The Liberator is a four-part series that premiered on Netflix in November 2020.
It's set in World War II and tells the story of Captain Felix Sparks
and his men, the "Thunderbirds"—3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division. The story opens with Sparks (Bradley James) and the men getting ambushed by the Germans in Sicily. After Sparks is wounded by a mortar shell, the story jumps back to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Sparks is given command of a company of men that is more integrated than most 1941 Army units, consisting of white, Mexicans, and Native Americans—the latter including Samuel Coldfoot (Martin Sensmeier), whom Sparks promotes from private to sergeant. After Sparks forges his men into a unit, they go off to war.
Sparks passes on a chance to go home, and rejoins his men, now fighting on the mainland Italian peninsula. They wind up going on a 500-day odyssey, from Sicily, to Italy, to the Allied invasion of southern France, to facing a German attack in the Vosges Mountains of Alsace. Finally, Sparks and his men liberate the German concentration camp of Dachau.
This series, originally meant to be a live-action production for the History Channel, instead was presented in rotoscoped animation, with CGI animation being laid over live actors.
Tropes:
- Action Dad: Pops. He even serves in the same unit as his son, Junior.
- Answer Cut: Sparks and his unit have entered a Sicilian village and are trying to communicate with a local boy. Sparks realizes that his best Italian speaker isn't there and says, "Where the hell is Spigs?". The show then cuts to Private Spigliani, who has been captured by the Germans.
- An Arm and a Leg: Sparks is up and around at the field hospital in Algeria when he meets his old CO, who is on crutches, having lost his left leg below the knee.
- Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: After being grievously wounded and told his wounds are a ticket home, Sparks goes AWOL from the hospital and "hijacks"* a B-17 bomber... all to rejoin his men just in time to lead them through the most brutal combat they've yet seen.
- Artistic License – Military: An egregious example occurs in very first episode, where protagonists take out a German tank with a mortar. Which is completely, utterly impossible. Why? Well, first of all, mortars do not fire anti-tank rounds. They use fragmentation grenades which are strictly anti-infantry weapon and have absolutely no armor penetrating capabilities, none whatsoever. Secondly, the mortar round is fired in a steep parabole, flying high first and then falling freely with relatively low velocity — which means it lacks kinetic energy which would be required to penetrate heavy armor even if it was fitted with anti-tank warhead. So basically, the idea of a mortar grenade destroying a tank is just as ludicrous as a notion that by tossing a ball softly into a basket you can break a hard wooden board.
- Badass Family: Pops and Junior are both serving in the Thunderbirds, each get their own moment to shine, and both survive the war.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: A big reason why the non-white soldiers are loyal to Captain Sparks is he genuinely respected them as military men and not looking down on them because of their race.
- Benevolent Boss: Captain Sparks is a respectful, fair, and loyal leader to the men in his care.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Thunderbirds were awarded for their heroism and survive the war, but also remember the traumas from said war.
- Binocular Shot: Done realistically with the use of only one circle to show General Eberhard's view as he looks down from the mountains on the Allied beachhead at Anzio.
- Broken Tears: Sparks at the end of episode 3 when a large portion of his command is cut off in the Vosges Mountains and forced to surrender. He calls it "my breaking point" in a letter home to his wife.
- Cat Scare: In episode 4 some Americans are rather nervously patrolling the empty streets of Aschaffenburg. There's a quick movement to the right and they all swing their rifles around...but it's a dog. They all laugh and one soldier jokes "Die, you Nazi dogs!" Then the soldier right next to him gets hit square in the forehead with a bullet, and other hidden Germans open up on them.
- Darkest Hour: The ending of episode 2, when the nightmarish retreat from their position at Anzio leaves Sparks with only two survivors from his entire platoon, Coldfoot and Gomez.
- Dead Guy on Display: Episode 4 opens with a German lieutenant—not even a deserter, a guy who had orders to go home to rest from his wounds—dragged out of his home by a major, proclaimed a "traitor", and hanged from a lamppost with a sign that says "This is the reward for cowards." The major yells at the crowd as he's leaving that no one is to pull the body down.
- The Dead Have Names: Towards the end of the series a superior officer is surprised that Sparks can remember the names of so many soldiers that died under his command. He answers, "I had to write a lot of letters."
