(m 44 and m 45) Guadalcanal Diary and the Bridge

One propaganda film shot in 43 and one German anti war film shot in 59. Guadalcanal is interesting to see Anthony Quinn and Richard Conte and Jaeckel as a kid and William Bendix and Lloyd Nolan. but other than that it revealed very little. The German film was quite good until the final scene. 16 year olds drafted from their adolescent lives in Germany right before the end of the war and thrust into the army. A kind commanding officer tries to keep them away from the front and assigns them to guard a bridge in their town. But when the captain assigned to them gets shot as a deserter because the idea of guarding the bridge is ridiculous to those who have been assigned the job of destroying it, the kids are left on their own and in fact they do go to battle against an american tank column that comes to attack. the battle is just another battle, and the kids are not discernible one from the other at least to me once the shooting starts and so the battle was a bit overheated and seemed like it didn't belong with the film which was semi comical until that point. absurdist or whatever. but until the battle it was quite a good movie. B or B plus for the Bridge and C or C minus for Guadalcanal.