Movie: Fort McCoy

This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.

Based On a True Story

Plot Overview

In May of 1941 the world was in the throes of war. America treated her prisoners of war strictly by the Geneva Convention, Germany less so, and Japan: forget it. The U.S. fearing mixed allegiances rounded up Japanese-Americans—loyal as the day is long—for incarceration in camps. German-Americans being harder to separate out were merely suspected. First generation German-American Frank Stirn (Eric Stoltz) anxious to show his loyalty responded to Uncle Sam's request for a barber at Fort McCoy POW camp in Wisconsin, arriving in the first scene with his wife Ruby (Kate Connor), his ten-year-old daughter Gertie (Gara Lonning)—who as a grownup narrates,—and her little brother Lester (Marty Back­strand.) Ruby takes a position as a switch­board operator but didn't like the move. Gertie thought it was fun. And Lester wants to become a soldier.

The prisoners may be fenced in, but spring is busting out. The fields are awash in blossoms that get identified and picked. A robin's nest in a tree is observed and guarded: first the eggs, then the hatchlings, then they're gone, but not their song. The movie's focus is now on the birds and the bees. Lester learns that women have bosoms. Gertie notices boys: Heinrich (Josh Zabel) at thirteen or so—Hitler takes them young. Any marriageable young woman attracts male attention, some unlikely to meet parental approval. And married couples become affectionate.

To the narrator this is a special place (“like magic.”) It's as described by novelist Rick Bass:

To ignore the essence and spirit of each individual arriving bird would be to subscribe to the view that they were mechanistic, nothing more than chips of color, feather-clad protoplasm hurled across the skies like tatters of bright cloth tossed on the winds aloft.

Wallis did not subscribe to this belief. One had only to look at a single black­bird perched trium­phantly on a slender green reed, eyes bright in the morning light and tilting his head back and trilling and cackling with emotion, a pleasure at having arrived, that was nothing less than joy. If it were just about hormones, the birds could have stopped any­where and sang and courted and staked out territories. (288)

It was not just the vicissitudes of war that brought these people together, but the thing was personal and special, which she shares in her story. The robins will soon migrate away, some to fall to windows, predators, and out­door cats, never to return. The boys will go off to war to meet their fate as well. But it was a worthy moment.

Ideology

When a Christian and a Jew wanted to get married, they got different responses from the parish priest and the in-house minister (“beloved of his congregation.”) Let's compare them with the apostle Paul who confronted a similar issue back in the Bible days in Corinth. Marrying will continue till the end of the world (Luke 17:27-30) and Jesus had (Acts 18:10) “much people in this city.” According to Pastor Criswell, The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians.

Date: First Corinthians was written in the spring, probably in 57 a.d., though it could have been as early as 54 a.d. Second Corinthians was written some six months later. In 50 a.d. Paul reached Corinth on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:1-4). In an eighteen month stay (Acts 18:9-11) [& then some (Acts 18:18) for ≈ 2 yrs. per Chuck Smith] a church was established. … He had received questions from the Corinthians (1Cor. 7:1) and wrote the letter known as First Corinthians as an answer to those questions. At the time, Paul was in Ephesus (1Cor. 16:8), near the end of his three-year stay there (Acts 20:31) and before his departure for Macedonia (1Cor. 16:5, Acts 20:1).

In answer to the Corinthians' questions regarding the mixed marriages they'd entered during that time, the apostle Paul writes of same as an occasion for Christian influence on the unbelieving spouse, (1Cor. 7:16) “For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?”

Paul was not doing any match­making, but let us try our­selves for an apple-to-apple comparison. A man has two daughters, say, and being just and fair he lines up matches of equal integrity for them both. Daughter A is to get married in June and daughter B June the following year. This is during the two year window when Paul is preaching nearby. Before B is wed, though, the sisters attend a meeting and become Christians. A is obligated to try to convert her spouse, and B wanting to follow her lead wants to go ahead and marry her guy, too, and try to convert him as well. He isn't any worse to start off with than her sister's husband was for her.

