WW2 film needs help being historiccally accurate

Unless the German soldiers are taken by surprise, they aren't likely to be easily killed by a maid and a badly wounded flier. Once the German soldiers believe that an Allied parachutist is near, they are going to scream bloody-murder for backup and become super cautious. If the shack is large enough to live in, no way would a single soldier go in there alone not knowing who might be inside and how dangerous they were. They might take up covered positions on the building diagonals and try to induce whoever was inside to come out. If a shot was fired from inside, they would probably send in a handgrenade. Covering the maiden is a problem, but they might use her as a hostage, or incapacitate her somehow.

If the Germans are already known to be in the vicinity and the flier is very badly wounded, even a dedicated partisan would probably let him be taken prisoner ... and the Germans did take most downed fliers prisoner if at all possible. Without medical resources the flier may die, and certainly won't be able to be hidden very long. If your maid finds the wounded man before the Germans arrive, and that is plausible, she might try to tend wounds and hide him. The wisest thing for her to do would be to hide him in the woods, but people do strange and stupid things all the time. In this case, it is likely that the flier will be unable to resist and will end up in a Luftwaffa Stalag. Being found in the maiden's shack will likely get her arrested and transported to Gestapo custody.

I think you need to set up the scene for the Germans to let down their guard, and that means they don't expect a parachutist in their sector. The search may be concentrated at some distance and these two rookies are posted as a precaution along a distant perimeter. Show them as young men who in other circumstances might be likable, even attractive to the maiden. Bored sentries whose attention is distracted by an attractive young woman might be killed, but then you are left with finding some better motivation for the girl to kill them.

Ending the film with the parachutist shot to death and the maiden arrested for hidding him is a downer. The audience will have invested their emotions with the maiden and the parachutist (the good guys), and are not going to like it when the nasties shoot them ... afterall this is entertainment, not propaganda. This is especailly true if the Germans are depicted as two-dimensional bad guys with no redeeming features.

Holland or the Aredenne between 1941-43 will work, but don't feel compelled to "tell" the audience where and when the film is taking place. They will recognize the German uniforms and understand the threat they present. What real difference does the location and year make to the story? The location probably should be more driven by what is available than by strict historical accuracy. Paask has already described the two landscapes, pick the one best for your film and go with it.

Think in terms of a full story. You have a good start, a serious problem and five characters who are intimately involved in it. Tell the audience about each of the characters as human being. How is each character affected, and how will each of them react. Slowly rachet up the tension to a climatic point that resolves the primary problem. Then show how each of the characters and their circumstances are changed. If the good guys lose, they must do it heroically and the audience must believe that they too would be tragic heros in like circumstances. Most modern audiences aren't into tragedy, we like the good guy(s) to win out over terrible odds. The audience will fill in the blanks, but as the storyteller you have to give them the skeleton and help them to believe.

Thank you all again, you have all been great help...

before I go any further, I'd like to adress one thing. That is, i really appreciate all of your help, but I'd like you to understand something that may be a little hard for me to explain. But I'll try with an example: We've been covering what is "Historiccaly accurate" but we've also been covering "What soldiers would do in a certain situation"..... There is a difference.... Let me explain... Originally i gave an explanation of my film and asked if it was historiccaly accurate... or in other words.... would there be jews planting flowers in the woods at the same time nazi soldiers were close by and not have to run and hide.... I asked this because it is soemthing, that when someone watched the movie, could look at and say , "Why aren't they capturing that jew! TThis is so unbelievable! A jew would never be able to just casually walk around in the open"....... okay.... fine.... we have covered that and the story has been changed sicne then..... but now the discussion as turned into soemthign different.... We are discussing what the sodliers would do in their situation..... SURE.... As History experts.... I am sure you all know what the soldiers SHOULD DO and what their TRAINING or what the "BOOKS" said they should do.... but look... In a movie... The soldier that goes and checks out the shed alone may just be STUPID and arrogant... also... the good looks of the women may calm him into thinking that they'll just check it out and move along... This may be unbelievable to history experts that yourselves.... but for a movie.... it is passable.... i think.... as a Non-history expert....

