War movie clichés

It also reminds me that any British was movie must contain John Mills or Jack Hawkins.

And Alfie Bass

 

Ab-so-bloody-lutely old boy. Our chaps were managing perfectly well without your ruddy cowboy capers.

If talking to an American junior officer they will over-emphasise the British pronunciation of his rank - “now see here LEFT-tenant...”

 

Add Kenneth More and Richard Attenborough to the list as well.

 

Canadians, to the degree they can be seen in any WW2 films, can always be found in the bar!



Or, with the girl!

 

Good job but you left out, "A Sherman can you a very nice ...... edge."

 

A subclass of the movie junior office is the newly minted West Pointer, by the book but stupid as bread mold.
"He's gonna get us all killed!"

 

Too many negative waves!

 

Actually, in his younger days Christopher Plummer could indeed always be found in a bar.

 

Don't forget Harry Andrews as the Sarn't Major and the NCOs: Bernard Miles, Percy Herbert, Ian Bannen, and Ronald Fraser.

 

Training for a mission will be accomplished by a montage. If the squad is a “rag tag bunch of misfits” the training will also involve getting the better of the “proper” Army guys. At some point the mission will be explained to the audience using unlikely objects and lines drawn in the dirt or an elaborate model that must’ve taken months to make even though the mission has only just come up.

Travel shall be via a map showing a red line of movement

Trains must always pass through a tunnel at some point - especially if you are having a fistfight on top of it at the time.

 

Now there is an avenue of interest. The rest of my Burton is more classic, Dylan Thomas and a bit of Shakespeare. This all comes from having to recite out loud all the books we studied at 6th Form.

 

I would probably try and expand my Caine instead. See if I could capture his posh officer.

 

A few more clichés I might add that have become prevalent in modern US war movies:

The Drill Sergeant who has a never ending repertoire of colourful expletives. Inevitably one of the recruits will start smiling and get worse treatment. Often one of the recruits will get beaten by his fellow recruits for continuous infractions.

Intestines - no battle scene is complete without some guy trying to push his guts back into his belly.

Flames - no battle scene is complete without some poor unfortunate running around in flames.

 

I'd add exploding heads to that one.

People think the hardass drill sergeant originated with Full Metal Jacket but Luis Gosset Jnr did it in An Officer and a Gentleman a few years previously. Also Warren Oates in Stripes and Ernest Borgnine in From Here To Eternity.

 

Enemy soldiers positioned on rooftops will always fall off when shot - no one ever falls backwards.

A squad member will at some point throw a grenade towards the enemy and say “this one’s for the Sarge/Captain/Smitty!”

American soldiers always have nicknames - frequently these will be based on their home State or City (there’s a funny twist in this cliche in Forrest Gump - “There was Dallas, from Phoenix; Cleveland - he was from Detroit; and Tex... well, I don't remember where Tex come from.”)

 

"Steers and queers".

A couple of nights ago I watched Vince Vaughn having a go at the hardass sergeant role in Hacksaw Ridge. Yes - Vince Vaughn who starred as Fred Clause! I think they also threw in some intestines, human fireballs and exploding heads. Legs being blown off is another one. It's only a good movie if you want to see every cliché from modern US war movies all in one place.

 

I haven’t watched it yet but now feel I have to just to play “spot the cliche”

 

“Chin-chin old boy” the epitome of upper class fop.

 

“If we succeed, we’ll be in Berlin by Christmas.”

A member of the squad who appears to have run away will return at a crucial time with a tank or some other form of reinforcements.

Someone will have “a feelin’ that we ain’t coming back this time.”

An enemy soldier who decides to let one of the main characters live due to being “sick of this war” will moments later be killed by the psycho member of the squad for reasons of dramatic irony. The psycho will laugh and then search the body for souvenirs. If there is a wristwatch he will hold it to his ear to check it still works.