Posted on 02/14/2017 5:09:49 PM PST by grundle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w__x_NGO-K0
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Then “Pacific” - the miniseries - really meets your criteria. Don’t know how our guys endured the rain, mud, heat, crappy food etc. and still accomplished anything.
Half the time I couldn’t tell our guys from their guys - just appalling conditions.
The best war movie I’ve ever seen is “Brest Fortress”.
“Band of Brothers” is my fave.
.
We Were Soldiers always gets my vote. With the actual commander in the battle as an advisor to Gibson while filming the movie, the movie told the real story. In talking with other rapid response heliborne troopers from Ft Benning, that movie was the closest most had seen.
I caught "Hacksaw Ridge" a couple of months back. Another good flick, not all that accurate, but I understand why - the movie needed to compress time, and the director thought that audiences wouldn't *believe* what actually happened. 2nd half, again, was brutally and uncompromisingly violent. I didn't particularly like it, but then again, I wasn't supposed to. It was appropriate, making a counterpoint to the protagonist of the story.
That is a snippet. It is like showing car crashes and saying that is what driving is like.
To quote the late great Mr Hitchcock, "Movies are life with the dull bits cut out." To make it real you would have to leave the dull bits in and at least 98% is dull bits. Even in war.
I said: “something of what it is like,” not what it is like - remember about 90 percent of Americans have never seen war, nor have been in the military. liveLeaks filmed conflicts are real not actors with makeup and catsup and the explosions are not glorified controlled fireworks. The bits and pieces are not plastic but flesh. Most Americans are very familiar with boredom/dullness.
I liked “Band of Brothers” better too.
The battle/skirmish plan that Dick Winters put together on the fly was amazing ... I didn’t know until later that aspects of that plan were taught at Westpoint for years - maybe still is.
Where do we get people like Winters or the countless Marines who endured the Pacific? I do know that my niece has 4 children. One young man is Army stationed in Djibouti, another is in the Marines and the teenage twin girls are at a high school with very strong rotc programs and chose that school for that reason.
Which means in any war the majority of the people in the service will never see combat. So they will never see body parts.
And they get left out of the movie. Yet without them doing their job the guys on the front line would be reduced to using rocks. Which are very versatile, you can throw them and boil them for soup.
So a realistic war movie will never be made. The closest you can get is to read the letters and journals of those who were there. And skim over the dull bits. :)
C’mon now, next you’re going to tell us that the majority of the C4 plastic explosives issued to Vietnam combat troops was used to blow foxholes, blow up trees for fields of fire clearance and to ‘gasp’ cook our C-rations. :o)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.