Bucksnort101
2nd Lieutenant
12 years later and my vote is still Pearl Harbor, and it will probably be so until the day I'm planted 6 feet under (probably from being forced to watch this turd again by someone I know).
Worst WWII Movie
- Thread starter Njaco
- Start date
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Pearl Harbor is the absolute worst major war film, but I had the misfortune to waste about 10 minutes of my life with "The Ghosts of War" on Netflix. Between the portrayal of GIs as war criminals and their use of a mix of British weapons, I had to pull the plug. Rotten Tomatoes said it appropriately: "'Ghosts of War blends supernatural horror and period war drama to produce a muddled mashup that proves some ingredients are better left separate" ...and some bad movies are better left unwatched.
Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
Shining Through
Michael Douglas and Melanie Griffith are spies in Nazi Germany. (their German is terrible)
Bring your barf bag. You are going to need it.
Michael Douglas and Melanie Griffith are spies in Nazi Germany. (their German is terrible)
Bring your barf bag. You are going to need it.
Honestly torn on Midway to be honest. I think we can all point out the dumbest scenes in the movie and the overuse of explosions and planes always being inches from crashing into each other, but for the most part... the events are somehow accurate? Hell, it gave me a much better idea of what was going on during the battle than the 70s version, and it didn't make up any characters to do so.
Pros
-Does a great job of covering everything that preceded Midway in a manner that's easy to understand
-Covers the Midway Marauders (though their portrayal is inaccurate), the TBD squadrons and USS Nautilus' role in the battle
-Hell, it has TBDs in it in the first place, I'm a sucker for that
-Follows historical characters through real events
Cons
-I mean just look up clips of any of the carrier bombing scenes, or for a particularly dumb moment Best's entire dogfight during the raid on the Marshall Islands
-Characters are often over-the-top based on single quotes (pretty sure their entire portrayal of Best was the one quote that mentions his "utter disregard for personal safety"
-Moments that feel very forced
Nitpicks
-Come on guys, you had CG B-25s, why did you make B-25Js instead of B-25Bs? Hell, they have the meatball roundels with the later bars around them on the top wings in some of the shots.
-Midway Marauders: No Susie-Q? Bombs instead of torpedoes? Might be remembering wrong but I think they also had way more than 4 Marauders
-No B-17s or TBFs at Midway?
Conclusion:
The best adaptation of the Battle of Midway is Montemayor's 3-part series on youtube. Almost 100% historically accurate, thoroughly engaging, and very easy to follow.
Oh wait, this is a thread about bad movies. Honestly I need to watch more of those! From the list I've barely seen any. Pearl Harbor was a favorite as a kid and probably kickstarted my Doolittle Raid and B-25 obsession that lasted well over a decade, but jesus christ it's so bad in every conceivable way and painfully long. The DVD had two discs, I only ever watched the second one growing up, because I wanted to see B-25s.
So I guess my vote is Pearl Harbor by default.
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
What Maty12 said.
space dodo
Airman 1st Class
Why is the thin red line there ? I recall it being a very good war movie
I think that it might be good for very, very knowledgeable people. Problem is that it's too dis-jointed for most viewers.
Though it is not listed, the 1975 Midway was horrible. The Capt. Garth character was stupid, his son and his Japanese girlfriend was stupid, and the F9F Panther sliding down the deck was really stupid. Lazy film making, terrible editing and an idiotic plot.
and awful music!
I thought it was the most boring war movie I'd ever seen. I did not get it at all. And John Travolta looked too much like Freddy Mercury.
May be a bit off topic, but man did the Brokeback Mountain comments on page 4 of this thread hit like a ton of bricks when I was checking what everyone else had picked. For those who like reading entire threads (like me), I highly encourage skipping it. I get it, it was 2009, this ain't a callout post or some cancellation, I was alive back then, I remember what it was like and participated in that culture myself with little thought, and I'm not going to pretend that anyone's views in the past are necessarily indicative of their views in the present, people change. Glad as a whole we society seems to have moved way past that. Again, not a callout, just wanted to say something and warn people because man I was having a good time before that and it made my day worse.
If this is too contentious (though I feel like I've been quite polite) y'all can feel free to delete my comment, not trying to derail the thread in any way.
To tie it back into bad movies, some of y'all watched Pearl Harbor for Kate Beckinsale, 5 or 6-year old me was bummed because she ended up with Affleck instead of Hartnett, seeing as I thought the latter was "clearly the better looking one." Man that's one of those moments that should've made things obvious looking back, but the denial was strong and that whole process took over a decade.