I'm not saying that any of you are doing a bad job at helping... I just want to make that clear.... I am VERY thankful for all your responses and every single one.... and I mean EVERY SINGLE RESPONSE I have recieved has been a GREAT help..... I am just trying to get us on the same track..... I know that none of you are filmmakers (Although Asherman seems like he could be) and when i ask for historical accuracy you guys try and help me get it accurate PERFECTLY.... and I love you guys for that.... but look... the film being accurate in the sense of "who and where they are at what time" is different than "how they respond to a situation".... two different types of "accuracy"... the former being more what i am concerned with.

Anyone see the end of jaws when they kill the shark buy shooting that big barrel? You know that everyone on set was telling spielberg that there is no way in hell that that barrel would blow up the way it does. and he said "it doesn't matter".... does anyone watch jaws and say, "Hey, that stuff doesn't blow up liek that".... no.... haha

Anyway.... Asherman.... I agree with you when you say that I shouldn't tell the audience where and when it takes place. So i won't do it...... HOWEVER.... I do want to be able to answer the question, 'Where and when does this take palce" when someone asks me.... because some people may ask themselves that when they watch the film.... and there does have to be a rational answer.... because if everythign taking palce, with all the people couldn't rationally happen at any place and any time.... (by this i mean, for example, there is no time in the war where a belgium women would cross paths with an american soldier because of whatever reason..... not that a german soldier wouldnt check the shed alone because it would be dangerous)

I just want to make this all clear and get ourselves on the right track... I believe that I am very close to locking down the final story.

there is some information about the film that I didn't originally tell you guys about because i thought this would primarily be a discussion about historical accuracy and not suggestions on my film's story (Although I am very happy that this discussion has become what it has become).... here is the information:

1) The film will be around the length of 5-10 minutes.

2) The film is not supposed to have any synced sound (this means no sound recorded on set, which in turn also means no dialogue, HOWEVER, i can work my way around this by recording voices after the film is shot, but dialogue more than one or two lines at a time could not work) For example, I can have a german soldier yell "Come over here!" or "Have you seen any american soldiers come by?" and then have the women shake her head no. i can't have the soldier and the women have a long discussion about what they have found and what theya re going to do about it and so on...

3) film will be shot on 16mm black and white film.... very appropriate for the time I believe.... Its going to look beautiful.

4) The two Nazi Re-enactors I have are working for free and I can't ppick and choose. One guy looks about 40ish and the other maybe 30ish.

okay.... also.... when I say "shack" i have soemthing like this pictured:



I mean... i did that with a quick google search just to understand size.. that may even be a little big.... soemthign like this would also work:



Again... Not very big.... Not big enough for the belgium family to live in... but for whatever reason they are at the shed planting flowers... maybe their house is off in the distance somewhere? It doesn't matter , it doesn't have to be explained....

How perfect would it be if I got somethign This beautiful? ->



makes me wish I had the budget to travel.


yea, location is also an issue.... if anyone knws of a good location in the New jersey area, let me know

The additional information is helpful. Length and lack of sychronized sound are important constraints. Without dialogue its hard to do much character development in 10-15 minutes, so the script has to remain very simple and pictorial.

It still seems to me your problem is to have a suitable and plausible climax with a strong end that will leave the audience satisfied. The German's shouldn't have a clue about the danger until it is upon them. A shot and/or explosion can be easily dubbed, and would be an audible symbol of climax. The parachutist's wounds might be far less serious than you originally visualized, and that would increase the liklihood of escape and evasion as an option. Perhaps you could devise some clever way for the maiden to avoid the retribution so common with the Nazi occupiers. You need to find a way to save the local villagers from being shot (10 for one) once the bodies of the German soldiers are found.

BTW, older German soldiers would be far more cautious, ruthless, and difficult to kill than younger soldiers with less experience. At the ages you've listed, these two are veterans unlikely to make really foolish moves. They won't rush into a place of even possible danger, and they will not hesitate to kill on the least provocation. They are less likely to be distracted by the maiden, especially if they have the least scent of danger. Veteran combat soldiers have learned survival skills the hard way, and they are much tougher opponents. In your scenario with these factors added in, your wounded flier and maiden are toast.