- Dramatic Gun Cock: An SS man chambers a round in his Luger and points it at Spigs's head as Spigs is being grilled by a German officer in the first episode.
- Failure-to-Save Murder: Zigzagged with the investigation into Sparks' role in the Dachau shootings. While some believe he ordered the German POWs killed, others wishing to scapegoat him for the killings want to charge him with dereliction of duty, arguing that he failed to sufficiently rein in his men. By the time he pleads his case to Patton, Sparks himself believes the latter, noting that they were his men and therefore his responsibility.
- Fatal Family Photo: Averted. Sparks is shown looking at pictures of his wife and child repeatedly, and even puts them in the grip of his gun. He lives to a ripe old age.
- Field Promotion: Episode 4 reveals that Coldfoot, who at one point was busted all the way down to private and was still only a sergeant when he went to war, has been made a lieutenant.
- Framing Device: Episode 2 tells the story of Anzio with a framing device showing Sparks, whose hand is shaking so badly he can't drink a glass of water, being interviewed by a superior officer about what happened to his unit.
- Fun with Foreign Languages: Played for Drama in the first episode. An SS major is grilling Spigs about the "ponds" in the American rear. A terrified Spigs says that he doesn't know anything about any ponds as the the German screams "WHAT ABOUT THE PONDS?" Another soldier is pointing a pistol at Spigs's head when Spigs finally realizes that the German isn't saying "pond", he's saying the Italian "ponte", which he is confusing with the English word "bridge".
- Heroic Sacrifice: When Hallowell is spotted by a German while exposed in the middle of a rope bridge, too badly injured to move, he lures the German closer then detonates a pair of hand grenades, not only killing himself and the German, but also destroying the bridge, allowing his comrades on the far side to escape.
- Hero of Another Story: In the second half of the series, Sparks falls under the command of Major General Robert T. Frederick, who previously led the elite First Special Service Force. In the final episode, after Sparks is charged in connection with the murders of German POWs at Dachau, his case is heard by General Patton himself.
- How We Got Here: After a scene of harrowing combat in Sicily that ends with Sparks being wounded by a mortar shell, the series cuts back two years to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and shows Sparks organizing and bonding with his men.
- Intro Dump: Several characters are introduced at once in the first episode when Sparks meets them (they're being held in the Fort Still Stockade).
- I Owe You My Life: Captain Sparks returns to his men, even though he was given permission to return home, because he felt a debt to them after they saved his life.
- It Has Been an Honor:
- One of the men says this word-for-word to Sparks after they find out that he won't be going home with them (he has to stay behind to answer for the shootings at Dachau). Sparks responds in kind.
- Sparks exchanges similar sentiments via radio with the commander of a surrounded company in episode 3, just before the company is forced to surrender.
- Jumping on a Grenade: Played with in episode 2 when the survivors of E Company are pinned down in an irrigation ditch. A grenade lands in the water and Sparks quickly smothers it... with the body of a dead German.
- Last Breath Bullet: In episode 2, a German patrol has caught Sparks and the Thunderbirds in a canal. They've shot a bunch and captured the rest of the Americans—but one soldier, Cooper, isn't quite dead yet. He crawls up the side of the canal and shoots one of the German soldiers, starting a brief fight that ends with the Americans turning the tables. Then Cooper bleeds out and dies.
- Ludicrous Gibs: A soldier is standing in the open when a German 88mm shell falls on him. He explodes into sort of a fountain of blood and body chunks.
- Mirroring Factions: The series makes no attempt to hide the fact that segregationist United States wasn't far off from Nazi Germany in multiple regards to race laws and white supremacy, with the Nazis mocking the American soldiers for having minorities that weren't even granted the same rights back home. The plights of Native Americans and Mexican Americans are elaborated upon, showing that while they were allowed to serve with white soldiers, they still got shafted in multiple regards, which isn't even getting to those races considered "lesser". Luckily, Sparks takes pains to challenge the system to ensure good treatment for his men.
