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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 14, 2020 20:16:31 GMT 12
This is such a remarkably good documentary with General Dwight Eisenhower and Walter Cronkite twenty years after Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings, revisiting the events surrounding that Allied invasion of Normandy, France. Eisenhower's first hand insights in this are brilliant to watch, and Cronkite also shows his usual brilliant skill as an interviewer. It is refreshing to see the General also give so much credit to the British and other Allies too. He truly was a great leader and a great man.
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Post by davidd on Jun 15, 2020 10:36:53 GMT 12
Yes Dave, a very rational and thoughtful documentary. You can see why Eisenhower was chosen as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, he was more of a "people" person than many other generals, and possibly a lot less flappable. David D
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 15, 2020 10:41:53 GMT 12
Exactly. Nice to see he even remembered names of sergeants 20 years later.
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Post by hardyakka on Jun 15, 2020 22:53:43 GMT 12
Great watch. So refreshing to have an interviewer who asked intelligent, informed questions and then got out of the way to let the “Star” speak.
When Ike called the Rangers scaling the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, “regular monkeys”, I nearly lost it. Lucky I wasn’t drinking anything. ...and the feeling of helplessness once H-Hour arrived and he literally could do nothing more to plan, order, or help.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 16, 2020 0:01:31 GMT 12
Agreed so much regarding the interview style. This is something that bugs me so much about so many interviewers, some continually interrupt the speaker mid sentence with another question before the first one is answered. Or they try to inject their own views and make it about themselves. Both these things are something I strive to avoid when I interview people. Some you do need to keep prodding with questions but others you can let talk and sit back and listen. I recently listened to all 35 parts of the amazing IWM interview with Eric Marsden. The interviewer was excellent in that you seldom heard him at all and he just let Eric speak and tell his marvellous story. It was perfect. I then moved onto the IWM interview with RNZAF Spitfire ace Jack Rae. My god what a contrast. Whoever was interviewing him is so, so frustrating. Continuously cutting Jack off and stepping on his words to ask another follow up inane question, and then another and another, and his questions would be phrased with "Some people say such and such, but would you agree" like it's a leading question. Jack would start talking about something interesting and he'd be stared away from it by the idiot who clearly wanted to hear something else... it is frustrating. specially as Jack seems like he was such a great speaker too. I wish I had gotten a chance to interview him and do it right. Walter Concrite is a legend, and it is easy to see why. It's a shame they do not make newsmen like him any more.
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Post by baz62 on Jun 16, 2020 7:53:18 GMT 12
Totally agree Dave. And also asking interesting questions too as sometimes the person being interviewed might need a bit of prompting, something you do very well. I hate the "How did it make you feel" questions in the media, like we aren't smart enough to figure out that someone might be upset about something that happened like a car accident. But the same question about something specific, like seeing a city on fire below your aircraft, that I feel is relevant since its something we wont be able to ask in a few years once the last veterans leave us.
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