Stephen Fry - gravitas, lack of - couldn't agree more!
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Agree on Das Boot yes a brilliant film which gets into the submariners minds & how they lived.
about human beings & the acting superb. Could not take my eyes off this long film as it just grabbed me.
The fear & the tiredness of it all just came through. at times just the looks on the actors faces said it all.
That superb filming where dialogue is not needed it is written on the actors faces.
Matter of interest Michael Kitchen in Foyles War is an exceptional actor able to tell you with out dialogue. Sign of a superb actor.
Yangste Incident. Very British film. The story of HMS Amethyst getting stuck in the Yangste river in the middle of the Chinese revolution.
Chinese revolution guns pointing at the ship night & day. Great final sequence as the Amethyst escapes to the sea & rejoins the Fleet.
Also superb sequences showing a Sunderland landing alongside Amythest.. Ametheyst was used in the film but the parts where Amethyst
was underway were filmed using Amethyst's sister ship. Also an early film where full face shots were used.
The Battle of the River Plate. Early in WW11 where the RN shows her teeth. Great film. superb shots & sequences of the ships involved.
Tora. Tora Full of all that went on from both sides. The funny part where this women instructor with her young chap learning to fly are suddenly
found in the middle of the fighters & bombers from the Japanese Carriers.
Battle of Midway. Great fun movie with loads of action. Great over the top performance by Hal Holbrook. Superb shots of the Catalina.
Loads more but these will do. Interesting as I lived through all of the above now history films.
LaurieComment
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Nice choices Laurie. I’d put “sink the Bismarck” in with the first two, a similar sort of film.Comment
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Yes agree Tim. Worth a visit down down the underground command room think it is in Whitehall or near. Great 2 hours browsing down there where a great part of the film was made.
Which reminds of another film. Son of Lassie. A lovely film of Lassie with her owner an RAF pilot. About escaping, from I think Norway,after getting shot down, then getting back home to Britain..
I cried when I saw this film. But. I was only five when my Grandma took me to the Pictures (as it was known then) to see my first film. That was in Hull where my mum sister & I were evacuated to to avoid the "doodle bugs" falling on us in London.
Bizarre as the war progressed up France they started sending these V1s over Hull. So back down south we went.
LaurieComment
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Some of the best, and biggest, warship models there - except... Hood is wrong, being too long amidships
Noo! Now I'm critiquing special effects older than me!
The Dambusters remake has been on the cards for more than 10 years now, from Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame. Perhaps he's been waiting for a replica lanc to be put in the air? Oh yeah, and Channel 5 in the UK shows Dambusters about once a month, mid -afternoons, and 'unmodified'Comment
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Well the Hood was not in the film for long, as I remember, Chris
I am not a fan of remakes "if you have seen the original". What it is not sure but the remakes, for me, do not have the authenticity of the original.
Interesting that a lot of war films were made in black & white which gives an atmosphere in war films at least of WW11 Korea etc.
LaurieComment
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Sea of Sand, about the LRDG. Someone mentioned Play Dirty earlier - No. Just no
There's is the Glory, about Arnhem, made in about 1948 with guys who were actually there. And a REAL panther
Way to the Stars, a bit soap opera-y, about an RAF base and neighbouring town right through the war - Trevor Howard, Michael Redgrave AND John Mills! Y'know, I think the only British armed service John Mills didn't play a member of is the Royal Marines
No-one mentioned Longest Day? - which has everyone in it - including Richard Todd meeting someone playing HIM. Bit like Esmond Knight playing the captain of Prince of Wales in Sink the Bismark. The young lieutenant who ends up bleeding down the voice pipe is, Esmond Knight
The Way Ahead, prtotype for every squad in training movie ever - and it's got Bill Hartnell as the sergeant
Two Yanks in UK service - They Were Not Divided, about RTR in NW Europe, including brilliant reference for British Shermans. Red Beret with Alan Ladd pretending to be Canadian, cashiered after a B17 crah killed someone important - probably meant to be the one that killed the youngest Kennedy. A fairly accurate account of the Bruneval raid and other early para ops. Oh, and the lead British officer is named Winters, rather than Frost
Why yes, I do collect BW British war filmsComment
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Remakes, hmm
How many times has Sahara been done? Three including the original Soviet one? Five versions of War and Peace?
The Russians are churning out war films now, some very jingoistic, and woe betide anyone that criticises. 9th Company is good, pre-Putin, and sort of the soviets in Afghanistan version of Platoon. Based on a real incident, as most Russian war films seem to be
Ooh, Winter War, a Finnish film about, well, the Winter WarComment
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More memories keep coming to mind.
The hurt locker
Waterloo
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Longest Day
War Horse
And the TV series Vikings
JohnComment
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Couple of other modern war films which, from what I've seen of the clips on Youtube, look very good:
King's Choice, about the Norwegian campaign
9th April, about the German invasion of Denmark
Can I find a DVD of either tho'?
Hey, no-one said we couldn't have subtitled films - ooh ooh, Letters from Iwo Jima!Comment
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Waterloo for sheer scale! The helo shot of Ney's charge on the British squares is amazing. Sergei Bondarchuk also did Austerlitz
Charge of the Light Brigade? Errol Flynn or David Hemmings? The latter is VERY sixties, good tho'. The former... Is an Errol Flynn movie
Speaking of Errol, Objective Burma. That film almost got him lynched by Burma veterans. Wait, we're NOT doing bad war films are we? Oh, yeah, Green Berets alrwady got a mention
Vikings TV? Last Kingdom then.Comment
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"Contact"
Following a Parachute Regiment extended patrol in South Armagh is worth a watch.
Jon.Comment
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1. Empire of the Sun
2. Tora! Tora! Tora!
Plus all the others already mentioned!Comment
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Steve's (Rivet counter Jones) has stirred my memory banks and I recalled Burt Lancaster's From Here To Eternity, John Wayne's In Harms Way, Robert Mitchum,s Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, Humphry Bogart,s Caine Mutiny, and a little known not often replayed 50's film, On the Beach. Another favorite TV series was Herman Wouk's Winds of War and its sequel War and Remembrance......'ats it for now. Rick H.
Oh.....The Gallant Men and COMBAT were also Favorites on the TV in the 60's I just had to watch them!!
Anyone remember Rat Patrol?Comment
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