The (in)accuracy of Hollywood...

[Guest]

My oldest son is really into war movies lately so we're going through my whole collection. Often we spend more time pointing out the errors than watching the movie - which can be really fun!
Tonight it was time for Force 10 From Navarone and he was impressed that it was fairly accurate - that was until the bridge sequence with the dodgy T-34-85's they hadn't even bothered to modify like the Tigers in Kelly's Heroes, which were sort of ok-ish...

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(I know the Germans used some repainted T-34's but this doesn't depict this )

What are your favourite badly made/used movie props?

[Guest]

Another really terrible tank is the "Tiger" from the Russian movie "White Tiger"...

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What makes this even worse is that the initial "Tiger" that they had commissioned - and looked very plausible - was cancelled because the director wanted this abomination instead... sigh.

[PaulTRose]

lol...where to start.......tora tora tora and the final countdown using NA T6 for japanese zeros always comes to mind

[peterairfix]

Just watching where eagles dare and the helicopter is a bell Sioux definitely not German and wouldn't have even made to the second world war as the first one flew in September 45

[grumpa]

Hollywood folks know the vast majority of people could not tell the difference between a Tiger and an Elephant or an M60 and a Comet.

[Guest]

Just watching where eagles dare and the helicopter is a bell Sioux definitely not German and wouldn't have even made to the second world war as the first one flew in September 45

Also worth noting is that the real Schloß Adler was a café for the party, not the big castle in the movie. The castle in the movie is actually called Festung Hohenwerfen and was mostly used as a prison.
A very good friends grandmother worked at the real Schloß Adler where they served the top brass in the Nazi party but that's was it

[Guest]

Hollywood folks know the vast majority of people could not tell the difference between a Tiger and an Elephant or an M60 and a Comet.

A bit like tabloid press here where every automatic rifle is a "Kalashnikov" in print - apart from when it actually is one and they still get it wrong...

Still, the money they spend on character development and location tweaking you'd think they would spend at least some time getting the props slightly plausible?
Like I said previously I'm ok with the T-34 based "Tigers" in Kelly's Heroes because they tried to make them look like Tigers as much as they could, which is a hell lot more than most movies do...

[Guest]

Just watching where eagles dare and the helicopter is a bell Sioux definitely not German and wouldn't have even made to the second world war as the first one flew in September 45

I don't know how they thought people would think it was a Flettner Fl 282 or a Focke-Achgelis Fa 223, or one of those BMW helicopters that never were built due to the allies bombed the factory, or perhaps some other German WWII helicopter I haven't heard of...?
I don't know much about helicopters but I do know that it wasn't something the Germans really used in WWII but it was written in the script so they had to come up with something I guess.

It's a pity though because they obviously had spent both time and money in getting hold of German vehicles, planes, uniforms, guns and other props so the helicopter blunder was unfortunate.

[PaulTRose]

It's a pity though because they obviously had spent both time and money in getting hold of German vehicles, planes, uniforms, guns and other props so the helicopter blunder was unfortunate.

just watched the ending on youtube..........thoe german aircraft were T6 Texans again :smiling5:

[grumpa]

A bit like tabloid press here where every automatic rifle is a "Kalashnikov" in print - apart from when it actually is one and they still get it wrong...

Still, the money they spend on character development and location tweaking you'd think they would spend at least some time getting the props slightly plausible?
Like I said previously I'm ok with the T-34 based "Tigers" in Kelly's Heroes because they tried to make them look like Tigers as much as they could, which is a hell lot more than most movies do...

Then the prize goes to "Fury" for using a real Tiger, though the rubber chevron tracks on Fury were not developed till after the war for the "Easy Eight" Sherman. :thinking:

[Guest]

Then the prize goes to "Fury" for using a real Tiger, though the rubber chevron tracks on Fury were not developed till after the war for the "Easy Eight" Sherman. :thinking:

That's actually a strange one considering all the experts from Bovington tank museum that were involved in the movie - but they "only" provided the Tiger, not the Shermans so I'm not surprised of that failure.
I'm sure they pointed out several issues during filming to no prevail...

Not as bad as The Guns of Navarone from 1961 though with the "Nazi" M24 Chaffee light tanks and the Chevrolet trucks painted as German ones, and the usage of scopolamine which wasn't discovered to be a "truth" drug until 1950!
Also several of the German soldiers in that movie used Sten guns, probably because they only had a limited number of MP 40's
You'd think it would be possible to get the real deal in 1961 with so many tanks, planes and guns still in service somewhere but obviously not...

[Mr Bowcat]

A bit like tabloid press here where every automatic rifle is a "Kalashnikov" in print - apart from when it actually is one and they still get it wrong...

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[Steve Brodie]

I have to laugh when they launch one type of jet for it to morph into a couple of different types by the time they reach their target. Iron Eagle, sure they used phantoms with blacked out windows for Migs, then topgun using Tigers for Migs.

[dave]

The other irritating thing from the media is anything with tracks is a tank.

[Guest]

The other irritating thing from the media is anything with tracks is a tank.

To a certain extent though that's understandable. I call everything that looks and smells like a horse, a horse, even though it might be an Arabian, Lipizzaner, Shetland pony or even a donkey
But when they call an APC a tank even though it totally lacks a cannon in the front it's sheer ignorance and stupidity!