| There was a film shown on TV about twenty-five years ago which I never seen repeated since, called something like The Phoenix and the Flame.
It was about the German invasion of Poland, from the point of view of a Polish family. Cardboard, stereotyped characters, cliched dialogue and action, tanks very clearly made of plywood. At the end, there is a depiction of Polish Cavalry on horseback charging German tanks (a myth that never happened), and it ends in a freeze-frame with them all getting mown down (copied from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid).
The only bit that I still cherish is the dialogue just before the final charge, when the Polish General is saying to his junior officers that they have been ordered to charge at the tanks, and a young subaltern says:
"But that's impossible!"
The General replies:
"All my life I've been obeying impossible orders!"
I have sometimes quoted that at my NHS colleagues, when faced with impossible demands. |