Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning and once again, welcome back to movie deputy podcasts, where I promised you that I was going to be bringing you something special today, and I'm definitely not going to disappoint. Before I even get into the details of the movie that we are going to be talking about today, I am proud to say that this will likely be in the number one spot for this entire year based on it. Score with doing deputy for almost ten years. It'll be ten years in April. I have only ever given six movies besides this one. The score that I gave to this one, out of approximately around 2000 movies, only six ever earned this score. Well, now seven with this one. So I hope that will inspire you to maybe wonder what it is that I gave this movie. And I'm going to get to that here in a second.
[00:00:58] You're probably wondering, how do I select what of the few movies get a score like that? Or what is it about movies like that that deserve a score?
[00:01:09] Well, this one is, I'll be honest, a lot of the movies that are in that category are based on true stories. And they're ones that were brought to the big screen, to the silver screen with a passion and with a zest and with something that just puts you right there. You are part of is there's nothing flashy, there's nothing over Hollywood eyes. It's just the story. And these stories are so important and very few people know about them. Now, just being at the fact that it's a true story does not get you to that score. I have had true stories that have ended up on my ten worst lists just because the way that a movie is done can either completely make or completely break a movie. And it really goes to the extremes on both ends with that. A lot of them kind of end up in the middle, but there's parts during the movies where it's the highs and lows. It's like, okay, but this, I really like this, but. Or I really love this, but, or, oh, I hated that, but.
[00:02:19] And you're not going to get that with this movie. You're not going to have the oh, but.
[00:02:25] And there's even some extra special stuff going on with this one that I'm going to be sharing with you after I kind of go over a little bit of what the movie is about. And the movie that we're talking about today is called one life.
[00:02:37] If you haven't heard of it, don't worry. It's a very small studio, small budget film and it's based on the true story. Of Nicholas Winton. If you have never heard of him before, maybe you've heard of Nikki's children, maybe pre World War II. He was very much involved with the BCRC, the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia, and his theory was save one life, save the world. And that sounds great in theory, but how is it done? He decided to go volunteer with some stuff, and he saw all these children living in absolute squalor and the pre war stuff that the Nazis were doing. So World War II had not even officially taken over Europe yet.
[00:03:29] The whole strike on Poland had not even happened yet. So it was pre war, but it was all the displacement of all these jewish refugees and a lot of the other refugees and stuff that were in there and all of these children. And it's like, okay, there has to be something done to save the children. And so he started small. It was like, where else are you going to start with something like this? But you start small. And he gathered the information that he needed, and he went and he had some friends, and he went to the british consulate and went to all these different things, and people kept telling him, no, this can't be done. But he refused to give up. And thankfully he did, because it's just, wow. And you're going to see faces in this movie that you wouldn't associate with a movie like this. I mean, you see Anthony Hopkins. This is probably the role of his career. Now, I know how widely known he is known. And, you know, I don't focus a lot on this stuff, but one of the key pieces of this movie is Helena bottom Carter. Now, this is not a Tim Burton film. This is not a fantasy film. This is not anything like this. But this is probably her most meaningful role to date. Mind you, her life is far from over yet. But to date, this is just, they brought these people to mean, these people were very real in their lives, and they were very real in what they did, and they were very real in how they did it, but they had to defy all of the ODs to do it. You may be wondering, okay, how many kids did they save? Well, that's where the story kind of takes a little bit of a difficult turn. They were able, thankfully, through amazing people and amazing volunteers and just a network of people that came together, they saved a total of 669 children.
[00:05:32] Now, you may be thinking, okay, what's 669 kids in the grand scheme of things?
[00:05:38] But think about it. That's 669 kids. Think back to another movie that we talked about this past year that was just so powerful. Sound afraid. And what was my big thing with that is my biggest thing with my review on that. And if you haven't listened to it, go back and listen to it. But it was all about, what about the kids? It's like, okay, we're doing this, we're doing this, but what about the kids? This one? Nicholas focused on the kids. These kids became his life saving them. And it was eight train loads of children. Now, mind you, these trains weren't nothing but children. But on the first train there was only ten kids.
[00:06:19] And on the eight trains, there were more and more kids with every transport of these children until the 9th train. And don't worry, I'm not going to give you any spoilers.
[00:06:33] This is stuff you can even find in history. The 9th train was their largest child transport.
[00:06:39] 250 children.
[00:06:43] 250 children. That would have raised that number quite a bit.
[00:06:49] And the Nazis intercepted that train, and you can only fathom what happened to those children.
[00:06:58] I won't go into the details on that, but like I said, you don't have to use your imagination to know what happened.
[00:07:10] He lived his life and he always kept these records, and he kept this log of all the children and all the children that were able to be placed and all the children that were displaced. And he kept the most detailed records on everything because he didn't want these children to be forgotten. The ultimate goal was to reunite these children with their families. And like I said, don't worry what I'm giving you here. There's no spoilers to this movie at all. Like, nothing even close.
[00:07:41] But with this, as he was getting older and he had basically become a little bit of a hoarder over the years. And so his home was overrun with records from this, and he had to start doing something with those because he was worried maybe they'd get in the wrong hands or maybe these children would just be forgotten if something wasn't done.
[00:08:03] So he started reaching out to people, and through that and through a lot of different connections and a lot of different things that happen in the movie, which, like I said, no spoilers, he ends up having the opportunity to go on a program called that's Life. It was on the BBC, and this was back in 1988, by the way.
