You Know It's An American War Movie When...

Originally posted by STEVEN@Jun 8 2004, 07:53 PM
You big softy !!
Me, a big softy? I'll have you know that I drink sulphuric acid instead of coffee and I eat nails for breakfast, I'm tough mate.......now where's my facial scrub gone

 

Originally posted by Lee@Jun 9 2004, 01:54 AM

Me, a big softy? I'll have you know that I drink sulphuric acid instead of coffee and I eat nails for breakfast


Sulphuric Acid !! i thought you scots drunk Irun Bru ??.Mind you thinking about it Sulphuric Acid would taste better.

Stephen :P

 

Originally posted by STEVEN@Jun 9 2004, 09:53 AM
i thought you scots drunk Irun Bru ??
To be honest, I was born in the Royal County of Berkshire (Wallingford, now in Oxfordshire :angry but my ancestors were Scottish. Iron Bru? One of man's greatest achievements!

 

Originally posted by Lee@Jun 9 2004, 06:46 AM
Iron Bru? One of man's greatest achievements!


Irun Bru and Sulphuric Acid,your stomach must be made of Stainless Steel !!

Stephen :P

 

Originally posted by STEVEN@Jun 10 2004, 04:57 PM
Irun Bru and Sulphuric Acid,your stomach must be made of Stainless Steel !
Cast Iron mate, cast iron!

 

I saw the Thin Red Line for the first time yesterday. I had recorded it off TV the night before, which is just as well as it would not have kept me awake. 3 hours!

And slow? I never thought it would start. Just what was the point of it?

 

Originally posted by angie999@Jul 11 2004, 09:32 AM
I saw the Thin Red Line for the first time yesterday. I had recorded it off TV the night before, which is just as well as it would not have kept me awake. 3 hours!

And slow? I never thought it would start. Just what was the point of it?
Forget the film, it was rubbish. I saw it live, but fell asleep just after they captured the village.

This book is the second book in a trilogy by James Jones, and the book itself is quite good. The first book of the "set" is "From Here to Eternity" which was filmed yonks ago with Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster.

The third and final book in the series is called "Whistle" and it is the one I enjoyed most. It is set with the wounded in hospitals etc in the USA.

As to the point of it, see here: http://rking.vinu.edu/mcmahon.htm

Discuss.

 

The Thin Red Line: I thought it was a Wildlife on One programme for the first hour or so: parrots, trees, lush grass and exotic locations - and not a Jap in sight until hour two! (Also, you may know that one of the US soldiers was a British actor Ben Chaplin (easy to remember name) who starred in the 'Game On' BBC comedy series of the mid-late '90s.)

Richard

 

That's hilarious about the typical American war movie.

You left out a few other cliches:

The senator's kid who thinks he's better than everyone else in his company, breaks the rules, defies the drill sergeant, and pays for it. Later in the film, this ostracized guy truly bonds with his buddies, usually by dying to save their lives.

The kid from Brooklyn who loves his Dodgers (the baseball team that moved to Los Angeles in 1957)

The kid from Arkansas who's "too young to die," worships his girlfriend in the picture, and gets killed.

The tough guy who gets the "Dear John" letter from his wife, becomes a blubbering mass, and gets killed.

Often there's an incompetent colonel who orders the men on a risky and suicidal attack, that ultimately takes the hill, but at a tremendous cost in lives and stuntmen.

The evil sadistic Japanese commandant who tortures the American POW in the name of the Emperor. He commits hara-kiri when the battle goes against him.

The wise old general who, after the battle, looks over the corpses, and wonders where America gets such brave men to fight her battles.

 

American P-40s, or any other fighter plane for that matter, never got off the ground at pearl harbor, This is a very critical mistake that both Pearl Harbor, and Tora Tora Tora have made.

 

You know its an American movie when when Hitler salutes his army by saying "Have a nice day, yaaaw".

 

You know it's a British War movie when John Mills plays the honourable Squaddie or the reserved pilot. Richard Todd is the brave but classcally stiff upper lipped Brit Officer. David Nivens is the slightly wet but still honourable officer who looks out for his men. And everyone dies in a rather reserved hail of gun fire, and at home the women dry their tears and return to the factories or brigning up the children. We made better war movies.

 

I think "Flags of our Fathers" is due out this year, and tells the story of the American capture of Iwo Jima. It's directed by Clint Eastwood - should be good.

 

American P-40s, or any other fighter plane for that matter, never got off the ground at pearl harbor, This is a very critical mistake that both Pearl Harbor, and Tora Tora Tora have made.