I'd also like to bring to your attention what I feel as a much more common thing in war movies than outright terrible ones - passable movies. The ones that you watch and go "okay, I guess that was a mildly good use of my time." What's would be your pick for "most okay" movie?
I think my pick might be Hanover Street from 1979. Love the flying sequences, love the bombardier character, love Harrison Ford, but man in every other aspect it was very aggressively eh.
If this is too contentious (though I feel like I've been quite polite) y'all can feel free to delete my comment, not trying to derail the thread in any way.
To tie it back into bad movies, some of y'all watched Pearl Harbor for Kate Beckinsale, 5 or 6-year old me was bummed because she ended up with Affleck instead of Hartnett, seeing as I thought the latter was "clearly the better looking one." Man that's one of those moments that should've made things obvious looking back, but the denial was strong and that whole process took over a decade.
I'd also like to bring to your attention what I feel as a much more common thing in war movies than outright terrible ones - passable movies. The ones that you watch and go "okay, I guess that was a mildly good use of my time." What's would be your pick for "most okay" movie?
I think my pick might be Hanover Street from 1979. Love the flying sequences, love the bombardier character, love Harrison Ford, but man in every other aspect it was very aggressively eh.
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Definitely Red Tails, just rubbish all round. Perpetuates a myth and the Germans are treated with no more imagination than as cartoon characters.
Despite its terrible story and exaggerated CGI in dog fight scenes, PH had a few redeeming moments and the use of real aircraft in the flight scenes, despite them being the wrong marks for the eras illustrated was a big thing and added a degree of authenticity to the cinematography. For example, the B-25 Dolittle raid take-off scene was actually carried out, they launched those B-25s from the USS Constellation especially for the movie, it wasn't done with models or CGI. The list of airworthy aircraft used in the film was quite extensive and included four B-25s, four Spitfires, the only flying Sea Hurricane and a Hurricane XII, a Hispano Buchon, four P-40s and three Mitsubishi Zeroes, with converted T-6s and BTs for the B5Ns and D3As.
PH was designed as a B grade movie as a homage to great past films such as Hells Angels, where the plot of two guys falling for the same girl against a flying war scenario is the same, as well as a tip of the hat to such greats as Tora Tora Tora, which is definitely the superior film and from which PH used the same B5Ns and D3As as stand-ins and 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, and of course Battle of Britain. The fact that it's a jumbled mess of a film spoils it compared to its inspirations, but the use of real aircraft against the backdrop of the real Pearl Harbor and Ford Island definitely lifts it beyond being complete rubbish, in my view.
Despite its terrible story and exaggerated CGI in dog fight scenes, PH had a few redeeming moments and the use of real aircraft in the flight scenes, despite them being the wrong marks for the eras illustrated was a big thing and added a degree of authenticity to the cinematography. For example, the B-25 Dolittle raid take-off scene was actually carried out, they launched those B-25s from the USS Constellation especially for the movie, it wasn't done with models or CGI. The list of airworthy aircraft used in the film was quite extensive and included four B-25s, four Spitfires, the only flying Sea Hurricane and a Hurricane XII, a Hispano Buchon, four P-40s and three Mitsubishi Zeroes, with converted T-6s and BTs for the B5Ns and D3As.
PH was designed as a B grade movie as a homage to great past films such as Hells Angels, where the plot of two guys falling for the same girl against a flying war scenario is the same, as well as a tip of the hat to such greats as Tora Tora Tora, which is definitely the superior film and from which PH used the same B5Ns and D3As as stand-ins and 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, and of course Battle of Britain. The fact that it's a jumbled mess of a film spoils it compared to its inspirations, but the use of real aircraft against the backdrop of the real Pearl Harbor and Ford Island definitely lifts it beyond being complete rubbish, in my view.
Valid point. Michael Bay's movies have many issues, but one thing always worth appreciating is his approach to practical vs cgi. Even in the Transformers movies, practically everything that wasn't a giant robot was really there, all the explosions and stunts, all the actors and stunt doubles that barely escape death. Give Michael Bay a budget and he'll slingshot cars through the air, just don't ask him to do anything else.
The Doolittle Raid sequence, while we can nitpick it to hell and point out how many real people it glossed over (American and Chinese), is still thrilling to watch.
Getting four B-25s to fly from the deck of the Connie was a huge effort and too little is made of just how special that was.
I agree about Bay, although the first Transformers movie and the use of USAF/USN hardware were awesome. Coolest scene in the film.