[00:08:24] But so he goes on this program and he is unexpectedly kind of blindsided because the program is like, oh, guess what? Surprise. Here's one of the kids that you saved.
[00:08:37] And he is so overwhelmed by all of this, and it's almost more than his heart can bear, but it just shows how much power one person can have with save one life, save the world.
[00:08:55] And he got invited to come back on the BBC. And if you look up, you can actually find the videos of Nicholas Winton and kind of what happened with that next episode and how many of the children that he saved were in the audience and stood up.
[00:09:14] And there was. I could not imagine anybody getting to this point in this movie and watching that scene and not bawling their eyes out. I mean, I couldn't wipe the tears away quick enough. It was like the rain on a windshield. It's like I could barely see. It's like I was crying so hard, and they were happy tears.
[00:09:38] I'm sitting here talking about this now, and these are happy tears.
[00:09:47] This movie was so meaningful in everything that it did. And the thing is, this meeting with him and the children became known as Nikki's children. And there have been other movies done about this, too, and I haven't seen them yet, but I'm going to. I mean, this is a story that deserves to be known. This is a story that was almost lost to history.
[00:10:14] There's people that do know it, and that's what I'm getting to next.
[00:10:19] I went to see this in the theater just like everybody else.
[00:10:23] And in the screen that I was in, it was one of the smaller screens at the theater. There were 73 seats.
[00:10:29] I was in there with two other individuals.
[00:10:34] I hope you have your tissues ready, because you're going to need it.
[00:10:38] But when the movie was over and the credits were rolling, they were leaving. And it was an older gentleman and a young lady, or not a young lady. She was just a few years younger than he was.
[00:10:50] But as they were leaving, I asked them what they thought about the movie. I just randomly ask people here and there, and sometimes I use their quotes, and sometimes it's interesting just finding out what people think.
[00:11:04] And they were so impacted by this movie because they remember this.
[00:11:11] Now. I wish I could tell you that these two people were some of Nikki's children, but they weren't. But almost just as good is the day that that taping of that show, that's life, which was typically a comedy program on the BBC. The day that that was taped, this lady that was in theater at the same time I was, was there with her mother. They were in the studio audience that day that that was taped. And she remembers that and she remembers him. And she shared so much of the feelings of that day and just the emotions. And she said they could not have even captured that on the silver screen.
[00:11:54] And just knowing that I was there with somebody that directly connected to this while this was happening.
[00:12:04] It took my breath away. I mean, I cried literally all the way home.
[00:12:08] I am crying now.
[00:12:12] I saw this night before last and it's just.
[00:12:18] Pardon me.
[00:12:22] This is one of those stories. And you may be wondering about the score that I did end up giving this.
[00:12:30] You've heard me talking about it, but I gave one life a nine out of ten on the deputy scale.
[00:12:38] Like I said, this is only the 7th movie, 2000 movies. This is only the 7th movie that I've ever given that score to.
[00:12:49] Because this movie, it's life changing. It was life changing for these children. It was life changing for Nicholas. It's life changing to me because I experienced this movie.
[00:13:06] You feel like you are so much a part of this that you feel like you're part of this story and you want to tell this story, you want to share the story.
[00:13:20] History is.
[00:13:24] There are so many things to. History is often dark in many, many ways. And in this movie, that is too. That's why even with having a nine, I am giving one life a guilty rating on the whole innocent and guilty thing. Because there is a lot of the content that is discussed here and things that are.
[00:13:47] It's not overly graphic or anything like that, with anything, but just the discussions that are taking place and what's happening would be a little bit much for young audiences. I mean, as an adult, it could be a little bit much. But history doesn't. History does not have to conform to whether or not you're offended or not. And if you're offended by things that actually happened in history, then work to change them.
[00:14:19] Save one life, save the world.
[00:14:24] It's such an important message and it carries so far beyond what this movie is.
[00:14:30] But if you have a chance, please look this up.
[00:14:34] It is such an incredible story.
[00:14:37] Nicholas Winton actually lived to be 106 years old in the credits. It describes that there are estimated to be 6000 people that are alive today because of the 669 children that he saved.
[00:14:59] Wow.
[00:15:04] I can't often bring you movies that are as poignant and meaningful as this one. So I am so glad I was able to bring this to you today.
[00:15:14] We are going to be back soon with another great movie for you. But please look up Nicholas Winton. Look up that I'm not laughing because of humor. It's like, that's just one of my coping mechanism things I do with that. But this is one that you don't want to miss.
[00:15:38] This is one that if you have a heart sometimes I have to wonder with some people, but pretty sure we all do. And this is one that should be experienced. This is one that you can't just watch. This is one that you have to experience.
[00:15:57] Until next time, I hope that you do whatever you need to do on your end to make sure you don't ever miss another one of our new episodes. Please be sure and go back and check out some of our older episodes as well. But we really do try our best to bring you content such as this from the past, present, and of course, ongoing as the future keeps. It's like tomorrow seems like it's the future, but then we wait a day and it's the current, and then we go to the day after that and it's already in the past. So time goes by way too fast. And I'm just glad that I can help bring some of these movies to you that probably a lot of people I haven't heard of. But like I said, this is one that deserves to be experienced. So I hope you do. Let me know what you think. I'll talk to you later. Bye.
