War Movies

K

koalaburger

Active member
I get angry when watching some war movies. I was watching a movie with my father (who was at Anzio with Brits) and they were fighting tanks with machine guns. He said it was rubbish. He said when tanks came you threw everything away and ran like crazy. I don't think he was too serious about the throwing away but the running was. I also hate when the soldiers relax before the threat has been fully neutralised and some wounded soldier hurls a grenade.
 
Movies are there to make money and tell a story, and they are produced by people who (in regards to war) don't get it. Sure I get a little upset when I see the Army portrayed wrong in a movie or especially on TV (Over There made me so angry that words cannot describe it). You just have to remember that it's for the masses, and that it's like that in all genres. Spies don't really do the stuff they do in spy movies and cowboys don't do the stuff they do in westerns. It's all about perspective. Truth sometimes needs to be changed in order to make a better scene in a movie.
 
Yeah I got Over There and I kinda felt like it was a film about poets gone to war.
As for the rest, I can't say since I wasn't US Army. But that part where they apparently shot the Lieutenant made me glad they cancelled the series. What a crock of sh*t.
 
I liked Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, Generation Kill and The Hurt Locker quite a bit - I'm actually curious to see what you guys who are in the service think of them. Ryan and Hurt Locker obviously had a couple parts that I really don't think would happen (the guy just letting his friend get stabbed by the German in Ryan, and the EOD guy leaving the base by himself in the Hurt Locker) Enemy at the Gates was good entertainment but you could tell the action sequences were total fiction. Never saw any other war movies that impressed me.
 
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brooke01 said:
Thats quite understandable. I personally love war movies. My all time favorite is Pearl Harbor.
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I couldn't stand that movie; they even made the 30 minutes or so of actually historically accurate bombing ridiculous. Gettysburg was terrible, too (what is it about a Confederate gray coat that makes you the worst actor in the history of the modern world?).

I've heard from veterans who were at Omaha Beach that the beginning of Saving Private Ryan was VERY accurate. And I've heard several historians say that Enemy at the Gates was actually reasonably accurate, not not as much as Letters from Iwo Jima or Band of Brothers.
 
brooke01 said:
Thats quite understandable. I personally love war movies. My all time favorite is Pearl Harbor.
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I thought Pearl Harbor was Dreadful, personally. An insult to all WWII vets out there.

I vehemently oppose any war movie that tries to make war into some kind of a video game.
 
I reckon BHD were at least based on some sort of real world fighting.
The book is better though.
Learn to read.

It´s when hoolyweed turns onto real subjects without taking the time to research them properly I get pissed.

//KJ.
 
I will agree, some war movies are horrendous. But there are some amazing ones out. A Bridge too Far and Saving Private Ryan is just to name a few. Saving Private Ryan though was an amazing one and the research and the realisticness of it is amazing! I read a news article that the final scene of Saving Private Ryan, in the town, well the town was made about 2 - 5 miles from where I live! Apparently it was so realistic that even the war veterans couldn't believe Steven Spielberg had built it from scratch! But I will agree, there are some very unrealistic stuff in some war movies. What makes me more mad is when they have incorrect uniforms or vehicles or whatever. That is just worse than the acting!
 
The Other Guy said:
Gettysburg was terrible, too (what is it about a Confederate gray coat

I've heard from veterans who were at Omaha Beach that the beginning of Saving Private Ryan was VERY accurate. .
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A few years ago I was approached by a WWII vet who wanted to sell a bomber jacket. Post war jacket, I assume as the liner had a map of the D-Day area printed on it. He had with him a newspaper article about a vet who freaked out during the landing scene & had to be (removed, helped out) of the theatre. He was the guy! The article said he'd been an Officer with one of the Ranger Companys & lost half(?) his men & the opening scene was so on that he lost it.
Gettysburg In "Gettysburg" Ted Turner is killed as a Captain. In "Gods & Generals", a prequil to Gettysburg, he is a Col., what did Ted do to get busted?:-D
 
I agree with Yin that A Bridge Too Far is one of the good ones. If you haven't seen it, it's worth the watch. It's one of the few movies where staying true to history means the good guys sometimes lose, and it's very well done, not to mention a superstar lineup (Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Laurence Olivier, James Caan, Michael Caine, Elliott Gould, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford.... I mean does the cast for a war movie get any better than that? ). You have to look at Kelly's Heroes or the Dirty Dozen to get that many good actors in the same place and even then they don't really compare.
 
