Macisle Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Hey, I got those in CMBN LOL! Come to think of it, I'm about to start mission 5 of The Road To Montebourg campaign. I need the Germans to be numbskulls! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejetset Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 LOL! Come to think of it, I'm about to start mission 5 of The Road To Montebourg campaign. I need the Germans to be numbskulls! You've got to be patient and like pain to slog through that one!!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Watch old war films, invariably there's that scene of a German (or sometime Japanese) behind a line of sandbags who gets shot as he's about throw his potato masher. The resulting explosion causes everyone to be flung over the sandbag wall as though they had jumped on a trampoline. Compare that to allies. Very few movie instances of G.I.s getting shot while throwing their grenades. And if they do they NEVER get flung over a sandbag wall as a result. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Well it's obvious... CM2 demonstrates very effectively that Allied sandbags etc are higher than Axis. That's why our guns and MG's can't see over them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kohlenklau Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 in my DVD war movie collection: Korea War: Fix Bayonets Brotherhood of War WW2: Attack! (with Jack Palance/Eddie Albert) HBO Bob and Pacific in their tin boxes) Kelly's heroes All 5 seasons of Combat! ABTF Come and see Battle of Berlin We served our motherland Brest Fortress Hell is for Heroes Sahara the Desert Rats None but the brave the Bridge at Remagen SPR das Boot Thin Red Line Vietnam War/French IndoChina War: Apocalypse Now Redux Platoon Dien Bien Phu We were soldiers once Other: The Beast red dawn Sometimes I pop in the DVD and just watch my favorite scene. Like Grabner's assault in ABTF, the ambush scene in platoon, Ride of the Valkries part in apocalyspe now. My 2 sons both learned to write from me having them write down the dialog from Kellys Heroes. Pause, rewind, play, pause , rewind, play pause. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eltorrente Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 'The Big Red 1' holds a special place for me. Not because it is a great movie (Lee Marvin very much carried the film). Rather, because it brings back memories of the golden years of childhood for me in three ways. First, if there was a classic WWII film on TV, Dad parked the channel there. Most of my favorite actors come from those films (watching ABTF is like seeing old family again!). Lee Marvin links into that. Second, I was right in the prime kid demographic for 'Star Wars,' so seeing Mark Hamill in a WWII film was ace. Lastly, that movie was in heavy rotation in the early days of cable movie channels. I remember what a big deal that all was and the massive dish we had for our apartment complex. Macisle I felt like I was reading something that I wrote for myself. I was about 12 or 13 maybe when cable came to my apartment complex. It was a really big deal going from just a few channels, to a cable box with like 30 or whatever it was. Had to turn a dial to change channels, and it didn't come with a remote. Anyway, The Big Red 1 was on a heavy rotation at that time. I watched it many times back then. There are several scenes that I still remember vividly - like Lee Marvin carrying the kid on his back. It's been many years, so I'm going to Netflix it soon and I'm sure I'll still like it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kohlenklau Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 I have Big Red 1 on VHS. Maybe we all are about the same age. I saw it in the movie theater when it was released. I was born in 64 so .... Now I have watched it a few years back loaded with anticipation but it was like an old girlfirend who you thought was goodlooking but when you see her photo you kind of cringe. Now another in my VHS collection, "Castle Keep", has some weird/goofy parts but also has a certain tone that I thought was cool. Any comments on that movie? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macisle Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Hey, it's cool that we have struck a chord on our memories of TBR1! Happy, happy days, those. Lots of scenes stand out in my head. Too many to list, really. I think the one that has always stood out the most is the tank ambush scene, though. I could just never wrap my head around how the Amis get like one guy wounded and wipe out what--a platoon's worth of Germans? I was still preteen when the movie came out, but stuff like that really annoyed me even at that age. So, I had a love-annoyance relationship with the movie from the beginning. A few months ago, I stumbled on a director's cut on YouTube and watched one of the very early battle scenes that had been cut from the original. It was even worse than I expected. --Just comical. I don't recall "Castle Keep." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongLeftFlank Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 The most powerful scene in "We Were Soldiers" was actually the homefront one, when the 101st garrison wives start getting KIA telegrams and nobody has a clue what to do. Very moving. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macisle Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 In a similar fashion, I think the scene in SPR that hits me the most emotionally is actually the backshot of the Ryan family mother going onto the porch when "the car" arrives. As she realizes what it is, her legs wobble and she collapses... I always have to fight tears on that one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 The trouble I find with WWII movies these days is WWII has receeded far enough into the past that the genre has evolved into 'fantasy lore' like those old viking movies. Take Inglorious Basterds for instance. It was a WWII movie in the sense that we recognized the uniforms and the bad guys had German accents. But besides that it could have been set on a different planet. SPR was a stickler for detail but the overall plot - hunting down Mat Damon to send home to his grieving mama in the midst of the Normandy invasion - was sentimental even by Spielbergian standards. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macisle Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 The trouble I find with WWII movies these days is WWII has receeded far enough into the past that the genre has evolved into 'fantasy lore' like those old viking movies. Take Inglorious Basterds for instance. It was a WWII movie in the sense that we recognized the uniforms and the bad guys had German accents. But besides that it could have been set on a different planet. SPR was a stickler for detail but the overall plot - hunting down Mat Damon to send home to his grieving mama in the midst of the Normandy invasion - was sentimental even by Spielbergian standards. I don't disagree. For me, SPR was a case of enjoying its many strengths, while forcefully overlooking some glaring weak points (like grunts talking philosophy while on patrol). