Welcome to Rosie the Reviewer, a Dutch-Canadian female-led WW2 media podcast. A new episode airs every Friday!
Rosie the Reviewer is a passion project, built episode by episode. If you’d like to support what we do, you can help keep us on the air or pick up some Rosie merch. We’re working on more ways for you to get involved in the future.
We discuss the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! about the attack on Pearl Harbor just to see how much Michael Bay ‘borrowed’ from it. Kidding! We giggle over the Star-Spangled Banner played at eight times the speed. Kidding! This might be the most accurate film about WW2 events ever made.
This week, we dive into Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), based on a book by the same name. Sam has read it, so you don’t have to. Maartje gets more excited about a Canadian character in this than Sam, so the world is definitely upside down.
In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we talk about Godzilla Minus One (2023), written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki. We can hear you thinking… What? Set in the immediate aftermath of WWII, the film follows a former kamikaze pilot grappling with survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and the struggle to rebuild a life in a shattered Japan – while Godzilla looms as both a literal threat and a powerful metaphor.
We discuss why this film works even if you think you don’t like monster movies (cough Maartje cough), how it uses Godzilla to explore nuclear trauma and post-war grief, and why the human story at its centre is surprisingly moving. We’re joined by our friend Julie, resident Godzilla enthusiast, because this movie deserves her commentary.
In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we unpack The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the harrowing new WWII series starring Jacob Elordi as Australian surgeon Dorrigo Evans. Based on Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel, the show follows Dorrigo’s life before, during, and after his time as a POW forced to build the Burma Railway. We talk symbolism, adaptation choices, and why every character in this show feels trapped—by war, by love, by legacy. Plus, we ask, once again, why is it so f*cking dark?
In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we welcome an extraordinary guest: Bruce McKenna, co-executive producer, creator, and principal writer of The Pacific, and writer of the Bastogne episode of Band of Brothers. We talk about the moral stakes of war, what made it into the episodes and what didn’t, and why everything is about narrative and theme.
We explore Bruce’s creative process and the kind of stories he likes to tell. This one may change how you look at WWII media.
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!
Rosie the Reviewer is a passion project, built episode by episode. If you’d like to support what we do, you can help keep us on the air or pick up some Rosie merch. We’re working on more ways for you to get involved in the future.