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Looks like Many WW2 Movies Coming!


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I couldn't agree more, Para. As a dyed in the wool Anglophile, I hate that! Monty was " dickish" and had a tremendous ego...but Patton was just as bad. Regardless, Monty certainly was a great morale booster to his troops. And if Market Garden had worked out as planned, he would have been THE hero of the Western Theatre.

I knew there was a good reason for liking you buddy :)

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I am sure the grogs on this forum will put me right if I am wrong, but wasn't Monty's planning input in to Operation Overlord, what made it such a success?

Largely. He was good at making plans. He was not always so good at carrying them out, a fact he tried to conceal, which cost him the respect of his allies. He would always say that everything had gone according to plan, when patently it had not. The irony was that when he had to be, he was a pretty good improvisor, but he always played that side down.

Michael

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Oh, I don't know...History was good to Robert E. Lee. :D

Lee enjoyed quite a lot of success throughout his career. Besides, he was a gent. Fredendall not only bungled his one shot at command in the field, he did it in a really weird way. If he had been in Stalin's army, he'd have been shot, no questions asked.

Michael

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It just gets a bit boring when any Hollywood director goes down the bash the brit road.

Usually, it's Australian war movies where the villains are always the English regardless of who the war is being fought against.

Were I English, I would be annoyed at putting Americans in movies solely for the sake of the box office where Americans had little to do with that aspect of the war. Bridge on the River Kwai and the Great Escape are both guilty of that sin. However, there is also the abortion that was U-571 that really did twist history to make the American involvement in capturing the Enigma machine something it wasn't.

As far as Montgomery is concerned, I suspect most Americans view him as a more successful version of the excessively cautious George McClellan, who also shared with Montgomery an unjustified out of control egotism.

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Were I English, I would be annoyed at putting Americans in movies solely for the sake of the box office where Americans had little to do with that aspect of the war.

Ha this is far more widespread than that. Anyone notice both female leads in Memoirs of a Geisha are Chinese? Have any idea how much that irks Japanese? Granted both actresses are very good and were coming off Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, however Japan is not exactly short of good female actresses.

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You do realize 'war' movies are just formula genre movies, costume melodramas like film noir, cowboy and science fiction. Their success or failure is based on their fulfilling expectations rather than breaking new ground. I recall a comedy spoof of Tom Gun (ugh). The nicest guy in the unit, the guy with the prettiest fiance, with most to live for had the call sign "Dead Meat" - because in these formula flicks we know what happens to the nicest guy, the sweetest wife, the trusting urchin who gets adopted by the unit. Sure, some war movies broke the mould. But they're few and far between. And for the most part war movie buffs don't like them.

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Were I English, I would be annoyed at putting Americans in movies solely for the sake of the box office where Americans had little to do with that aspect of the war. Bridge on the River Kwai and the Great Escape are both guilty of that sin. However, there is also the abortion that was U-571 that really did twist history to make the American involvement in capturing the Enigma machine something it wasn't.

True, but then there's Master and Commander that replaced an American frigate with a godless French frigate.

As far as Montgomery is concerned, I suspect most Americans view him as a more successful version of the excessively cautious George McClellan, who also shared with Montgomery an unjustified out of control egotism.

I'd say most Americans have no idea who Montgomery was, and even fewer any idea who McClellan was.

Personally my favorite WW2 movie is still Kelly's Heroes, since it managed to get the equipment and scenery better than 90% of the war movies I've seen despite having a completely fictional story. Not only is it entertaining, but it avoids all arguments about historical accuracy.

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Id say you.re right.

Which is a sad state of affairs for this country.

Even so, how many people in other countries know a lot about historical figures of their own land? Let alone of a different country?

To a thirty year old in the US today, WWII history is so far in the past for them, it might as well be of no value, and knowing about a British General!, not happening. The American Civil War?, that might as well be Athens vs. Sparta....who cares about that?

Its just a fact of modern life, unless people have a particular interest in history and historical figures, anything more than ten years in the past is ancient.

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Its just a fact of modern life, unless people have a particular interest in history and historical figures, anything more than ten years in the past is ancient.

I agree, but I always wonder -- why???

When did people start thinking the past -- even recent past -- meant nothing to them? Having no awareness of how much they're saying and doing now are so shaped by the past? Worse, to have not even the curiosity to learn more about it once they accidentally become aware of history? Or -- worse than worse -- to wear their ignorance about it like a badge of honor?

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