Flag Half Mast 2: "The Partisans"

I saw a movie on TV last night, or I guess just saw part of one since I fell asleep, about a village under occupation.  First there’s the hero, although when you first see him you don’t know he’s the hero but you do, because he’s handsome and his hair looks nice. He’s down in the village. Up in the hills, the partisans are preparing for some kind of guerilla insurgency. They’re all sort of dark and grim-looking but super-noble, except the one funny guy, the joker who drinks too much who’s dark but not grim.  Back down in the village, there’s the bad girl who wears va-va-va-voom eyeliner and hats with feathers. She is sleeping with the head of the occupying forces. Then there’s the mayor who is utterly corrupt and the simple sweet farm girl with suspiciously beautiful teeth for a peasant.

In the hills, bodies were found with their throats cut. The mayor crumples up a piece of paper he’s holding and says, “These partisans must be stopped!  They are animals!” Poison pen letters have been appearing throughout the village and rumors are spreading and mistrust is building. The beautiful farm girl is accused of aiding the partisans and her head is shaved and it’s implied that she’s raped.

I must have fallen asleep for a while, because the next thing I remember is that the soldiers are all at this farmhouse, although inside it looks my grandma’s house, and they are about to take away the hero who has of course hooked up with the beautiful farm girl, still beautiful even though she’s had her head shaved. The bad girl with the great hats dives in front of a bullet, allowing the hero to escape and redeeming herself in death. The hero is going to do the only thing he can do now, go up into the hills with the partisans and fight the good fight.  The beautiful farm girl weeps and wants to go too and he valiantly makes her stay. She has beautiful, tragic, glycerin tears in her eyes.  Everyone is gone except a couple of dark, older, noble-looking villagers, and one of them says, he says it right to me, “We don’t want to be remembered, we only want to disappear into the shadows once we are victorious.” That was my favorite part, it almost seemed like it came from a different movie. “The wind will blow us all away,” he says, “and we’ll be forgotten. That’s all we ask.” There should have been music there, but there wasn’t any. I fell asleep again after that.

Song: The Anthem of the Partisans

They may spray us with tear gas

They may put us in jail

The strength of our arms may sometimes fail

But the struggle itself will go, on my friends

The struggle itself will prevail

The light may be fading

And we can’t see the flame

Sometimes we lose sight of our ultimate aim

But the struggle itself will go on, my friends

The struggle goes on all the same

We may compromise

Or join the enemy

We may prefer comfort to a life that’s free

 But the struggle itself will go on, my friends

 This struggle is bigger than you and me.