What do you think of war films?

Discussion in 'Warfare / Military' started by Dropship, Jun 27, 2017.

  1. Scott

    Scott Well-Known Member

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  2. Greataxe

    Greataxe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Black Hawk Down would have to be #1.
    Band of Brothers #2.

    I must be fair on rest of my choices and rate them solely for their entertainment value--- on the number of times I've watched them:
    Saving Private Ryan
    The Pacific
    Platoon
    Full Metal Jacket
    Stalingrad
    Fury

    The one I like least is Inglorious Bastards. Here are some more unlikables:
     
  3. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  4. JakeJ

    JakeJ Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I saw someone act out a solo short performance of Johnny Got His Gun - very depressing.

    The Douglas A-1 Skyraider is one of the forgotten greats. A ground support workhorse.
     
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  5. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That was a very disturbing movie to watch.

    I would go out of my way not to watch that movie again.

    The U.S. Navy even used the A-1 as a deep strike aircraft over North Vietnam. But the Navy had to get avgas off it's carriers and all of the A-1 squadrons transitioned over to the Douglas A-4 Skyhawks.
     
  6. Strasser

    Strasser Banned

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    Best Cold War movies were The Third Man, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (my two personal favorites), and Hunt For Red October. Not many 'Cold War' movies are going to be 'realistic', they're going to be 'apocryphal' and 'anecdotal' just by their nature and the lack of available facts about intelligence operations, most of which would make for very dull movies. The PBS series Reilly: Ace Of Spies was also good, though not technically a 'Cold War' time period it's pretty much the same thing only Great Britain versus Soviet Union, the Great Game' carried into the 20th century.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2017
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  7. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The "Hunt for Red October"... the book is better than the movie and it was the first novel (fiction) that the U.S. Naval Institute (USNI) ever published and it led to an investigation by the U.S. Navy because of all of the classified information that was in the book.

    Most what is in the book never made it on the screen like in the book the Iowas class battleship, USS New Jersey confronts the Soviet fleet in the Atlantic.


    excerpt:
     
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  8. jack4freedom

    jack4freedom Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    How about Patton and MacArthur? Two great performances by Scott and Peck and some pretty accurate historical research. My father fought under General MacArthur as a belly gunner on a B-25 in the 5th Army Air Corps. He liked Gregory Peck's portrayal of the great General and thought is was a fair portrayal of what actually happened over there. He was there from '42 until after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Being a native Pittsburgher, I related somewhat to The Deer Hunter as it pertained to the steelworkers from Clairton, but several friends who were actually in Vietnam said that most of the scenes in Vietnam were pure fiction.
     
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  9. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I just watched Peck playing MacArthur a few weeks ago on cable.

    My father was a Marine during WW ll in the Pacific. His first tour in the Pacific was as a gunner on a TBF Avenger in the Southwest Pacific which fell under MacArthur's command. In 1944 he was assigned to JASCO (Joint Assault Signal Company) in which he coordinated close air support and naval gunfire on Iowa Jima.

    "The Deer Hunter" is 100% Hollywood Left bull ****.
     
  10. Tim15856

    Tim15856 Well-Known Member

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    I use to like war films, but got tired of the enemy always looking like idiots, especially German's. If 'The Bridge at Remagen' is the movie I'm thinking about it had some stupid scenes. I recall a line of Sherman's taking out a whole battery of 88mm guns without a single loss.

    As far as documentaries, I'll often see war video of things not correct for the time. For example, on one show they were discussing the 1940 invasion of France, yet the video showed a line of Panther tanks going down the road.
     
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2017
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  11. ArmySoldier

    ArmySoldier Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I could never go see a movie with you
     
  12. Guno

    Guno Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    And you served when? In what combat?
     
  13. ArmySoldier

    ArmySoldier Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Many combat vets here. Welcome to the party, little guy!
     
  14. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    USMC 69 - 71

    "In country" I-Corps June of 69 to July of 70.

    My first six months of my tour of duty NGF Plt. HQ Battery 1/13 usually attached to 1/26 or 2/26.

    My last half of the tour of duty Sub Unit One 1st ANGLICO.

    After my tour of duty in the Nam, 16 months with the 5th MAB at Camp Pedelton.

