i must have seen a different film!!

Best movie of this year hands down!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

As Good As It Gets

Carve her name with Pride is directed and co-written by Lewis Gilbert. Gilbert is one of the unsung heroes of British cinema who has directed on of the best James Bond film ever made.The film is based on true events. Violette Szabo (Virginia McKenna) is half French (French mother) and after a whirlwind romance she marries a French officer who dies in North Africa.Widowed with a two year old daughter she joins up with the British Special Operations Executive to be a spy. This includes undertaking a tough and rigorous training regime where her trainer reckons she is not up to the task.Violette is sent into occupied France in 1944 to work under an experienced SOE agent Tony Fraser (Paul Scofield.) After a successful first mission she is captured after a more dangerous endeavour.She is tortured by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp where she is executed. After the war her daughter received a posthumous George Cross in recognition of her mother's bravery.This is a crisp film without much pomp but plenty of clipped accents. It does feel a kind of old fashioned. There is a hint of a burgeoning romance between Fraser and Szabo but you get a hint of the horrors Szabo endured in the interrogation scenes and the concentration camp segment where there is effective use of make up to make Szabo looked haggard and even though you feel it is restrained those scenes still look harrowing.This film along with Odette shows the roles and sacrifices made by women in the war which unfortunately some men will love to airbrush out. Just look at the frothing of the mouth in modern action films that has a female heroine!Virginia McKenna gives a solid and stoic performance, there is a strong performance by Scofield. There are small supporting turns from Jack Warner and Bill Owen.

During WWII, a British woman marries a wimpy French soldier after a courtship of about three days. He then dies and she goes off to fight the Germans in his honor, leaving behind their little girl. McKenna is much too cheerful for someone experiencing so many hardships. The film consists of random scenes and veers from dull to corny to ridiculous. There's a scene where McKenna, hopping around on one good leg, engages in a machine gun battle with dozens of German soldiers. She manages to mow down half of them before they are able to capture her. Gilbert, who provides the uninspired direction here, went to on to direct films featuring another British agent, James Bond.

The story of Violette Szabo is told in an unfussy low key way. This film has the feeling of authenticity in the way that after Etienne her husband was killed in the war , Violette was recruited into the S.O.E. You can imagine how this subject would be filmed today whereas Lewis Gilbert makes her genuinely heroic life low key and truthful.There are two scenes in this film that for me have great power -- the first is when she is urged to go back to France on her second 'job'; she is persuaded by one of the service personnel not to go and yet Violette goes against this and shows extreme courage in not only accepting but going through with the assignment,she is supported immediately in her choice.The other scene is more obvious though no less powerful where her interrogator in Foches where Gilbert has the camera on his reaction to her treatment by the gestapo.By doing this the film tells the facts without resorting to 'drama'. She really was the most courageous of human beings.

I was just wasting time in front of the TV when this movie came on. I was initially interested because of Paul Scofield, who was so wonderful in "A Man for All Seasons" and in "The Crucible." He is indeed excellent in this film, as is the lead actress.The story involves a young British woman who because of her French heritage and married life in France becomes a spy for the British during WWII.Unlike other modern war films, where everyone is "hero" just for waking up in the morning, this film shows people who deserve the name 'the greatest generation.' Just like the characters, the film is understated, as, for example the moment when Violette's father realizes that his daughter is a spy but says nothing. Another moment is when the two spies are in Paris buying a dress for a little girl as if they were merely a couple shopping rather than wanted criminals risking a firing squad. Paul Scofield's quiet "Oh god" expresses volumes, as he realizes what has happened to his friend after they meet in bad circumstances. Even running from the Nazis is understated, with no grandstanding speeches, no "Hollywood" punches and no bullets whizzing underwater. There is only good story, good acting, and good script.This is a story that shows the extraordinary power of ordinary people who do not proclaim their own virtues or demand recognition of their efforts. It is worth watching.