I recommend The Big Red One. That's one of my favorites. One little bit of trivia about it: They showed what happened to the American troops who looked up in the Kasserine Pass and saw German armor attacking them. They dropped everything and ran. Wasn't really much else they could do, but still, you wouldn't think the Army would want any reminders of that incident around. Funny thing I noticed when I was in Germany is how the Army named one of their small "camps" on Grafenwoehr "Camp Kasserine".
BTW, later the US forces went back and kicked the Germans all the way out of Africa.:m16shoot:
 
KJ;556161.....It´s when hoolyweed turns onto real subjects without taking the time to research them properly I get pissed. //KJ.[/QUOTE said:
I'm in agreement with that mate, they have the resources, use them and do justice to the film being made, (and the subject at hand).... I don't get how these movies often have ex-military advisers, don't they get listened to or have these guys turned Hollywood themselves & no longer care.... :roll:
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There are so many great war movies out there, but they all suffer from one fatal flaw which used to wind me up - they are fictionalisations of events, more specifically someones view of historical events, designed to appeal to as many members of the paying public as possible.

Then it hit me, today in fact. Whilst watching Zulu, my 10 year old son came and sat beside me and started asking me about the reality of Rorkes Drift - he did ask if I was there (cheeky bugger), but we had a fantastic conversation about the rise and fall of the Zulu nation, the benefits of a bayonet, how and why the British Empire grew and sustained itself and a lot more.

So I'll let Hollywood, Bollywood or any other f'in'wood churn out films that might inspire 1 person to ask questions or find out more about the events surrounding the film, if it results in afternoon like todays - make more I say.
 
mocco said:
I'm in agreement with that mate, they have the resources, use them and do justice to the film being made, (and the subject at hand).... I don't get how these movies often have ex-military advisers, don't they get listened to or have these guys turned Hollywood themselves & no longer care.... :roll:
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Some of the advisors have probably puffed up their resumes to get hired in the first place.
When someone ask them a question they will have to look like they know what they are talking about.

In SOME (rare) cases it has worked.
The shootout outside the bank in "Heat" is one that pops to mind.
Straight out of the urban manual for "after situations".
That the bulletholes in the cars are the wrong way around is hardly the advisors fault..
That´s just lazyarse filmcrew not bothering to get it right..

//KJ.
 
Anything from Hollywood is BS. Unless it says otherwise, that is. Like a documentary.
My favorite is Kelly's Heroes.
 
Re: War Movies 2

Some war movies try to be accurate and others don't. "Saving Private Ryan," if it is not accurate, I would hate to think how much more horror an amphibious invasion would be? It depends on when the movie was made also. "Saving Private Ryan" would have been considered to horrible is made in the 1950's or 1960's. The movie "D-Day" was acceptable for its time.
"Top Gun" is good for "escapism"! I found the movie "Dr Strangelove" one of the funniest movies I have ever seen!
"Band of Brothers," "Tora Tora Tora," "Das Boot," "Bridge Over The River Kwai" are all very good movies.
 
Dr. Strangelove is pretty good.

I figure if I want to know what it was like, go ask someone that was there. If I want entertainment, I'll watch the crap from Hollyweird.
 
Patton sucked

Chaffee tanks for Shermans. CJ-5 Jeeps with tailgate and spare tire on the side. They came out as civilian Jeeps in 1946.
Band of Brothers was most authentic,all Equipment an vehicles were correct. I was issued the same stuff.
 
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