Hollywood presents WWII. Films that grind your gears.

[model299]

A few I haven't seen mentioned here.

They Were Expendable: Contains not one shred of historical accuracy, but hey, for fictional drama, I think a pretty decent film. John Wayne once again plays: John Wayne. At least you know what you're getting.

Tora Tora Tora: At least the makers TRIED to get things right. All in all I think it's a fair effort at a docudrama. It's one hell of a lot better film then that god forsaken piece of S%^ Pearl Harbor. I've watched that piece of dung once. That was enough for me. I've watched Tora Tora Tora many times, and will still stop channel surfing if I run across it.

Midway: Disjointed, full of wrong aircraft, wooden acting, etc, but IMHO, still entertaining to watch.

Air Force: A more unabashed piece of rah rah boosterism based on pure fiction, you'll not find. But, add in the shots of the early B-17s, and it's a fun movie to watch.

The Dambusters. Loved it when I was a kid, still enjoy watching it.

Sink the Bismarck! Another fun film to watch, that at least tries to get the story right.

Loved Bridges at Toko Ri.

Thirty Seconds over Tokyo; Another wartime rah rah film. But a good one, IMHO. Any director with the chutspah to link two sound stages together and run a B-25 down the length of them to get the takeoff shots gets my vote.

And, although it's based on the Cold War, Strategic Air Command offers (once you get past June "The Whiner" Allyson's over the top hamfest performance) some of the best air to air cinematography extant, bar none. I really wish someone would locate a copy of the original wide screen version so I could watch that incredible take off scene in it's orginal glory.

 

[meatloaf109]

Do you really believe that ??

My own dad was a Marine DI right before and in early WW2, and then became a preacher later in life.
He would talk much more about his DI days, than his time on Guadacanal.

This is what I was told by recent graduates of Parris Island.
I was not referring to WW2 Marines, nor to the lovely individuals that eased my precious @ss into military life, but to the present day situation.

 

[tyrodtom]

This is what I was told by recent graduates of Parris Island.
I was not referring to WW2 Marines, nor to the lovely individuals that eased my precious @ss into military life, but to the present day situation.

I knew you were referring to present day Marine DI's.
But as a example even in 1969 when I went thru Army Basic, the drill sgts. weren't allowed to even touch you without asking your permission first, but if they were out of sight of officers, or certain other Sgts, it was old Army again.

 

[N4521U]

Some of these, like Pearl Harbor, should only be watched when you're ready to pass out! Then at least you don't see All of it.

 

[pattle]

How about Mister Roberts for a good film? Henry Fonda, James Cagney and Jack Lemmon, not an action film, no fancy sets or anything fancy really, just a good old fashioned well made drama of the sort that nobody seems to know how to make anymore.

 

[Wildcat]

Agreed pattle, that is an enjoyable film.

 

[aircro]

One good movie - Big Red One.
One bad movie - Redball Express (point - accuracy )

 

[fastmongrel]

One good movie - Big Red One.
One bad movie - Redball Express (point - accuracy )

Never seen Big Red One will have to see if Amazon have a copy sounds very interesting

 

[stona]

If the Brits here were offended by "U-571" it has absolutely nothing on the truly awful "Objective Burma"

"Objective Burma" was released in 1945 and caused such a storm of protest from many organisations for its Americanisation of a campaign that was largely executed by British and Commonwealth troops that it was withdrawn after only a week.

It wasn't released in Britain until 1952. It didn't do much here for the reputation of Errol Flynn who, ironically, was of course an Australian.

Cheers

Steve

 

[pattle]

If the Brits here were offended by "U-571" it has absolutely nothing on the truly awful "Objective Burma"

"Objective Burma" was released in 1945 and caused such a storm of protest from many organisations for its Americanisation of a campaign that was largely executed by British and Commonwealth troops that it was withdrawn after only a week.

It wasn't released in Britain until 1952. It didn't do much here for the reputation of Errol Flynn who, ironically, was of course an Australian.

I have heard of this film but I'm pretty sure that I have still not seen it, I think this is because it is considered to odious to put on tele.
Merrill's Marauders was a bit cack but from what I have heard Objective Burma was absolutely diabolical rubbish.

 

[tyrodtom]

I'm the type who will watch a good movie like "We were soldiers, and young" and notice they're using the wrong model Huey, or M16 for the time period. But I thought overall We were Soldiers was a good movie. I read the book years before the movie, and the movie doesn't follow the book, but for a Hollywood product it isn't too bad.

I liked a movie most people don't seem too fond of , The thin Red Line. Most people didn't like the artsy fartsy views and voice over in a lot of the movie.

I'm a country boy, and I could understand the main characters appreciation of the beauty of his natural surroundings, and the voice over reminded me of when I was off duty ( which wasn't often) I was reading letters from home, or trying to organize my thoughts to write a letter home.

 

[fastmongrel]

The Red Badge of Courage is an outstanding movie but the director John Huston thought it would have been his finest movie if the studio hadnt cut it to ribbons because they thought it was too bloody and not heroic enough. Unfortunately we will never know how good it might have been as the studio destroyed the original footage.

 

[vikingBerserker]

The only real issue I had with Thin Red Line is it seamed to drag on forever as I wanted to see the combat portions - which perhaps I missed the entire point of the movie.

Mister Roberts I liked but the cargo ship they said was a destroyer irked me, but the acting was excellent.