The apostle's authority was already expressed in: (1Cor. 3:21-22) “For all things are yours; Whether … the world, or … things present, or things to come; all are your's.” The movie confirms this by product placement galore: a car loaded down with boxes, a toilet in the house, treats at the px, shampoo at the barber shop, nail polish in the bed­room, tooth brush in the bath­room, pistol in a drawer (“I bought it to be safe”), bed­time story book, night crawlers on the lawn, pop at the club, music & dancing, cards, pie, bath, picnic on the 4th, radio, magazines, pen & paper, coffee, flour, needle & thread, movie w/popcorn, telephone, scooter, auto, cigarettes, candy canes, care packages, and a wedding cake. The man with the scooter (“things present”) receives a car as a wedding present (“things to come.”) Sister A's husband of the world is hers to keep (“things present”) and so is sister B's husband “to come,” as long as they are willing as we suppose they are. By apostolic decree, then, a Christian is allowed to enter a mixed marriage if that's what they want.

The priest refuses to marry the mixed couple because, “The church won't allow it. He'd have to convert and that takes time.” Actually he can get a special dispensation from the bishop—always granted—as long as she promises to remain Catholic and raise her kids Catholic. But that takes time and his tour is about up and he wants to get on with his life. The Protestant minister who works in the office is vociferously opposed to bureaucratic red tape, and he marries them in the base chapel.

There would undoubtedly be occasions of Christian duties interfering with family obligations. Paul mentions that in, (1Cor. 7:32-33) “But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.” Because he allows that family duties are unavoidable, he recommends not getting married in the first place, but concedes celibacy is not for everyone. He wants the married men to make the best of their situation wrt God's kingdom. (1Cor. 7:29-31) “But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.”A married man must balance obligations.

Something similar applies to women. (1Cor. 7:34) “There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.” Here, however, Paul does not tell a married woman to act like her unattached single sister, not until he addresses the widow, that is. (1Cor. 7:39) “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” To marry “in the Lord” means to keep her priorities straight. Unmarried she “careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.” To marry in the Lord means “be[ing] holy both in body and in spirit.” It's more or less the same thing for a Catholic woman to marry in the Pope. In our movie we have a recent widow who doesn't know what to do as, “There's no rule book on this.” That's it as far as what the apostle Paul says. If she wants more rules, the Catholics can help her, and some Protestants.

The mature women on base offer advice, “I'm not saying I'm against it. I'm saying there's a lot to consider: his culture, his religion. You have to think about the children.” Paul does ask the rhetorical question that any Christian contemplating marriage to an unbeliever must ask herself: (2Cor. 6:15) “what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” Some denominations go further and forbid their members from marrying non-Christians. They base that on the “be not unequally yoked” passage ignoring the case of the second person pronoun, which is plural in the Greek and in the reliable KJV (“ye”), but undisting­uished either singular or plural, you (or you-understood, in other later versions. It's a command applying to groups, specifically corporate worship, not to individual marriages. During chapel service we see posted the roll listing 110 members. They cannot add a Jew to make 111, because that would make them unequally yoked. Further­more, Paul said he's defrauded nobody (1Cor. 7:2), which some fathers back then would undoubtedly take issue with had he put the kibosh on favorable ($) wedding arrangements in the works.

Production Values

“” (2011) was written and directed by Kate Connor who was a little girl when the recalled events transpired. It stars Eric Stoltz, Kate Connor and Lyndsy Fonseca. Stolz's acting was the only one that seemed professional. At least the rest weren't demanding roles.

MPA rated it R for some violence. The story lacks any military bearing as evidently the children were sheltered and consequently unfamiliar with it. A particularly good job was done with over­coming the language barrier between a couple of children. The German boy got whipped with a belt for unspecified trans­gression(s), which made the Nazi officer who did it look bad—I think that was the point. This movie was done on the cheap, so groups of soldiers were altogether lacking. Details were changed almost to (unsuccess­fully) hide the camp the story was about. Liberty was taken with depicting the considerate care our prisoners received, more as a short­cut than to hide any­thing. Runtime is 1 hour 40 minutes.

Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation

The nation at prayer during the war seemed a genuine memory with speech by President Roosevelt. I'd say this movie was nice, a little better than a home movie.

Movie Ratings

Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Wake up and smell the 1990s technology. Video Occasion: Better than watching TV. Suspense: Predictable. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.

Works Cited

Cited scripture is quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.

The Criswell Study Bible. Authorized King James Version. Nashville | Camden: Thomas Nelson Pub., 1979. Print.

Bass, Rick. Where the Sea Used to Be. Copyright © 1998 by Rick Bass. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. Print.