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Film · Paramount · 1953

Stalag 17

Stalag 17

56Watch it awake.

A teen can take it. The joke is the camp's boredom and fear, not the dead.

Pass it on

The review

Billy Wilder sets the film in a prisoner-of-war camp in 1944 and refuses to make the men noble as a class. J. J. Sefton trades, hoards, and bets against escape attempts. When two men are killed, the barracks decides he sold them. The mystery is a real one. So is the pleasure the room takes in having someone to hate.

A teenager can watch this. Say that a joke in a barracks is not the same thing as a joke about the war, and that Wilder knows which one he is telling. The part to keep is the speed of a false accusation among friends. Any house with a group chat has already seen a smaller version.

Journal

Keep Stalag 17 in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 56. Yours can differ.

The glance

Household and Piety are the thin ones.

  1. 7Industry
  2. 4Household
  3. 3Piety
  4. 6Courage
  5. 5Republic
  6. 6Temperance
  7. 8Truth
  8. 6Stewardship

Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

Casablanca

68 instead of 56

Casablanca is still a war film, and it scores 68 instead of 56. What you gain is republic: A occupied city, and a man who stops pretending it is only a nightclub.

The eight

  1. 7
    Industry

    Survival in a camp is a set of hustles, and Sefton is honest about the hustle.

  2. 4
    Household

    The barracks is a mean little household. It turns on its own.

  3. 3
    Piety

    Irreverence is the creed. Do not come here for reverence.

  4. 6
    Courage

    The courage, when it comes, is a man doing a dangerous thing after the room has despised him.

  5. 5
    Republic

    Prisoners keeping an order among themselves. The film is interested in how quickly that order becomes a mob.

  6. 6
    Temperance

    The comedy is a pressure valve. It does not dance on a grave.

  7. 8
    Truth

    The man the room hates is not the man the room should fear. The film waits to show you.

  8. 6
    Stewardship

    What it leaves is a warning about a group that needs a traitor so badly it will appoint one.

Live historically

Before you decide who in a group is the problem, ask what evidence you have besides your dislike.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Stalag 17 · 56IMDb tt0046359

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · Orion · 1984

Amadeus

Amadeus

56Watch it awake.

The music is a gift, and the man narrating it is not on your side.

Pass it on

The review

Salieri is the one talking. He knows he is good, he knows the other man is better, and he calls that God's injustice. The film is not a note-by-note life of Mozart. A father, a wife, money, and a body are in it. The music is the evidence. The confession is the frame. I enjoyed the music and did not enjoy the man handing it to me.

Save it for a night when envy is worth talking about afterward. Nobody in the room should be asked to admire the narrator. He tells a truth about a gift he cannot match, then spends the truth on a grievance. The music does not need his permission, and the warning is how a gifted man talks once he has decided heaven owes him an apology.

Journal

Keep Amadeus in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 56. Yours can differ.

The glance

Piety and Republic and Temperance are the thin ones.

  1. 9Industry
  2. 6Household
  3. 4Piety
  4. 5Courage
  5. 4Republic
  6. 3Temperance
  7. 7Truth
  8. 7Stewardship

Can conscience actually stop someone, or is reverence only in the shot so it can be mocked?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

Footloose

70 instead of 56

Footloose is still a drama film, and it scores 70 instead of 56. What you gain is piety: By the end the preacher is not a cartoon.

The eight

  1. 9
    Industry

    Composing is the real work, and the music is the evidence on the table.

  2. 6
    Household

    A father, a wife, money, and a body keep Mozart's life from being only genius.

  3. 4
    Piety

    Salieri calls the gap God's injustice and does not let that stop his envy.

  4. 5
    Courage

    The body and the money are at risk, while Salieri mostly risks his own peace.

  5. 4
    Republic

    A court may employ them, but nobody here is answering to a town.

  6. 3
    Temperance

    Envy is fed by every comparison, and the confession does not starve it.

  7. 7
    Truth

    He tells the truth that the other man is better, then misnames what God owes him.

  8. 7
    Stewardship

    The music outlasts the grievance, which is what the people still have.

Live historically

Play one piece by somebody plainly better than you, and say whether you can stand the gap without blaming heaven.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Amadeus · 56IMDb

For this house

Keep going

The next title is the one nearest what this house keeps, then the measure where it is thin. Nothing here is a crowd. It does not leave this device.

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