Im Kampf gegen den Weltfeind: Deutsche Freiwillige in Spanien

Let's get the inevitable joke out of the way: Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. So far as I know.

That taken care of, let's discuss the Spanish Civil War, which I studied up on about forty-five years ago. The legitimate government of Spain in 1936 was definitely leftist, with the Communists having a substantial voice. This annoyed the military, always a conservative bunch. They revolted, and received semi-official aid from the Soviet Union, and other communist and allied groups throughout the world. This movie would have you believe that all the western powers were secretly backing the communists, which justified the volunteers' sent by Germany, as well as Italy. This meant that we spent most of the last eighty years referring to the Spanish government as Fascist. In fact it was nationalist and highly conservative, even reactionary. It was so reactionary, it was handed, at Franco's death, back to the Bourbons.

Once your get past the false narrative of the opening, much of this movie is a war documentary that makes the mistake of assuming its audience knows what's going on. As a result, it is slightly incoherent for the first fifty minutes; then, in the Battle of Madrid, it becomes totally incoherent, a series of striking battle footage that does not show any clear sign of showing the progress of the campaign, although they blow stuff up real good. Finally, the last dozen minutes are devoted to the victory parades, particularly the all-volunteer Condor Legion, who are awarded a special medal by Hitler. In three classes. Not bad for something the government didn't require.