The Rosie the Reviewer Podcast

Welcome to Rosie the Reviewer, a Dutch-Canadian female-led WW2 media podcast. A new episode airs every Friday!

Blogs

Everything about Rosie and our WW2 adventures.
Episodes

Ep 103 – Beb, Bob, and The Bombardment – When Your Liberators Drop the Bombs

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we’re joined by Lisa Koolhoven, Dutch historian and WWII Rotterdam bike tour guide, and Kristen Hayford, American-in-the-Netherlands, who joined forces to make the podcast Beb & Bob | Collateral Damage about their journey to discover whether their grandparents’ paths may have crossed in the Forgotten Bombing of Rotterdam by the Allies.

Together, we review The Shadow in My Eye (2021), a Danish film based on Operation Carthage, during which the RAF accidentally bombed a school in Copenhagen in March 1945.

We discuss the myth of the faultless liberator, what mainstream war media consistently refuses to show, and why the words ‘collateral damage’ carry so much weight.

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02/04/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 102 – The Pianist – One Man’s Survival in Occupied Warsaw

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss The Pianist (2002), based on Władysław Szpilman’s memoir of surviving the Holocaust in Warsaw. We talk about the film’s quiet perspective, the reality of life in the ghetto, and provide you with historical context for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising.

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26/03/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 101 – The Swedish Connection – Can Paperwork Save Lives in WWII?

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss recent Netflix hit The Swedish Connection (2026), based on the true story of Swedish diplomat Gösta Engzell, who helped rescue Jewish people during World War II using the power of paperwork.
We also dive down the rabbit hole of a much smaller character in the film, but a real badass dude in real life: Raoul Wallenberg. (Can someone please make a movie about him, thanks?)

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20/03/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 100 – So Proudly We Hail – US Army Nurses on Bataan and Corregidor

It’s our 100th episode and also Women’s History Month! So it’s only fitting that in this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss So Proudly We Hail (1943), a World War II film about American Army nurses during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941–1942. The story follows a group of nurses working in increasingly desperate conditions as the war closes in, from jungle hospitals on Bataan to the evacuation from Corregidor.
We also explore how the film reflects 1940s attitudes toward women, including Hollywood stereotypes, and obviously wartime propaganda. Along the way, we look at the real stories of the nurses on Bataan and Corregidor. These women kicked ass!

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13/03/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 99 – Nr 24 – Gunnar Sønsteby, the Most Decorated Saboteur in Norway

Netflix’s Nr. 24 (2024) follows Gunnar Sønsteby, Norway’s most decorated citizen and one of the most effective resistance operatives in occupied Europe.

Tense from beginning to end, the film uses a sparse, near-ticking score and a documentary-style framing device to press a harder question: was it worth it? An elderly Sønsteby lectures students who have never known occupation, and what he chooses not to say is sometimes as revealing as what he does.

How do resistance stories shape national memory? And who gets left out of the telling?

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05/03/2026 1 Comment
Episodes

Ep 98 – Land of Mine – Demining Denmark, 1945

This week on Rosie the Reviewer, we’re heading to the beaches of postwar Denmark with Land of Mine (2015), a Danish film about a young German POW crew tasked with clearing a mine-affected beach and the Danish sergeant who oversees the process. It’s tense, visually striking, and explores trauma, anger, humanity and innocence. A movie about what comes after.

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26/02/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 97 – The Sound of Music – Edelweiss and the Anschluss

This week on Rosie the Reviewer, we’re tackling The Sound of Music (1965), directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. On the surface, it’s a sweeping musical about love, family, and catchy songs you’ve known since childhood. But watch it through a World War II lens and it’s surprisingly sharp.

We revisit the Von Trapps’ romance, the Anschluss, and the film’s portrayal of Austrian opposition to Nazism.

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20/02/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 96 – I Was Monty’s Double – M. E. Clifton James’ Role of A Lifetime

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss I Was Monty’s Double (1958), a British WWII film based on M.E. Clifton James’ memoir. The film tells the almost unbelievable story of an actor recruited to impersonate Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery in the lead-up to D-Day, as part of a wider Allied deception effort. Clifton James plays himself, and Monty. How any of this was true, we don’t know, because it really is stranger than fiction.

