Posted on 11/11/2011 4:18:37 PM PST by PJ-Comix
Today is Veterans Day so I guess it is also a day to discuss the WORST war movies ever made. Here is my list of a few of the WORST movies IMHO:
1. Battle of the Bulge---This movie was so bad and inaccurate that Former President Eisenhower held a press conference just to denounce it. Not only was it historically inaccurate with an absurd plot (a Boston police detective piecing together battlefield clues to help defeat the Germans) but the geographic locale was all wrong with the dense Ardennes forrest at times appearing to be a large western prairie. Okay, the Panzer Lied scene was kind of interesting but the rest of it was ridiculous.
2. Starship Troopers---Okay this was science fiction but did why did they insult the viewer's intelligence by using obsolete WWI battlefield tactics a couple of hundred years in the future? Drone rockets could have nuked those bugs without sending troopers in with machine guns.
3. Naked and the Dead---Painful to watch.
4. Thin Red Line---Hollywood attempted two versions of James Jones brilliant novel which was probably the best such book written in modern times and failed miserably both times. A tragedy since the book was incredible.
5. Pearl Harbor---Did anybody else wish that a stray Japanese bullet would have put Ben Affleck out of his, and our, misery? And the scene with President Franklin D. Roosevelt rising out of his wheelchair to walk was both painful to watch as well as laughable.
6. The Alamo---I wanted to like this movie but Frankie Avalon as the most unconvincing frontiersman ever, Smitty from Tennessee, ruined my usual suspension of disbelief while watching a movie. Frankie was way too urban for the role. Whenever I started getting into the movie, Frankie as Smitty kept ruining it for me. I kept seeing the Alamo but I kept thinking of South Philly. Also I kept thinking about Alamo eye candy, Linda Cristal, but that's another story.
I thought the Alamo was pretty good. I like it.
I have that movie and love it.
After careful study I am saddened at the poor skill demonstrated. A couple of em are out of step and their shoes don’t match.
They need more practice.
Barbara Bach was highly believable in any situation she placed before me. And the question is?
The Navy League reviewed it when it came out and said that
although it was a good action movie they couldn't recommend
it just because of this. Very ethical on their part. And why
did they pic the same sail # as out first nuke boat, the
Nautilus?
Interesting! Thanks for the link, n00bie. Oh, and welcome to Freerepublic.
-PJ
He also forgot history. The first thought in my mind as I watched the attack begin was "Custer's Last Stand".
"Kelly's Heroes" is a great comedy take on the Army, as is "Stripes", which showed comedic respect for the Army while still mocking the idiots. Sorta like the real Army, which is why I've watched the movie a dozen times.
There is a historical precedent for this. I read an interview in Proceedings a few years back of a black steward who was on one of the fleet boats.
And why
did they pic the same sail # as out first nuke boat, the
Nautilus?
Well, I guess the makers of the film tried to make some reference to a real number, but failed. Anyways, the inaccuracy broke my meter on U-571, I mean, there’s plenty of historical fiction films, or at least films based on a true story with some creative license (The Great Escape), but the distortion of U-571 was beyond what I could take, even for the sake of entertainment. The facts are there that we were a leading role in decoding for the Japanese navy, because we wanted to try the island-hopping strategy to keep losses down in some places while still striking at critical points, especially when you are talking an enemy military force in the millions, that could at least dig in to numerous sparse islands. We actually cracked their code, figuring out what their own phrases meant, and so on, all in a similar manner to how the British worked on the enigma. I only recently started getting into this part of history when I actually wrote my aging Grandfather about what he did when he was a young adult, which got me into reading a whole lot into the Pacific Theatre. The biggest beef I have with Hollywood, especially recently, is their lack of acknowledging what we did years ago. We did fight the Japanese, we did use an incredible amount of strategic and intelligence work with them. It’s fact, and the other part is the fact that the war ended more than half a century ago. I have seen plenty of things that could be offensive as whatever I have been or am religiously, ethnically, and so on, but I confront the film with facts and opinions of my own at the same time, and I would encourage others to do the same, after all, when writing opinions, who knows, it might make your writing run a little more smoothly after all.
Inglourious Basterds was a fantasy movie, about what we wished could have happened in WWII.
No mention of “1941”, even Belushi couldn’t save that turkey.
One good scene, when the Japs are trying to get the radio into the sub, and the Jap commander says, “We’ve got to make these smaller.”
Lots of movies on this list are “Fantasy Movies” LOL!
BTW, ever notice how the German Uniforms always looked so spiffy? LOL.
Yes, it was. I got my copy autographed by Robert Heinlein the night it won the Hugo. An editor had invited several writers, including the two of us, to sit at his table during dinner and the ceremonies.
As for the movie, they took the title, and some of the characters, and made a whole new story out of it. I was really disappointed.
Yes, but Denise Richards was in it,and she was “complicated.”
He played the role of Smitty. He was put in the film at the urging of either Wayne’s wife or some other person to supposedly attract a younger audience. As if they needed a milquetoast “rock and roller” like Frankie Avalon to attract teens. I suppose a realistic interpretation of the battle was not in the cards. Hollyweird, then as now, tried to have it both ways. They wanted a picture about a real event with as much Hollyweird histrionics as they could get away with. Like Spielberg’s flicks.
I'm not sure that anything could make my writing run smoothly. I decided a long time ago that I have a tin ear
when it comes to the written word. Your observations are
very interesting. I have also read extensively about the war in the Pacific. Every time I learn something new it just
shows me how much more there is out there!
Thanks!! .. You’re a huckleberry!
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