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.
In this episode, we discuss Stalag 17 and try to avoid comparing it too much to The Great Escape. Also, its’ a Christmas movie. Merry Christmas!
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In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss Come and See (1985), directed by Elem Klimov and set in German-occupied Belarus. We follow Flyora, a teenage boy who joins a partisan unit and is drawn into the systematic destruction of Belarusian villages by German forces. We talk about the film, the history of what Germany did to Belarus, and the survivor accounts that Adamovich travelled across the country to collect.
This week, we are delighted to welcome author Robert B. O’Connor to our show to talk about his book Jeep Show: a trouper at the Battle of the Bulge.
In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we discuss Empire of the Sun (1987), Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s semi-autobiographical novel about a kid more or less growing up in a Japanese POW camp and making it home. We feel a little old because Christian Bale is in this, and he’s a child.
In this episode of Rosie the Reviewer, we embark on a cinematic sortie with Le Grand Cirque (The Big Show), the 1950 French film based on the bestselling memoir by ace pilot Pierre Clostermann. While the movie tries to be authentic with vintage aircraft footage and Free French pride, we found it weighed down by a lack of character depth and narrative, especially compared to Clostermann’s vivid, emotionally resonant book. We discuss Clostermann’s daring missions, the film’s historical context, its unique multilingual quirks, and why this underrated French perspective on WWII deserves more attention, perhaps from Hollywood—preferably with subtitles next time.
This week, Sam and Maartje discuss one of their lowest-rated movies thusfar: The Catcher Was a Spy. It’s a movie about baseball player Moe Berg, who, unlike the film, was a fascinating character. Come complain about the movie with us while simultaneously bigging up Moe, please. Also, baseball, anyone?
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.