AboutWilliam Sternman Expertise Expertise: Classic movies. My movie and book reviews have appeared in the Houston Chronicle, Boston Herald, St. Petersburg Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Drummer, and Films in Review. My particular area of expertise (and love) is films of the late Thirties, Forties and early Fifties.
Experience in the area My essays and movie and book reviews have appeared in the Houston Chronicle, Boston Herald, St. Petersburg Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Drummer, Films in Review, and Bestsellers. I write a regular column for Audience, a film journal (http://www.audiencemag.com/playback.html) as well as review current movies (http://www.audiencemag.com/reviews.html).
Publications My essays and movie and book reviews have appeared in the Houston Chronicle, Boston Herald, St. Petersburg Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, The Drummer, Films in Review, and Bestsellers. I write a regular column for Audience, a film journal (http://www.audiencemag.com/playback.html) as well as review current movies (http://www.audiencemag.com/reviews.html).
Awards and Honors Fellowship grant in literature from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Question I'm looking for the title of a war movie about some p.o.w.s that built a plane to escape. It takes place somewhere in Europe, probably Germany because someone sings "Die Gedanken Sind Frei".
Die Gedanken sind frei, wer kann sie erraten,
Sie fliehen vorbei, wie nächtliche Schatten.
Kein Mensch kann sie wissen, kein Jäger erschießen,
mit Pulver und Blei: die Gedanken sind frei.
Ich denke, was ich will, und was mich beglücket.
Doch alles in der Still und wie es sich schicket.
Mein Wunsch und Begehren kann niemand verwehren.
es bleibt dabei: die Gedanken sind frei.
Ich liebe den Wein, mein Mädchen vor allen.
Sie tut mir allein am besten gefallen.
Ich bin nicht alleine bei meinem Glas Weine.
mein Mädchen dabei: die Gedanken sind frei.
Und sperrt man mich ein im finsteren Kerker,
das alles sind rein vergebliche Werke.
Denn meine Gedanken zerreißen die Schranken
und Mauern entzwei. die Gedanken sind frei.
Drum will ich auf immer den Sorgen absagen,
Und will mich auch nimmer mit Grillen mehr plagen.
Man kann ja im Herzen stets lachen und scherzen
Und denken dabei: die Gedanken sind frei.
English:
Die Gedanken Sind Frei (Our Thoughts Are Free)
Die Gedanken sind frei
My thoughts freely flower,
Die Gedanken sind frei
My thoughts give me power.
No scholar can map them,
No hunter can trap them,
No man can deny:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
I think as I please
And this gives me pleasure,
My conscience decrees,
This right I must treasure;
My thoughts will not cater
To duke or dictator,
No man can deny--
Die Gedanken sind frei!
And if tyrants take me
And throw me in prison
My thoughts will burst free,
Like blossoms in season.
Foundations will crumble,
The structure will tumble,
And free men will cry:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
Neither trouble or pain
Will ever touch me again.
No good comes of fretting,
My hope's in forgetting.
Within myself still
I can think as I will,
But I laugh, do not cry:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
-- Traditional
This German resistance song was made "popular"
in the United States by Pete Seeger and is
included on his album "Dangerous Songs."
Originally sung by Prussian prisoners of war,
it was banned by Hitler and became an
underground anthem of prisoners of war and
concentration camp inmates during World War II.
Some people might recognize it from the sound
track of a movie about a great escape from a
German P.O.W. camp.