You got to get the older German soldiers drunk and there is no better way than a good-looking Belgium wench!

Why not have the Germans drunk and then have the kid discover the slightly injured parachutist. Well, this could come out as a comedy with the drunken soldier doing drunken search.

Okay, to put some perspective into the war scenario you should realize that the Germans were trying to conquer the whole of Europe and they didn't have that many veteran soldiers to do everything just like the US situation right now in Iraq. There were a lot of youngsters in the military uniforms doing guard duty and non-fighting parts.

It is this aspect that could very well explain how Audrey survived as she was dealing with youngsters in uniforms.

There is an incident she tells where the Germans were taking Dutch girls for some menial work or slave camp. Two young German soldiers hardly older than her were guarding her after they caught her in a street crosscheck. One of the guards went off somewhere and the remaining guard sat down and began rolling a cigarette. Audrey saw her opportunity and ran for her life without looking back. She hid in a basement and heard her pursuers' running footsteps pass by. She stayed there for a month and survived on some biscuits she had in her pocket. She saw rats in the basement. She finally made it home.

Therefore, I think there is a need for a change in script. The soldiers have to be two college students as that is all and what Hitler had doing guard duty. It is more realistic. It is a waste of manpower for the generals to have veteran soldiers doing guard duty when there is a real war going on.

Better get rid of the 30-40 year-old Nazis.

I think there's one real big problem getting "rid of the 30-40 year-old Nazis" ... from what Drew22 has said, the uniforms and gear belong to the fellas slated to play them. Couple other things there, talk2700 - first, the average Wehrmacht footsoldier most likely would be a conscript, and unlikely to be a member of the NSDAP, unless they were with an SS unit - then there wouldn't be much likelyhood of them making stupid mistakes or otherwise behaving in unmilitary manner. Second, while there certainly woulda been lotsa youngish troops, there woulda been plenty of older ones too, especially in the regular army - most but not all older men would have been combat veterans, most with some rank, but a pretty fair number of the older ones who weren't battle-hardened would be of lower rank - and it would not be at all uncommon for troops of somewhat less than exemplary military behavior to find themselves, regardless of age or combat experience, stripped of rank and assigned to disciplinary units. Also, as the war wound on, older and older conscripts became commonplace, often aggregated into units comprising chiefly the same, apart from a cadre of NCOs and officers, and such units often were deployed as garrison in low-priority sectors - such as quiet countryside somewhat away from fighting fronts or expected invasion avenues.

The drunk thing has real potential, though - that would be entirely plausible, young troopers or old. That could also provide some impetus for the troops to not raise a general alarm, but to prefer rather to avoid any potential hostile confrontation and ensuing close attention from all sortsa very duty-minded types ... good setup for stupid mistakes.

Good point Timber. Seems like a 15-minute Oscar winner in the making!

I like the Drunk thing, I'll go with it....What would a typical soldier be drinking out of? A Flask? or soemthing more unique to the place and time? Will it be a hard prop to get? Let me know what it looks like if you can.

Also, yes, I can't switch out the soldiers.... if it is bot very plausible that there were be an older soldier... well... i have to live with it... because otherwise they're going to be soldiers with NIKE t-shirts and Water guns and thats even worse.

I think I am ready to write the script. I will post it when it is complete

I have to run to class now and will post back here later when I have read through the other posts a bit slower and carefully.

Thanks again

Bottles usually were stored in the metal gas mask bin - commonly known as "Botanisiertrommel" (botanist's container) - when not fighting at the front that is.

Drunk is good, and plausible. It leads to poor judgement and reduces the soldier's capacity to react quickly to sudden threats.

The soldiers are coming from the village. They are probably AWOL, or stragglers, and don't suspect that they are walking into danger. How about if one of the soldiers makes a physical move on the maiden, and the boy drops him with a pitchfork. That is an understandable reason to kill the German in spite of the potential retribution. The boy might not be precieved as a threat, and the pitchfork is just handy. The boy is protecting his Mom and probably has no clear idea of the consequences of his act. Once one soldier is dead, the other must follow quickly, and our wounded parachutist kills him with his sidearm from the building window. This makes a pretty good climax that is perfectly plausible.

