Posted on 03/08/2015 5:21:05 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Aside from the problem of George C. Scott in the altogether, didn't the movie skip lightly over most of the action between Bastogne and VE-Day?
Hollywood doesn’t want nudity that makes people go BLEAH.
I think Homer is right; the last few months of the war went very quickly.
Try again, for some reason it did not like my paragraphs because of a quirk in the word Hokkaido.
From the NY Times above: Wake Island Here Farms in China
Chebeague Island, Me., March 7, (AP) – Lieut. Col. James P.S. Devereux, marine leader of the historic defense of Wake Island and prisoner of the Japanese since its fall in December 1941, is well and engaged I farming in Shanghai, friends of his family reported here today.
I was surprised to see this reference to Chebeague Island, Me in the quip under the Upsula College quip. Chebeague Island is a small island in Casco Bay (Portland area). Current population is about 340 year around residents. Only access is by ferry.
Devereux’s wiki page make no reference to Maine, but it does note he was still a prisoner of war at this time. The last part of his internment was near what is now referred to as Beijing (referred to here as Peiping) and Hokkaidi Island is in Northern Japan.
After his capture, he remained on Wake Island until January 12, 1942 when he was sent away with his men on the Nita Maru. He stopped at Yokohama, where some American officers debarked, but later arrived at Woosung, China, located downriver from Shanghai, on January, 24. He remained there until December 9, 1942, when he was transferred to Kiangwan, where he spent 29 months imprisoned. For five weeks, he stayed at Fungtai, near Peiping, and then was transferred to camps in central Hokkaido.
Devereux was released from the Hokkaido Island prison camp on September 15, 1945
IIRC, the only scene between Bastogne and occupied Germany is the German General Staff bunker being evacuated where the young officer who has been tracking Patton gives his summation and opinion that the post-war world will kill Patton.
That is 2 weeks after the surrender documents were signed on the Missouri. It must have been an isolated site.
“He was an Olympic competitor in the modern pentathlon, after all.”
I did not know that.
No wonder the Commies most likely offed him!
Page 9 map Italian campaign caption:
“Troops of the American Tenth Mountain Division pushed forward to capture Castel d’Aiano and Brazilian troops on their right took Castel Nuovo.”
Wait, what??? Brazilian troops fighting side-by-side with American troops in the Italian campaign in 1945? I guess Hollywood didn’t make a movie or newsreel the featured scenes depicting this collaboration in this location, at least one that I remember.
My guess is it was already a long movie, already over three hours, but I would have loved to have seen these exploits included.
It was such a well-paced movie, but I would have liked to have seen some of these other exploits included.
I guess when Patton reaches the Rhine he doesn’t swim it but he does something else. Don’t know if including that in the movie would have helped it or not.
Hey, this is probably old news that I missed, but has Mussolini been hung by his heels yet in Italy?
Yes. The pentathlon was intended to test the skills used by a military staff officer of the 19th century, like Prince Andrei Volkonsky in “War and Peace”: riding, fencing, swimming, pistol shooting, and running.
By World War II, an American officer would have needed to drive a jeep without wrecking it, rather than ride a horse, and the utility of fencing was kaput, except for building agility and quick reflexes.
End of April, says my crystal ball.
BTW, I’ve been in and out lately and see that you’ve been gone too. Hope you and your family are doing well.
We’re all fine. It’s a busy time of year, so we’re away from home a lot, and the children are using the computer most of the time when we’re at home.
What? You don’t remember the scene where a colonel is looking at a map with his aide when he hears Patton on the other side of the river yelling at him to come over?
The colonel’s aide says, “How the hell did he get over there?” and the colonel yells that he is reconnoitering for a place to cross.
Patton yells back, “I’ve already done that. [swam the river ahead of the troops] About half a mile down there this sewer’s only 3 feet deep. Now get your goddamn ass over here!”
They quickly roll up their map and an artillery shell hits the water between them as Patton is calmly walking back to his jeep.
Yeah, the movie implies rather than shows the crossing for dramatic effect.
I was just going to comment on that article and the movie when I found it had gone over everyone’s heads!
It was in the movie. See post 36.
And Mussolini was hung on April 28.
Perhaps the movie-maker's logic was, "We'll use the drama of Patton riding to the rescue of the Allies at Bastogne as the movie's climax or high point, so we'll minimize all the later action."
I thought that scene was set in Sicily.
No, that was in Italy during the Sicily campaign.
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