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13/02/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 95 – Miracle of the White Stallions – Saving the Lipizzaners at the End of WWII

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss Miracle of the White Stallions (1963), a Disney live-action film inspired by the real rescue of the Lipizzaner horses of the Spanish Riding School at the end of World War II.
Set in the war’s final months in Austria and Czechoslovakia, the film offers a very Disney take on Operation Cowboy, the joint effort to save the horses as the Third Reich collapsed.
Joined by our friend Alora, we explore why the real history is more compelling than the film, and why this extraordinary rescue deserves a modern retelling.

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06/02/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 94 – Windtalkers – A look at the Navajo Code Talkers 

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss Windtalkers (2002), a World War II film inspired by the real Navajo Code Talkers who served in the Pacific theatre. Set primarily during the Battle of Saipan, the film follows Navajo Marines using their language as an unbreakable military code. Unfortunately, the main character is white. Why?

Still, we’re happy to talk about Code Talkers.

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30/01/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 93 – Taking Sides – Can You Separate the Art from the Artist?

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss Taking Sides (2001), a postwar drama built around a single, unresolved question: can you separate the art from the artist?

Set during the Allied denazification of Germany, the film centres on the interrogation of celebrated conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who insists that his art existed above politics. His American interrogator argues the opposite: that cultural figures who remained visible under the Nazi regime cannot claim neutrality.

Our conversation focuses on complicity and whether art is “apolitical” under fascism, as we try to determine whether the film truly challenges its subject.

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23/01/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 92 – Hart’s War – A Courtroom drama set Inside a POW Camp

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss Hart’s War (2002), directed by Gregory Hoblit and based on the novel by John Katzenbach. Set inside a German POW camp during the final months of World War II, the film is about a racially charged court martial involving a Tuskegee Airman, with a young American officer forced into the role of defence lawyer.War movie or courtroom drama? This is a bit of both. The film tries to handle questions of racism within the US military, but we’re not sure if it tries hard enough. Based on a book, itdiverges sharply from its source material. As usual, Sam gives you the best bits from the book.

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16/01/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 91 – Ice Cold in Alex – Desert Survival, Camaraderie, and an Ice‑Cold Beer

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss Ice Cold in Alex (1958), directed by J. Lee Thompson and based on the 1957 novel by Christopher Landon. Set during the North African campaign of World War II, the film follows a British officer, his NCO, two nurses, and a mysterious South African hitchhiker as they attempt to reach Alexandria in a battered ambulance.

It’s a tense adventure film, with the desert as the main antagonist and an ambulance that feels like a character rather than a vehicle. And of course, the film has a famous promise: an ice‑cold beer waiting at the end of the road.

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08/01/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 90 – For the Moment – Love, Leaving, and the Air War at Home

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss For the Moment (1993), written and directed by Aaron Kim Johnston. Set in rural Manitoba in 1942, the film follows a group of Canadian women and young Commonwealth airmen brought together by the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Though fictional, the story draws heavily on the real experiences of Johnston’s parents and captures the temporary, emotionally charged connections formed far from the war’s front lines.
We talk about early-career Russell Crowe, understated performances, and why this quiet, character-driven film feels refreshingly honest about wartime romance, loss, and choices that do not come with neat endings.

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02/01/2026 No Comments
Episodes

Ep 89 – Beast of War – Shipwreck, Mateship, and One Musical Shark

In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we continue our accidental monster-movie streak with Beast of War (2025), written and directed by Kiah Roache-Turner. Loosely inspired by the real sinking of the Australian ship HMAS Armidale in the Timor Sea on 1 December 1942, the film follows a group of soldiers stranded on a rapidly failing raft, hunted by a great white shark.

Joined by our favourite returning, usually SAS Rogue Heroes, but now creature-feature correspondent George, we talk about why this is not just a horror movie, but a survival story with real themes: isolation, fear, trauma, and the brittle veneer of civilisation when the ocean is doing its absolute worst. Merry Christmas, see you in 2026.

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26/12/2025 No Comments