"Five Minutes of Fire": The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lebanon, Charles DeGaulle

<v Speaker 1>I'm Jason Colvin, I'm d Graves.
<v Speaker 2>Give us five minutes and we will give you the fire.
<v Speaker 3>Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Surely you Can't
<v Speaker 3>Be Serious Podcast Special Edition five Minutes of Fire. We
<v Speaker 3>are here talking about the lyrics of We Didn't Start
<v Speaker 3>the Fire by Billy Joel. We're covering only five minutes
<v Speaker 3>at a time, which is about to link with the song,
<v Speaker 3>so it works out kind of nicely.
<v Speaker 1>So please join us.
<v Speaker 3>As we dive into some new lyrics today.
<v Speaker 2>All right, guys, so here are the topics that we're
<v Speaker 2>going to be covering today. The Bridge on the River
<v Speaker 2>Kuhi Lebanon, Charles de Gaull.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Jason, what can you tell me about? Bridge on
<v Speaker 1>the River Qui?
<v Speaker 2>Okay? This is a nineteen fifty seven epic war movie
<v Speaker 2>starring William Holden, Jack Hawkins and Aliganis help me Obi
<v Speaker 2>wan Kenoby, You're my only hope. It's about British POWs
<v Speaker 2>who are actually helping their Japanese captors build a bridge
<v Speaker 2>over the river Kwai. It was the highest grossing film
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen fifty seven. It won seven Academy Awards, including
<v Speaker 2>Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. Is widely regarded
<v Speaker 2>as one of the greatest films of all time. I've
<v Speaker 2>seen it. I thought it was great. I thought it
<v Speaker 2>was fantastic. The novel was written by Pierre Boulet, who
<v Speaker 2>also wrote.
<v Speaker 1>The plan of the Apes.
<v Speaker 2>Oh cool, know that bull screenwriter, Thank you Boll. Screenwriters
<v Speaker 2>Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson were on the blacklist for
<v Speaker 2>being secret Communists, so they had.
<v Speaker 1>To work in private. Oh my gosh, I thought this
<v Speaker 1>was funny.
<v Speaker 2>Alec Guinness and director David Lean did not get along
<v Speaker 2>very well, and when he was done with his scenes,
<v Speaker 2>director Lean said, now you can all f off and
<v Speaker 2>go home, all you English actors. Thank god, I'm working
<v Speaker 2>with American actors tomorrow. Fantastic movie. I absolutely love it.
<v Speaker 1>And it comes back up in the breakfast Club.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, tell me about Lebanon.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So you.
<v Speaker 3>Will remember from our previous episode the Suez can Crisis,
<v Speaker 3>and you will also remember from our previous episode Naser
<v Speaker 3>being the second president of Egypt and the guy who
<v Speaker 3>did a United Arab Republic. Well, whenever the Suez Canal
<v Speaker 3>crisis happened and France and the UK were joining in
<v Speaker 3>with Israel to pull a fast one on Egypt and
<v Speaker 3>the Suez Canal. Lebanon refused to cut ties with France
<v Speaker 3>and the US, and Naser said, what the heck? And
<v Speaker 3>he then put out this bulletin to all of the
<v Speaker 3>Arabs to like protest, and that's what they did. As
<v Speaker 3>a matter of fact, they protested hard. There was rioting
<v Speaker 3>in the streets, and the Lebanese president, President chow Mun,
<v Speaker 3>called up Eisenhower and said, you've got to help us.
<v Speaker 3>And President Eisenhower in nineteen fifty eight ordered the US
<v Speaker 3>Marines into Lebanon to stop the riots that were occurring
<v Speaker 3>all over the country.
<v Speaker 2>Good thing Lebanon quieted down in the nineteen eighties.
<v Speaker 1>You know, barely heard a peep from them.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, tell me about Charles de Gaul, all right. Charles
<v Speaker 2>did Gaul was a French army officer and statesman. He
<v Speaker 2>actually ranks up with Napoleon when you talk about French
<v Speaker 2>leaders of all time. Known for his height I think
<v Speaker 2>he was six y five for sixty six, his regal
<v Speaker 2>bearing and his cool demeanor, he led the Free French
<v Speaker 2>forces against Nazi Germany in World War Two. Nineteen forty three,
<v Speaker 2>he moved his headquarters to French Algiers, he chaired the
<v Speaker 2>provisional government of the French Republic, so he headed that
<v Speaker 2>up in nineteen forty four in order to restore democracy
<v Speaker 2>in France. He actually marched into Paris to reclaim France.
<v Speaker 1>This is a really cool thing.
<v Speaker 2>Nineteen fifty eight, he came out of retirement and was
<v Speaker 2>appointed Prime Minister. After the French crisis in nineteen fifty eight,
<v Speaker 2>there's a political uprising that sees power in Algiers. When
<v Speaker 2>he walked into Algiers, they are all crying Degaul to power,
<v Speaker 2>Degaull to power. In nineteen fifty eight, he was elected
<v Speaker 2>French President under the constitution of the Fifth Republic, and
<v Speaker 2>he retired to write his memoirs and died watching television
<v Speaker 2>November ninth, nineteen seventy. His funeral was the largest in
<v Speaker 2>French history.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, guys, that does it for today's episode. Join us
<v Speaker 3>next time for five minutes of fire.