Recommended Film: "Merry Christmas" (Joyeux Noel)

Have you seen “Merry Christmas” (Joyeux Noel). It was nominated for a 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. If you don't like the audio/video quality of the trailer above, you can see a clearer version here.

It's inspired by the true story from the First World War, when something fascinating took place on Christmas Eve 1914. As Ravi Zacharias tells it:

In the midst of an uneasy silence of the guns at night, suddenly a lone voice began to sing a Christmas carol. Irresistibly, another voice joined in, and before one knew it, there was a wave of music because of Bethlehem, cascading across enemy lines, as both sides joined in reading the same script. The story of the babe in a manger, the Prince of Peace, was able to bring communion between warring factions, even for a few hours. This is how a songwriter tells that story. Unfortunately, I can quote only a few stanzas here:

Oh, my name is Francis Tolliver,
I come from Liverpool.
Two years ago the war was waiting
For me after school,
From Belgium and to Flanders,
Germany to here,
I fought for King and country I love dear.

'Twas Christmas in the trenches
And the frost so bitter hung,
The frozen fields of France were still,
No sounds of peace were sung.
Our families back in England
Were toasting us that day,
Their brave and glorious lads so far away

I was lying with me mess-mates
On the cold and rocky ground,
When across the lines of battle came
A most peculiar sound.
Says I, "Now listen up, me boys,"
Each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice rang out so clear.

"He's singing very well, you know,"
My partner says to me.
Soon one by one each German voice
joined in the harmony.
The canons rested silent
And the gas cloud rolled no more,
As Christmas brought us respite from the war.

As soon as they were finished
And a reverent pause was spent,
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"
Struck up some lads from Kent.
The next they sang was "Stille Nacht,"
"Tis 'Silent Night,' " says I,
And in two tongues one song filled up the sky.

The film is PG-13 for what the MPAA calls "some war violence and a brief scene of sexuality/nudity." So, keep that in mind. But good film-making here, and a worthwhile story. If you've seen it, or if you decide to, tell me what you think.