One movie that really irked me was The Battle of River Plate and the use of the USS Salem as the Graf Spree. Now I know that there was a lack of Packet Battleships in existence to play the roll of the Graf Spree, but they could have at least painted over the giant "139" on the bow of the ship.

 

[GrauGeist]

I have to admire some of the efforts they went to, back in the days before CGI, to create a realistic setting, even if descrepancies were obvious.

The movie Tora! Tora! Tora! Was an example. The directors did a great job, in my opinion, to bring the viewer the best possible portrayal of events with what they had on hand. There was even an impressive amount of talent behind the scenes, like using Admiral Genda as an advisor along with Akira Kurasawa's help (and his assistants) to name a few.

Alot of folks arent aware that all those modified T-6 and BT-13s were loaded aboard an actual carrier (USS Yorktown) in San Diego and then launched at sea, several miles off the California coast, to film the launching of the Japanese strike force.
Of course, they aircraft couldn't be recovered at sea, so they flew back to San Diego where they were reloaded aboard the carrier and then sailed to Hawaii for more filming. So there were several limitations to just how accurate the movie could be: not many intact/flyable Japanese aircraft available and the complete lack of Japanese carriers, too!

By the way, a point of interest, the B-17 crash landing during the attack was actual footage of one of the B17s that had a gear failure during the filming. Same goes for footage of the P-40 that was trying to "take off" during the attack, and plowed into the rows of other P-40s...that was a lifesized fiberglass replica that was supposed to go to the end of the runway before crashing and exploding. Something went terribly wrong and it veered off course and struck the other fiberglass replicas, setting off a premature chain of events. The crew and pilots seen running for their lives were actually stuntmen, who were really running for their lives! Now how's that for realism?

So I cut them a little slack in that respect!

 

[Airframes]

I agree there Dave. I don't mind if producers at least try to get the correct equipment, or as near as possible. For example, the Buchons in the BoB movie, and the fact that all the Spitfires used, regardless of Mark, where modified to at least resemble one type. Built up rear decking on those with 'bubble' canopies, Griffon types only in the background and so on.
For Band of Brothers, the art department went to incredible lengths to build working replicas of German armour, using T-34s and British FV432 APCs and, whilst some small details might not have been 100% accurate, they were close enough, and better than a M-60 doubling as a Tiger/Panther/PzKfw IV, as in the 1960s movies.

 

[GrauGeist]

Fully agree, there, Terry!

I truly enjoyed the movie "Battle of the Bulge" when I was younger, but it really irritated me that the Germans were using M60 tanks...I even recognized those when I was a kid ("wow..those German tanks look like the ones we're using in Vietnam!)

 

[fubar57]

Growing up in the 60's, we lived in the sticks and had two channels so I had to watch whatever was on. "Bombardiers"...yikes. Made during the war, there was even a Bombardier song. There was another whose title escapes me, but it was about a Japanese diplomat/business man(?) who married a Southern Belle before the war. They move back to Japan when the war breaks out and is about her trails and tribulations. How bad were her trials and tribulations? Well, half way through the movie, she lost her southern accent. On the other hand, for pure fun, I've watched "Kelly's Heroes" about 5 or 6 times.

Geo

 

[VBF-13]

I have to admire some of the efforts they went to, back in the days before CGI, to create a realistic setting, even if descrepancies were obvious.

The movie Tora! Tora! Tora! Was an example. The directors did a great job, in my opinion, to bring the viewer the best possible portrayal of events with what they had on hand. There was even an impressive amount of talent behind the scenes, like using Admiral Genda as an advisor along with Akira Kurasawa's help (and his assistants) to name a few.

Alot of folks arent aware that all those modified T-6 and BT-13s were loaded aboard an actual carrier (USS Yorktown) in San Diego and then launched at sea, several miles off the California coast, to film the launching of the Japanese strike force.
Of course, they aircraft couldn't be recovered at sea, so they flew back to San Diego where they were reloaded aboard the carrier and then sailed to Hawaii for more filming. So there were several limitations to just how accurate the movie could be: not many intact/flyable Japanese aircraft available and the complete lack of Japanese carriers, too!

By the way, a point of interest, the B-17 crash landing during the attack was actual footage of one of the B17s that had a gear failure during the filming. Same goes for footage of the P-40 that was trying to "take off" during the attack, and plowed into the rows of other P-40s...that was a lifesized fiberglass replica that was supposed to go to the end of the runway before crashing and exploding. Something went terribly wrong and it veered off course and struck the other fiberglass replicas, setting off a premature chain of events. The crew and pilots seen running for their lives were actually stuntmen, who were really running for their lives! Now how's that for realism?

So I cut them a little slack in that respect!

"Boring! Boring! Boring!" I think I saw that in a TV guide, actually. I'm thinking, this is a movie critic? Un-freaking-believable! What they did in that movie, with the resources they had, was nothing short of masterful!

 

[GrauGeist]

From what I've seen, movie critics are dumbasses that can't hold a job and offer their personal opinion in exchange for free movie tickets.

That's a job that doesn't need any education and they are usually there (remember, free tickets) to be entertained.

Tora! Tora! Tora! was intented to be educational and dramatic at the same time. It was Boring! Boring! Boring! because they were learning something...

 

[pattle]

You have to forgive and even admire the makers of the older films and their lack of props because without todays budgets they had to use their ingenuity more.