“This is our land and nobody has it.” In ' Blockade' director William Dieterle touches on the theme of the Spanish Civil War, which broke out in the thirties of the last century. But nevertheless, he “dashed” outlines the lyrical “line” of this film drama, uses elements inherent in adventure tapes and so-called spy detectives. However, the main for Dieterle is still the patriotic direction of the plot.
That is, the “Blockade” is, first of all, a story about human patience and courage, about the desire of ordinary people to defend the concepts of honor, duty, loyalty to their native land.
The latter is the greatest value in the world for the farmer Marco, who, in fact, raises his comrades to the struggle, being firmly convinced that saving life is certainly important, but one should also try not to lose its meaning.
You can't argue with that position. In addition, playing Marco Henry Fonda voices her personally, with the necessary in these critical “proposed circumstances” share of sincere, noble pathos.
And this spiritual upliftment of his character Fonda carries through the whole action of the film, which can not be watched calmly, as they say, “with a cold nose.”
This is especially true of scenes involving Norma (Madeleine Carroll), who has no homeland, is painfully trying to understand her thoughts and wants to find an inner support at all costs. Or – fragments, where the operator Rudolf Mate “close-up” shows the tormented faces of hungry women, children, old people, who in silent prayer await the arrival of a rescue ship with a solid supply of food.
The final scenes make you cry. And how else can you perceive the words of Marco, calling to stop the bloodshed not only in his homeland, but throughout the world?
You listen to this monologue and involuntarily think about its consonance and our time. After all, in different parts of the world continue to periodically burst shells, multiplying the number of victims. And betrayal, meanness, double standards (by the way, data, negative phenomena Dieterle also does not ignore in the “Blockade”), alas, have not disappeared and continue to hurt sometimes no less than bombs.
Perhaps that is why it seems that the memory of conscience, as suggested by Marco-Fonda, today makes sense not only to politicians.