American fighters did get off the ground at the battle of Pearl Harbor. In addition to the famous pair of Welch and Taylor, several other fighters got airborne, including a P-36 that shot down two planes, and came back so chopped up, it was written off.

East Wind Rain, by Stanley Cohen, has the details.

 

You know it's a British War movie when John Mills plays the honourable Squaddie or the reserved pilot. Richard Todd is the brave but classcally stiff upper lipped Brit Officer. David Nivens is the slightly wet but still honourable officer who looks out for his men. And everyone dies in a rather reserved hail of gun fire, and at home the women dry their tears and return to the factories or brigning up the children. We made better war movies.


You left out Jack Hawkins as the CO.

 

god i hope you people can make better movies, another sob movie about the "great brave americans who died for everyone" no what i would like to see is a movie about some poor german who got sucked into the nazi ideal and lived to tell it. Some extra action would be acceptable but not too much.

 

Seems to me you have all seen plenty of old American war movies and are probably as fond of them as I am.

I can take the old ones, warts and all. Some of the recent ones, like Pearl Harbor? Not so good.

I agree, Pearl Harbor was pretty bad. The scene when Affleck is shot down over the English Channel, survives the impact, escapes a submerged aircraft and is saved by a French fishing boat always gets me.... Then he comes home to his girlfriend who has left him for his best friend. Hollywood never ceases to make things look so pathetic.

Im not going to lie, I do love war movies though.

 

This made me chuckle:

You know its an American War Movie when;

Clark Gable and Gregory Peck are officers. They suffer under the strain of having to send men out on missions they won't come back from. Or, in films made after 1960, they're played by George C Scott and Orson Welles and are complete maniacs who don't care about anything but their own careers.

Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Lee Marvin, Richard Conte, and William Bendix are enlisted men, mostly sergeants. They slog through mud, don't shave, and are cut off from all orders. WWII platoons seem to consist of six NCOs and one lone young private (Robert Walker) who doesn't shave yet, has a girl back home, and gets killed. If a sergeant gets killed, it's because he throws himself on a grenade to save the rest of the guys.

The drill sergeant at training camp is Richard Widmark or Jack Webb. He shouts a lot, but is a softie underneath, making sure his men are tough enough to survive in combat. In films made after the 50s (cf: R Lee Ermey in "Full Metal Jacket"), the sergeant shouts a lot but is a complete bastard underneath, turning his men into homicidal maniacs.

WWII was fought by the Americans against the Nazis and the Japanese. The Allies are represented by slinky femmes in the French Resistance and comic relief Brits who get in the way. Russia wasn't in the war, except to get ready for being the baddies next time round.

The unit consists of a Texan called Tex, a Southerner called Dix, a red-haired fellow called Red, an Italian-American called Dino, and a fellow from Brooklyn called Brooklyn. In recent films, there's always an heroic black soldier fighting alongside the rest of the melting pot (cf: Cuba Gooding Jr in "Pearl Harbor"), though the US army wasn't racially integrated until after WWII.

Someone makes a speech about baseball, hot dogs, swing bands, drinking booze, shooting deer at weekends, and taking Mary Lou to the prom that embodies everything we're fighting for. Other people choke back tears.

The nastiest German is played by a classically-trained actor with a British accent, like George Sanders or Basil Rathbone. The most evil Japanese are played by Chinese actors.

All battles in Vietnam were fought to the accompaniment of rock music by The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix, but no one hit the beaches at Iwo Jima or Normandy with Artie Shaw or Glenn Miller blaring over the mortar fire.

The most gung ho sentiments are expressed by John Wayne, who personally avoided the draft because anyone with four children didn't have to serve in the military. Later, he criticised kids who resisted the draft in Vietnam on grounds of political principle.

After two hours of bloody explosions, limbs strewn around the landscape, immense property damage, hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets, and hordes of soldiers mown down by machine gun fire, the padre makes an uplifting speech about what all the fighting and killing and dying was supposed to accomplish.

There are some gem's hidden away on this forum

Interesting point about John Wayne that I never knew and another reason to dislike him

 

If the RAF are involved there will be one pilot called Ginger, who is going to propose to his girlfriend right after his next sortie.........Oh no he's not!!

 

And don't forget the best of British understatement..

Ginger is about to start his last sortie and is having a celebratory sherry....
SCRAMBLE !!!!!
"I'll just put that on the mantle piece and finish it when I get back..."

Poignant < lip trembling > very poignant - Remind me never to leave a half finished sherry on the mantle piece < gulps back a manly tear >