That only leaves the problem of finding a suitable ending where the three good guys escape to fight another day. Perhaps they hide the bodies in the woods, that will give them a little time. They strip the bodies of weapons, and the maiden leads them to the local head of the underground. The local village will suffer, but that's outside the frame of the film.

I like, I like.... However... I don't think the boy should kill a soldier... I like what I wrote earlier about the soldier entering the shed and the parachutist taking him out with a knife.... then the other (drunk and stupid) soldier aims his gun at the shed and calls out to his soldier friend... when he doesn't respond he starts to yell for help, but just as he gets any air out of his lungs, the shed door flings open and the parachutist shoots him with the nazi gun....

The parachutist doens't have to be seriously inhured, he'll just have bumped his head really bad and maybe a little dizzy.

I think it is plausible that the parachutist takes out the two of them in this fashion, especially if the soldiers are drunk.... also.... I like the moment where the soldier hells out for his friend.... there is a moment of silence where we only hear maybe a bird.... then BAM! Door flings open and bye bye.... then the soldier walks off.... probably to his sure death by whatever nazis are up the road.... But thats what is interesting about it.... It's a shitty situation.... he may die.... he may not.... we don't know because the film ends.

I like this, but I am always open to suggestions... don't feel as though I'm married to this idea... I always love a heated discussion.... and it will make the film much better, I know from experience.

The best films are those that leave with an inconclusive ending. There will be debates and suggestions all over your campus and you will be "Da Big Man", a celebrity overnight. Next stop - Hollywood.

In keeping with the inconclusive ending, why not knockout the Nazis as they are drunk and when they wake up they might think they were dreaming? The greater the dicussion ensuing following the release your 15 minutes of war film or fame, the farther your fame will spread.

I think I definitly have to keep an inconclusive ending... for a couple of reasons: It has to be short.... You keep sying 15 minutes, but it really has to be like 5-8... also... Let's face it... The Pilot's future is Grim... He doesn't have much of a chance... I like that there is this noble thing about him setting off down the path, where the odds are certainly against him. But he has to go.... It gives him this wandering Samurai aspect.... very cool I think. Also... I've gotten very into the story and that is important... The story is really only as good as how passionate the teller of it feels about it....

I'm at my campus right now, so I can't talk long, Have to get to my screenwriting class. I'll post the finalized treatment online when i get home and I'll post the actual script when I'm done with it soemtime this weel.

Break a leg! (theatre talk for "good luck")
Some stats might encourage you in your quest in the sense of its importance. There were some 50-55 million people killed in World War II. About 25 million were Russians.

And a far out suggestion of a possibility. Near the end of the war, the Germans drafted boys into the army who were as young as fourteen years of age. What if, by chance, the Nazis happened to be 16 or 17 years old. This fact is easily verifiable.

Again, break a leg!!!!!!!

Not in the army but in the 'Volkssturm'.


Not before 1945, and as said: not in the army, only as - perhaps - 'Flakhelfer' or 'Volkssturm'. Anti-air raidcommandos (Flak) had staff from 15 onwards since 1943.

And on September 25, 1944, Hitler ordered the registration of all men between 16 and 60 for the "Volkssturm", the last reserves.

Okay, here is the treatment of the film. To those who read the previous latest Treatment, this may sound VERY similiar, thats because there are really only slight changes... I just want to start with a clean slate and work onward from this treatment.

