Without Wagner’s “flight of Valkyries” the Air Cav scene with Robert Duvall in “Apocalypse Now” would not have been classic. Supposedly the music scared the NVA
“They’re gonna play music!
“What!?
“They’re gonna play Wagner. Scares the hell out of the slopes!
“This is a Romeo Foxtrot, shall we dance?
(Cues Ride of the Valkyries)
I flew Hueys in Vietnam and I swear I am not making it up when I told the C.O. that the Valkyrie theme would be a heck of a backdrop as our helicopters were taking off every morning (like the bugle charge call in the movie later on). He reminded me that the 115V provided by the aircraft inverters was 400 cycle, not 60 cycle which would fry any tape deck. Sounded like a good idea, though.
Anyway, whoever said Leon Uris `peeled back the layers of naziism in the German pysche” was spot on. I sensed it when I was stationed in FRG in the 1980’s. Jokes about the Holocaust being told by GI’s German wives just as an example.
The Israelis have a right to their qualms about Wagner, IMO.