- Multinational Team: While they're all American, the "Thunderbirds" were an integrated unit of "Cowboy" White, Mexican and Native American soldiers, the latter two groups of which were hardly considered equal to Whites, just barely being allowed to fight alongside them compared to segregated Asian and Black soldiers. The men are aware of the awkward racial system in America that can almost be compared to Nazi Germany, but they and their leader Sparks do their best to challenge the system. They are united by pride in the accomplishments of their peoples that they use as motivation against the Nazis, doing their best to shatter white supremacy in one of the only forms of racial unity and integration possible at the time.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Private Otaktay's name mean "kills many."
- Ominous Fog:
- The first scene of the first episode has Sparks and the men advancing nervously through a fog-bound Sicilian plain. Sure enough, the Germans pounce on them from behind the fog.
- Episode 4 has the men again marching though spooky fog, but this time the horror is different. This time, they walk through the fog and up to the gates of Dachau.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The Thunderbirds are fighting against the xenophobic Nazis.
- Proud Warrior Race: Coldfoot is a Choctaw, or "an Indian with pride" as another soldier describes him. His refusal to submit to the bigotry and racism of the U.S. Army in 1941 not only cost him a promotion to sergeant, but it also got him busted from corporal to private. He is about to force his way into a whites-only movie theater when Sparks gets him to stop by promoting him to sergeant.
- Rope Bridge: Sparks and what is left of the platoon are crossing a rope bridge, desperately trying to make it to the safety of the Anzio bridgehead. Hallowell is badly wounded and can't make it across. When a German soldier comes onto the bridge and points a rifle at him, Hallowell pulls the pin on two grenades, killing them both but saving his buddies.
- Rotoscoping: The series was animated with a new process called Trioscope, which Variety called "a unique, enhanced hybrid animation technology that merges live action performance with computer graphics." Rotoscoping itself was popular in the early 20th Century, enhancing the old timey feel.
- Shell Game: Cruz does this to amuse/distract some Italian children, as American soldiers and local civilians huddle together in caves outside Anzio, with German shells falling outside.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: In the first episode an Italian boy gives Sparks a shotgun that belonged to his grandfather. It saves Sparks's life in the second episode, when his rifle jams, which allows a German soldier to leap into his foxhole.
- Shout-Out:
- Coldfoot tries to force his way into a whites-only movie theater that is showing Penny Serenade.
- Later, a Popeye cartoon is followed by a newsreel of the Italian campaign that shames Sparks into going back to his men.
- Taking You with Me: Hallowell can't make it across the Rope Bridge in episode 2, so he pulls the pin on two grenades, killing both himself and the German pointing a rifle at him, but saving the rest of the platoon.
- That's What I Would Do: Said on Felix's behalf. In Episode 3 Felix is expressing skepticism over his unit's mission, namely, occupying a mountain ridge in the Vosges. When another officer questions why Felix is anticipating a German flanking movement that could leave them cut off, the CO says, "Because that's what he would do."
- Too Dumb to Live: A soldier has climbed out of his foxhole to pee. He sees a series of flashes of lights from the hills across the way. He does not jump back into his foxhole, instead saying to his buddy, "Hey Webb, you should see this." What he is seeing is the German artillery firing. He then explodes when a German shell falls on him.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Junior begins as a relatively friendly soldier, but the traumas of war made him tactless and cruel with his words.
- Travel Montage: The intro to the first episode draws a red line on the map to trace the whole path of the battalion: North Africa->Sicily->Italy->southern France->Alsace->Bavaria->Dachau. The remaining three episodes open with the same red line on the map to show whatever leg of the journey is in that episode.
- Villain Has a Point: A Nazi soldier points the hypocrisy of the United States for criticizing Nazi Germany's xenophobic laws, but the former country had segregationist laws during the same time as well. The Thunderbirds make no attempt to defend their country.
- Voiceover Letter: All four episodes include voiceover letters from Sparks to his wife in which he struggles to explain to her the horrors that he's seeing at war.
- War Is Hell: The series doesn't shy away from the high risk of death and human debauchery from war.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Pops call out his son, Junior, for making a cruel remark about war and that nothing matters.
- Worthy Opponent: A pretty unrealistic example with the SS men on a mountain pass in episode 3. Three of them, with two manning a machine gun and the third a Cold Sniper, and all three just sit there and watch while Sparks, out in the open, piles some wounded onto a tank to carry back.Machine Gun Guy No. 1: Why didn't we shoot?
Machine Gun Guy No. 2: Because we had a choice.
