The Great Exploit
The Great Exploit
"Neville Chamberlain tells the world he has sealed the peace at Munich. But the bombs soon fell on London, the Nazis advanced as they chose, and soon nearly all of Europe was lost. Then they attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941--backed by 190 divisions and 5,500,000 men. This film covers the defense of Moscow; victory at Stalingrad; the 900 day siege of Leningrad; decisive tank battles at the Kursk bulge; the movement East to liberate Romania and Yugoslavia and to free Poland. Then the Normandy invasion of 1944, last victories in Berlin, and V-Day in Moscow, London, Paris, and New York." Victory, V-E Day. World War Two. Shot by 236 Soviet cameramen.
The Great Exploit
TITLE and CREDITS.
The Great Exploit
Russia. Opening montage of young people (including some adorable kids and babies) walking on sunkist sidewalks; youth.
The Great Exploit
Cut to montage of life on the front for Soviet soldiers during World War Two (WWII): MS/CUs of Soviet soldiers in trenches, rolling & smoking cigarettes, reading mail (letters & drawings) from home, smiling, trying to stave off the horror of war.
The Great Exploit
CU of a sculpture of the head of Adolf Hitler, poised on a blanket, surrounded by bazaar trinkets in a window display; MSs Soviet people pointing & laughing at it.
The Great Exploit
European people destroying Nazi paraphernalia after Germany's surrender in 1945: LSs of Soviet soldiers storming the battle-scarred Reichstag building in Berlin, holding the USSR flag, positioning it on a statue; MSs of people burning Nazi flags, smashing busts of Hitler (like a pi ata), removing Iron Eagles and Third Reich insignias from buildings, letting them hurtle to the ground.
The Great Exploit
Vietnam War, the producers comparing the United States' imperialist impulses to those of fascist Germany's: LS large bomber taking off, spewing smoke; MSs of US soldiers lighting huts on fire (setting village huts on fire), firing M-60 machine guns, capturing alleged Viet Cong; CUs of Vietnamese peasants looking scared and nervous, many plugging their ears with their fingers.
The Great Exploit
Palestinian Arab territory seized by "Israel's Zionist forces": Israeli Army soldiers lead young Arab man through street; dead bodies on ground.
The Great Exploit
Athens, Greece, streets occupied by the neo-fascist Black Colonels (tanks quite literally litter the streets).
The Great Exploit
US military bases which "threaten the peace and lives of future generations" (small outposts in the middle of nowhere, surveillance and rocket equipment more or less on display).
The Great Exploit
Clash between British bobbies (policemen) and anti-war protesters (Vietnam): MSs of cops beating the protesters, CUs of their bloodied faces as they walk away. Anti-Vietnam War Demonstrations.
The Great Exploit
West Germany. Voiceover describes as rise in neo-fascism among older generations