid shelter. At 20:02 on October 14, 1940, a 1400 kg semi-armour piercing fragmentation bomb fell on the road above the northern end of the platform tunnels, causing a large crater into which a bus then crashed. The northbound platform tunnel partially collapsed and was filled with earth and water from the fractured water mains and sewers above, which also flowed through the cross-passages into the southbound platform tunnel, with the flooding and debris reaching to within 100 yards of Clapham South. Sixty-five civilians in the station were killed, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) - although other sources report 68 - and more than seventy injured. The damage at track level closed the line to traffic between Tooting Bec and Clapham Common, but was repaired rapidly with the closed section and station being reopened on 12 January 1941. There is a memorial plaque in the station ticket hall commemorating this event, although it incorrectly states that 64 lives were lost, as do some other sources.


In popular culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balham_tube_station#In_popular_culture

The video for the single 'Missing" by Everything But the Girl repeatedly uses the same shot from a moving vehicle passing between the two tube entrance buildings, while in another shot Tracey Thorn is seen walking down the side of one of them.

The flooding of this station during World War II is briefly portrayed in the 2007 film Atonement based on Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name. Both the novel and the film date the event incorrectly, with the novel placing it in September 1940 rather than October, and the film dating it as October 15th.

#18

Sounds like a good idea, George.

#19

Not really. Have you read any of Spike Milligan’s books on his wartime service… plenty of swearing in those.