Question: I want to know how the scene with the Nazis dumping the man in the wheelchair off the balcony was done. How did the man/stuntman manage to survive this fall?
Question: When Chris and co are having dinner with an Iraqi family, why does Chris react the way he does when he sees the mark on the Iraqi father's left elbow? What does Chris think it is?
Question: What exactly happened to Iggy? Are we ever supposed to know exactly how he died?
Answer: The movie insinuates that he was killed horribly but doesn't provide many details. Books about Iwo Jima have quotes from witnesses about what happened to him and they all say that he was very brutally tortured, including having his eyes cut out and his genitals removed and stuffed in his mouth. The book "Flags of Our Fathers" contains the following quote, "A few days later someone yelled that they'd found him. They called me over because I was a corpsman. The Japanese had pulled him underground and tortured him. His fingernails... his tongue... It was terrible. I've tried hard to forget all this.
Question: In the John Wayne film, Frankie Avalon is riding into Sam Houston's camp and is stopped by two sentries. The one questioning him appears to bear a striking resemblance to Robert Mitchum. Is this him?
Answer: No, that's not him. Robert Mitchum has no part in this movie.
Question: What does the "hurt locker" mean?
Answer: It's a term similar to "a world of hurt". It's both outside of you and within you. The outside definition is that a hurt locker is anywhere you go to find pain. In the film's case, war-torn Iraq is the hurt locker. Inside, your hurt locker is the place you bury your anguish.
Question: Mary's attire looks more like 1960s than 1940s. Any info on this?
Chosen answer: This is not unusual in older films. Earlier costume designers were less attentive to historical accuracy and freely incorporated current fashion trends into period movies. It was just an accepted practice and movie audiences back then were often less discerning and/or unaware of inaccuracies. Today's costumers have greater access to historical information, do more research, and strive for authenticity.
Question: What is the symbol on Saddam Hussein's pajamas?
Chosen answer: It appears to be his initials "SH" in the style of the New York Yankees "NY" logo. He's also wearing pinstriped pajamas that look like the Yankees uniform.
Question: In the scene where the American 82nd Airborne is storming the river bank at Nijmegen, there is a brief shot of one of the German defenders, who looks quite startingly like a puberescent boy. Anyone know whether this assumption is correct, and if so, what's the background to this story?
Chosen answer: The Germans did use some Hitler youth movement in the war.
Question: Why was Bloody Mary's singing voice dubbed, given that Juanita Hall was a strong singer who had performed the role on Broadway?
Answer: Richard Rogers preferred the vocal performance of Muriel Smith who played the part in London. Since the vocal tracks for musicals was recorded separately from the filming back then, dubbing occurred for many reasons other than lack of singing ability of an actor, scheduling problems, budget, etc.
Answer: Richard Rodgers was just being Richard Rodgers. He allowed her to sing in 'Flower drum Song' on stage the following year, 1958/9, and allowed her to use her own voice in the film of 'Flower Drum Song' in 1961. He had his own demons then and was just reacting.
Question: Why wouldn't Shmuel escape? It would've been very easy. He could've done it the same way he let Bruno in.
Answer: Samuel knew the dangers of the camp and knew that trying to escape would result in death. He knows Bruno is likely to be allowed IN to the camp as he is a German and Germans are running the camp. Plus, if Shmuel did escape, where would he go? He's 8, on his own and alone in the woods.
Question: What is the deal with Mac? Why isn't he in the Armed Services like a majority of the other men in England?
Chosen answer: He could have flat feet or a bad back or many other problems which don't really inconvenience him but make him ineligible for service.
Question: Was this film based on an true story, or was it fiction based on the true warring states as the backdrop?
Answer: It was a fiction based on the true historical period as backdrop, althought it sorted of resembled a true event that the deserter general of Qin gave his head to an assassin as a pass to get close to the Emperor, who was then still a king of a state among the warring states.
Question: Why does the play start with The Van Daans already at the Annex when it's clear that they arrive a week later in the diary?
Answer: Movies do not always exactly follow the books they are adapted from. Oftentimes scenes and/or characters are changed, deleted, or streamlined, often because there is a limited amount of time in a movie to tell the story. In this case, it just simplified the plot by having the Van Daans already at the Annex, eliminating the need for two separate arrivals and instead focusing on the Frank family's reactions to their situation.
Question: What was Lokar hiding? And why did he want to keep it a secret?
Answer: Lokar was conducting a genocidal campaign against the Bosniak population, a severe war crime. The photos of the mass grave would have exposed him.
Question: I just loved the music. Can anyone tell me whether there's a soundtrack or anything, or who are the main performing artists?
Answer: There is a soundtrack to the movie which has two oscar nominations for best original song and a nomination for original score - go to amazon.com to find out the artist info.
Question: How come Hilts could not answer the German at the end of the movie when he said he could speak German to Colonel von Luger?
Answer: .And, just to add to the previous answer: even if he could speak conversational German, he would likely do so with a very strong American accent (as he does when he speaks the few words to the Commandant earlier), so the guard would have picked up on that right away, anyway.
Answer: He could have only known a small amount of German, enough to answer a question or two, but not enough to carry on a full conversation. Also, the German seemed to be wanting to have a full conversation with him. He was on the run and didn't have time to talk. He was most likely being a smart ass saying he knew German.
Question: Was Josh Chamberlain really given mutineers like in the movie?
Answer: Yes. After the 2nd Maine Infantry was disbanded, there were 120 men with 1-year of service left. They mutinied because they said they only agreed to fight under the 2nd Maine flag and the Army disagreed. So they were marched under guard to the 20th Maine, led by Chamberlain. Chamberlain was able to convince most of them to fight, even though he was ordered to shoot any who did not fight.
Is there a reason why a few of them refused to fight?
Yes. The same reason why they mutinied.
Chosen answer: In the scene, we see the old man being lifted in his wheelchair. Then, there is a cut-away to the family watching from across the street. Then we see someone being dumped from the chair and falling, but we never see him hit the ground. My guess from watching the scene is that the stunt person fell into a cushion which was removed in post-production. Generally, when confronted with a question such as this, I like to refer it to someone who would be in the know - in this case, the stunt team on the film. I looked up that team on IMDb.com, and searched for the individuals on Facebook. Of the twenty or so stunt people and coordinators, I could only find three with unique profiles that made me think I might have the correct individuals: Janusz Kadlubowski, Stella Kuczynska and Zbigniew Modej. I posed your question to them. However, given that I am not connected on Facebook to any of them, I have no idea if or when they would see my message and respond. I will update this answer if I receive further information.