Hollywood History

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....or when they change aircraft three times during flight, from Hellcat to Corsair to..seen that a few times. Or, my favorite, they show Japs attacking US shipping, but the aircraft attacking is a Avenger!!!
 
Same can also be said for war documentaries seen on History, Military History, Military channels. Doesn't take long to see the artistic license as the battles/campaigns are re-created.

I got no problem with file footage being used, but at least they gotta get the machines, markings, context right.

John Ford's docudrama, December 7th (1943) showing SBDs in Japanese markings bombimg Pearl Harbor makes me cringe, but back then there wasn't a lot film makers had to work with. It's the current day documentaries that continue with the obvious errors that makes guys like us shake our heads.

TO
 
Speaking of John Ford, his movie, "They Were Expendable" is a good example of a war movie which was pretty accurate except that PT Boats did not sink any cruisers in the Phillipines. The weapons are pretty realistic though. 03s and Thompsons. And the boats looked good.
 
I agree with all on this thread. Hollywood can screw up the best historical tale. But they can also produce a gem when they want to. Saving Private Ryan and Letters From Iwo Jima were both excellent films in spite of their little quirks. They showed the ugly, brutal side of war, which is the first object in my view.
 

Two of my all time favorites! Both great and well done!

And there is no way that ANY war film can be perfect. Minor flaws should be expected and overlooked. It's the "Pearl Harbor" type movies that give Hollywood a bad name.

TO
 
It's entertainment. For every "Saving Private Ryan" there's a "Pearl Harbour."

Quite amusing to see Tom Cruise in "Valkyrie" though.

Tom Hanks or Jude Law as "Heydrich: The Movie" anyone?
 
I think "Saving Ryan's Privates" , "Titanic" and "Band of Brothers" has actually changed historical movies towards finer accuracy. The "For entertainment's sake" crowd is slowing slipping away, I think, when it comes to historical movies.
 
If you want a good Pearl Harbor movie, you need to watch Tora, Tora, Tora. Well done, but if you want to pick nits, there are some scenes that don't pass the history check. When the Zeros are flying over the mountain with the big cross on it, it wasn't there when PH was attacked. It's one of the PH memorials. There is also a scene with people running that if you look closely, you can see the Arizona memorial. But those are very minor when you compare it to Pearl Harbor.
 
Many times, Hollywood "history" rears it's peculiar head even in the best war movies. "We Were Soldiers" is an excellent account of what went down in the Ia Drang Valley. Like any movie you can nit pick minor stuff, but the final bayonet charge, supported by helicopter gunships never happened.

Moore and his men simply withdrew as reinforcements took over.

TO
 
Hal Moore is a good friend of mine and he said that though he was hired as a consultant on the movie, they paid no attention to him. He did say that he and Mel Gibson got on well together. Hal is a very fine gentleman. He lost his wife not too long ago. She was nothing like the lady portrayed in the movie but I have no problem with that.
 

Good friend to have ren. From the interviews that I've seen and heard, and what I've read about him, he seems like a good and decent man.

And the kind of a leader you would want to follow into battle.

TO
 
I don't doubt that he was liked and respected by his men. We had some good discussions about the battle in The Ia Drang valley but also some good discussions about Civil War battles. He was surprised when he found out I owned a set of "West Point Atlas of American Wars" and said they were text books when he was at West Point.
 
Dang, I'd love to meet Col. Moore! I've got the book "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young", and seriously think that someone competent (Spielberg, Eastwood?) should make a movie of the second half of that book.

For a good, accurate, non-watered-down movie that deals with the brutal reality of war without cutsey love-triangles thrown in to entice the female viewers, y'all should DEFINITELY rent (or buy!) "When Trumpets Fade". Its set over a timeperiod of three days (maybe four?) in the Hurtgen Forest campaign (would "massacre" be a more apt description?) in Europe. This is a movie that shows war as the horrible thing that it is.

When Trumpets Fade (1998) (TV)
 
Hal Moore retired as a Lt General. Many of us make comments or judgments about Hollywood and war movies and whether a movie is realistic about war scenes yet I doubt that anyone can actually know what is realistic unless we have been in combat. I crawled the infiltration course, which is supposed to be a simulation of war. There were bullets whipping overhead from machine guns, with simulated artillery explosions, (which were fenced in) and I heard bullets going by while working the pits on the KD range and had a hunter put one right past my ear accidently but that is not combat. I understand that only a little film exists of Omaha Beach because the film taken was accidently destroyed, but that film which exists does not look anything like the film in "Saving Private Ryan" There is always reports of how scared or terrified people in combat are and yet the only person I have talked to about it who actually got shot at said that he was so excited about the way his guns were performing, he felt invincible and was not scared. My suspicion is that the worst part of fighting a war, at least for the infantry, is the physical discomfort in terms of heat or cold or being filthy for long periods of time. The exception to that would be when an infantry unit is actually in combat for many days consecutively where the emotional strain might wear one out. Perhaps the most realistic depiction of war in a movie was "Twelve O' Clock High" because of the attrition rate which meant that flying 25 missions was almost certainly a ticket to the cemetary.
 
is there, or if not, could there be a thread on worthwhile war movies. i would be very interested in non american made ones. i have never heard of when trumpets fade, and i am sure there are more.....
 
Try searching some of the threads, especially in "Misc, Off Topic". I know I started a few and tere are others. I had never heard of "Dark Blue Sky" until I came here and now I'm dying to get my hands on the movie.
 
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