I had wanted to get my hands on this DVD for some time now; as we all know, there's a general dearth of "new" material on Crete in any form. So a suprise Xmas present gave me the $24.99 needed...and I have to say right up front - I wish I hadn't.
We're all used to the best of documentary programmes, like the now-slightly dated but still excellent "World At War" or "The Nazis; A Warning From History"...but we're ALSO all pretty used to the worst productions of the Mythtory Channel. Sadly, despite the great write up and its extended format - a full 75 mins, so probably 1hrs 30 if it ever makes it to network once ads are added in - it's a sad waste of time.
It's a good BASIC history of the invasion of Crete - but VERY basic, with some MAJOR flaws. Their very brief explanation of events at Maleme is completely wrong, for one thing. But the worst sin is that the first 15 minute of the documentary is the customary pastiche of archive footage - and as usual the makers have used what's been handy, available or cheap. The old footage of Ju52 over a Greek landscape appears when they talk about the air fleet launched against Crete...but for SOME reason right in the middle there's a snippet of a Ju88 edited in! Likewise illustration of the effectiveness of the Stuka in the first days of the attack on Crete is by a cutting of Stukas in action in RUSSIA - complete with onion-dome church towers!
The main bulk of NON-interview material in the programme is an absolutely HUGE amount of black and white for four-colour "reconstruction" film clips - with ALL the worst sins of poor renactment groups. ALL the soldiers in the ENTIRE documentary are FJ renactors in jumpsuits and - EVEN the late war "reconstructions". When a Commonwealth officer or SOE agent is required to be symbolised in the reconstructions....HE'S the one wearing the Tommy helmet!
Makes you wonder how Paddy Fermor and Billy Moss and all the rest of Force 133 crept around the island for so long, when they were SO readily identifiable!!! I had also hoped that some of the reconstructions would at least have been fimed ON Crete, but visibly not a single one. And finally, the best or worst documentary maker's faux-pax of all; a reconstruction snippet JUST after a New Zealand veteran talks about being down to his last few rounds - and in the reconstruction the "Tommy" figure in the film is toying with a five round clip...for the K98 he's holding...These may all look like nitpicks - but the really unfortunate thing about this "film" as the makers like to describe it, is the sheer QUANTITY of the mistakes, the faux-pas and poor reconstructions. It's impossible to watch more than a couple of minutes without one reaching out and slapping you, time after time. And with so many reconstructions - the makers are guilty of simply padding the film out to its 75 minutes. Cut out the pointless overabundance and frequent repeats in slow-motion...and this would have been a good HOUR-long "film".
There is however ONE major plus side to this documentary - and that's the interviews, as the Wiki article above says. Paddy Leigh Fermor is interviewed several times about his role in the Kreipe kidnapping, and Manoli Petrakis also....though his role in the kidnap party isn't actually mentioned. There are a whole raft of veterans of the island struggle interviewed - both Commonwealth veterans, and Cretan citizens. And the content of their interviews is memorable...but again, in a way basic. No mention at all of the difficulties of life on the island during the war, nor the political squabbles that marked the later days of the Resistance.
I haven't actually worked through the extras on the DVD yet - the photo gallery - and it's very likely that having them now permanently at my disposal will make up for SOME of the major deficiencies in the programme itself...but it's a pity this is such a mishmash of the worst qualities of television documentary making - for that manages sadly to devalue the actions and deeds of the interviewees and all the time-vanished veterans of the island conflict. The Cretan Resistance simply deserves a much better televisual monument than this. But it's good to see some of the major "faces" before time robs us of them.
One star.