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The Parachutist

In World War II Belgium, a woman is planting tulips outside an old shed in the woods. Her son, a young boy, is fooling around off beside her with a stick that he is pretending is a rifle. He makes a lot of noise pretending to fire at imaginary soldiers and begins to irritate his mother. Down the path, the young by can faintly see two Nazi soldiers standing in the middle of the path. A closer look reveals to us that they are drinking and have become drunk, though, the boy can't see this. He pretends to fire his fake gun at them, this draws his mother's attention to the soldiers down the road and the woman immediately tells her son to stop fooling around and to go off and play somewhere else. The young boy, walks further away, and then sneaks off into the woods when his mother isn't looking. In the woods, the young boy continues to play with his fake rifle, ducking in and out of trees, pretending to fight imaginary soldiers. Eventually he stops playing when he feels something drip onto his forehead. He looks up and he notices a parachute hanging from a trees. Sticking out of the bundled up parachute is a leg with a black boot. The boy isn't scared at first, but fascinated. He doesn't really get that there may be a man wrapped up on the parachute. In curiosity, he starts to throw rocks at it. Eventually a branch breaks and the parachute, along with the man wrapped inside, falls to the ground. The little boy is immediately scared and starts to run away, but he stops and turns back and examines the parachute. He lifts up a piece of the parachute and sees an American fighter pilot with some bad head wounds, this scares him and he runs back to his mother.
He brings his mother back to the fallen pilot. She decides to bring him back to the shed and try to help him.
While the pilot is back at the shed, the two drunken Nazi soldiers are strolling through the woods when they come across the parachute the woman accidentally left there. Their silly drunkenness immediately becomes a wave of seriousness and they run off with the parachute.
Back at the shed, the woman is inside the shed tending to the pilot's wounds when she hears the Nazi soldiers coming down the road. She walks outside and confirms that they are coming, and then she goes back inside the shed and gives the pilot a look of desperation.
When the Nazi soldiers get close to the shed, the woman and her son are acting naturally in front of the shed. She is tending to her tulips and the boy is helping her, very well disciplined this time. The Nazi soldiers pass by but stop before they get to far. They turn around and something about the women draws their curiosity. They call the women over and in a very nasty way, as if she has seen anyone else pass by the area. She denies it. The soldier tells her that he is going to check the shed and he walks over to it. The second soldier stays outside the shed, talking with the women and coming on to her, taking sips of his drink, he is obviously drunk.
The first soldier enters the shed and it appears that everything is okay, however, after a few moments, the American pilot jumps out from the corner and attacks the soldier. From outside, the other Nazi soldier can hear this, so he runs over to the shed and draws his gun to it. The wresting stops and he calls out to his fellow soldier. There is no response. He attempts to yell for help but before he can yell anything the door of the shed swings open and the American pilot shoots him with the Nazi gun. After that, he stumbles out of the doorway, dazed and in pain, but he gives the Woman and her son a look of gratification and walks off down the path.
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Just keep in mind when commenting that: 1) The pilot IS capable of taking on the two soldiers because he no longer has SERIOUS injuries, but did suffer from blows to the end during his landing. also, the Nazi's a drunk. 2) Sure, maybe leaving the bodies there with the family is not very nice, but the truth is, we don't know this guy, he may not be nice. 3) The very first thing that the nazis do is run to tell others of the parachute, they just stop at the shed because they pass it and see that the boy maybe gives them a little scared look as they pass.

Fairly plausible - close enough, anyhow, for the purpose, IMO.

You need not take to heart what I am about to write. In war times, soldiers are in need of R&R. When drunk even a horse looks beautiful. Maybe with the drunk Nazis hanky panky was in at least in the mind of one of them and he goes to the Belgian woman. She fights back. He tears part of the blouse. The young son hits the drunkard with a pole. The younger Nazi outside is laughing. The parachutist comes to the rescue and knifes the drunkard. There is a silence and the young Nazi thinks that his elder is having his way with the woman not realizing the parachutist is ready to pounce on him.

Why I paint this scenario? Because the other Nazis seeing an attempted rape would be less alarmed than a death from a downed parachutist.

If you let the girl and boy bury the soldiers in the parachute away from the shed that would probably save them from retaliation by the Germans since they would assume the soldiers were killed by the airman.

In a well-known Dutch book this was the plot, with the twist that others came upon the grave and took the parachute (silk was a precious commodity in those days), leading to the Germans holding the dignitaries of the nearby village as hostages and eventually executing them. But the (British) pilot made it to the allied lines with the help of the resistance (an airman alone would be a sitting duck for the Germans and their local henchmen)