    I was discharged with the rank of Sargent.

    How about you ?

    BTW: I have one of these -> [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2017
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  15. Arcticfox

    Arcticfox New Member

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    I like Saving Private Ryan, Fury, Midway, We We're Soldiers..
     
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  16. Tim15856

    Tim15856 Well-Known Member

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    Why you say that? Now a days, I know I need to shut down most of my brain functions to watch any Hollywood movie.
     
  17. ArmySoldier

    ArmySoldier Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That's it? ;)
     
  18. ArmySoldier

    ArmySoldier Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Well then that's good. I don't pay to listen to the peanut gallery
     
  19. Strasser

    Strasser Banned

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    The movie would have been 20 hours long if they put everything in, lol.

    And screw Lehman and his bitching; the military in 1985 needed a morale boost badly, and every officer I knew loved his books and his patriotism. I read a few of them and didn't find much that was any well kept secrets, and in any case Soviets and Chinese would have never known what was fact and what was merely disinformation slipped in at the behest of intelligence agencies, and neither would Lehman have known. As I recall, 1984-1988 was a critical time for the reformers against the hard-liners in the Collapsing Soviet state, and letting out a few realities to intimidate the hard-liners at the time was more than welcome anyway.
     
  20. Strasser

    Strasser Banned

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    I wouldn't say that would be entirely unlikely; there were modified Shermans all over the place, including 'Jumbos' modified specifically for full frontal assaults on fortified positions, not to mention that even before the time of the Normandy breakout German munitions were already deteriorating in quality. An uncle of mine went into North Africa and later Italy, and noted more and more 'duds' by the Italian campaign compared to N.Africa from both artillery and armor. Manning the factories become tough after 1943 for the Germans, and slave labor tended to die before it got very experienced.

    Not many of the early Panzer I's and II's left around to rent to movie companies, and too expensive to make mock up models, plus those would look far less impressive to modern movie goers, even though they were the main 'blitzkreig' armor units; some dinky rattletrap with an open turret with a short gun or a couple of machine guns sticking out, as many of them were, would get a big yawn out of American audiences, even though far more realistic, as would the long lines of donkey carts and bicycles the German Army rolled on when there no rails nearby.
     
    Last edited: Jul 14, 2017
  21. Tim15856

    Tim15856 Well-Known Member

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    The documentaries I'm talking about such as those on the history channel use war time footage. I noticed in movies from the 50-60's would usually use whatever armor they could get a hold of. I recall several times seeing US M-48's painted with a German cross to play the part of a panzer.
     
  22. ChrisL

    ChrisL Well-Known Member

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    Brothers in Arms was not really a movie, more of a cable miniseries, but it was pretty good!
     
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  23. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The book is always better than the movie.

    Ever read "The Caine Mutiny" ? 560 pages and the movie "The Caine Mutiny" is only two hours long. The movie only covers about 1/3 of what's in the book.

    "The Cain Mutiney" is up there as one of the best WW ll movies.

    In the book the USS Caine was a four stacker Wickes class destroyer. When they made the movie in 1954 there were no four stackers destroyers, the last one being scrapped in 1947.

    Back when America was great and law students went to law school and were taught law not Alinskyism and political correctness, most law professors required reading "The Caine Mutiny."

    Many consider John Lehman to have been one of the best Secretary of the Navy America ever had.

    I met John Lehman once in 1983 during the recommissioning of the USS New Jersey at the Long Beach NSY. President Reagan was also there.

    John Lehman was no yes man. And when he got pissed off everyone knew it.

    When Lehman resigned as SecNav in 1987 in the "Reagan Diaries" President Reagan entered his thoughts. He had no problems with Lehman resigning and was kinda relieved that he was going. Lehman was a pain in the butt.
     
  24. tom444

    tom444 Well-Known Member

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    Who is in the middle, and on the left?

    [​IMG]


    Edit: BTW, this is not a test. I'm curious to know what you may know about them.
     
    Last edited: Jul 18, 2017
  25. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Don't recognize who's in the middle but the Marine on the left is Gen. Krulak.

    Any Marine who served during the 60's remembers what Krulak looked like.

    Gen. Krulak and Gen. Westmoreland saw things differently during the Vietnam War.

    Test must have been a typo.
     

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