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eltorrente Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I don't disagree. For me, SPR was a case of enjoying its many strengths, while forcefully overlooking some glaring weak points (like grunts talking philosophy while on patrol). I don't think it's unrealistic. Walk all day with a bunch of friends and you'll start talking. No one is shooting at you and you don't think the enemy is around, so you'll talk. They weren't a bunch of mutes, even though every step they took during the advance was basically in enemy territory before the shooting actually started. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macisle Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 They were on patrol--which is a process of looking for the enemy. Talking lessens your awareness and makes you much more noticeable to the enemy. Actually, that one sticks out for me because I saw an interview with Spielberg once where he was asked what scenes were unrealistic. He named that specific scene for the reason above and for the fact that WWII grunts would likely not have such a conversation anyway. Basically, he wanted a vehicle for his thoughts on the situation and he used them. Upham was his primary vehicle for interjecting himself into things throughout the film. So, in a realistic scene, there would have most likely been silence. Failing that, perhaps peppery talk about pinups and such would be more like it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I always thought that the most glaring plot hole in SPR is that they don't just radio his unit, or whatever direct HQ was available and assign the mission to someone nearby. Instead, we have a squad literally set out from Omaha Beach itself, and walk blindly across war-torn France looking for one guy who could be almost anywhere, finding him almost entirely by word of mouth. They didn't even know what company he was in until some guy told them, if I remember correctly. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vark Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I think there are so many unrealistic scenes in SPR it is hard to start, which is my main objection to the movies. It claims to be a veracious movie but has so many 'fantasy' scenes, one of the most glaring being the homely chat amongst the ruined cafe, hours before the Germans attack. It's what I loved about The Big Red One, anytime the squad halted they usually ate, cleaned kit or slept. Yup, Fuller had seen the elephant all right and ihe never pretended his creation to be anything but a movie about men at war, and the absurdities that conflict creates. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I always thought that the most glaring plot hole in SPR is that they don't just radio his unit, or whatever direct HQ was available and assign the mission to someone nearby. Instead, we have a squad literally set out from Omaha Beach itself, and walk blindly across war-torn France looking for one guy who could be almost anywhere, finding him almost entirely by word of mouth. They didn't even know what company he was in until some guy told them, if I remember correctly. True, but unless you're reasonably au fait with the D-Day landings, the plausibility disconnect of sending someone from OMAHA beach to the floodlands behind UTAH beach isn't at all obvious. Heck - how many folk are even aware that there were seven (7) distinct sea-borne landing points on the morning of 6 June, rather than just having a fuzzy notion of one contiguous beach with a bunch of paras landing somewhere beyond it? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vark Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I guess the same movie audience are not aware that the beach assault at Omaha didn't take half an hour, whereas TBR1, using the device of a dead soldiers watch. did. Sorry, the more I watch SPR, the more I dislike its artifice. Spielberg wants to have his cake and eat it, creating a film which seems factually authoritative, yet which plays fast and loose with history. It also should be condemned for spawning dozens of SPR-lite, gritty, hand held-cam, washed out colours, dross. It's really in the same vein as Titanic, don't go to see that movie with a real ships captain, I thought wargamers were the masters of flaw spotting! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 My biggest gripe with the beach scene in SPR was in how close to the sea wall and the base of the bluff they landed. IRL, the first waves at Omaha had to cover over 200 yards on foot before there was any cover, 200 yards and they were heavily laden with everything from extra ammo to extra rations to extra equipment. In the movie, it looks like barely a quarter of that distance. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vark Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Yeah, I read a horrific account from one of the survivors of the first wave, they shed all their equipment and lay in the surf pretending to be dead. Guess, Tom, gradually being washed towards his objective wasn't dramatic enough. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanonier Reichmann Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 I don't disagree. For me, SPR was a case of enjoying its many strengths, while forcefully overlooking some glaring weak points (like grunts talking philosophy while on patrol). Well, SPR pales into insignificance on that front when compared with The Thin Red Line. The number of times the main character went off with his... Consider the lilly... moments was absurd to the extreme. It was beyond a joke to think that a Marine under the stress of combat in the sh!thole that Guadalcanal was would be continually having these philosophical moments when the reality would be all he's thinking of is how to survive til the next day and get some food into his stomach at the same time. Regards KR 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBlackHand Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Oh, you know-it-all SPR critics . . . it's a f*cking MOVIE for Christ's sake. OF COURSE he takes liberties with history and includes seemingly ridiculous scenarios (to those in the know) in order to move the FICTIONAL STORY forward. Get over yourselves already. It's a damned good war MOVIE. End of story. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeFF Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Chillax man. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vark Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Sorry, it's not a 'damned good' movie in my opinion, and if swearing is your argot, it's a pi**poor recycling of themes that have been covered by better directors, I feel. Note the referance to my personal opinion, you might try that. Now before I get over myself please explain why it's such a good war movie? Why did I care so little for the main characters and their fates, apart from Upham whom I wanted to shoot myself. As for the TRL, the film was more like the Thin Grasp of Reality, and ruined superb cinematography with a 60's navel gazing trip, my wife wanted to leave the cinema, foolishly I persuaded her to stay. I think her revenge was Dr Doolitle, or was it You've got Mail, but I did deserve it! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 I think her revenge was Dr Doolitle, or was it You've got Mail, but I did deserve it! You may hate me for saying this, but I loved You've Got Mail. In its genre, it's a great film. Dr. Dolittle I wouldn't even try to watch, however. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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