War - Hollywood

[BLUEHAWK]

the elephant

seeing the elephant

[Desdichado]

I'd have to say, the fightin' and killin' in Cold Mountain seemed pretty accurate - maybe too accurate. I thought I was taking the wife to a flowery chick flick (secretly, I was looking forward to two hours of fantasizing about Rene and Nicole living in cabin - obviously I had no clue what the movie was about).

I was a little taken aback by the sheer quantity of the violence - and such violence!

I think the crater scenes were pretty accurate from what I've read about the battle, though obviously suffering the usual temporal distortion movies have when they try to portray long events. Except maybe the sheer density of men inside; and the throwing of perfectly good rifle-muskets, bayonet attached, like spears. Maybe that happened, but it seems a waste of a good gun.

And even if it really isn't all that visually accurate, it confirmed an impression I've long held; the Civil War was not blue and gray in neat lines and chivalrous speech to be-dahliaed belles behind the rhododendrons. It was mud and blood and no fun at all.

When all is said and done, though, I'd have liked the film a whole lot more without any of that. Just didn't do a thing for me. I really don't need to see pumping neck wounds. I'm sure someone will get their special effects Oscar nomination for it, but it seemed gratuitous to me.

[MORTARDUDE]

My wife and I are going to see the movie version of "Cold Mountain" this weekend. We are also going to try to see "21 Grams" as well. It is only showing in one theatre here in Memphis, even though it was filmed here. When I retire, I am going to try to get as much "extra" work in the movies locally as I can. My oldest son and I were extras in the movie "The Firm" filmed in Memphis. My scenes didn't make it to the screen,and my son had all of two seconds on film.. LOL. I enjoyed it. Good food, good pay, hanging out with movie folks, and sort of like the military, hurry up and wait...

As for war movies and reality...no matter how closely they mimic war, it is never like the real-deal. I have found that for the most part, foreign films are better in this regard. There have been several good ones about the war in Bosnia / Sarajevo. There are some good German and Russian films about WW 2. Africa has produced some great films about the seemingly unending wars that have plagued that continent since the end of WW2...

It always gets me the way explosions are portrayed in war movies...In "The Terminator", Arnold has that terrible M-79 that fires some kind of fantastic explosive round...LOL

Hollywood seems to love to make every explosion and car blow-up to have lots of yellow and red fire-balls. Quite unrealistic, but great for visuals...

Larry

[BLUEHAWK]

I've noticed (he says, pokin' his head above the breastment once again :-) that warrior vets tend to pick out often the same/similar, but often VERY different film scenes which are seen as being authentic... must be it has been seen as shown, which to me makes it ring true.

[Desdichado]

It's all in the experience. My experience is zipping by 500 feet up at 60 to a 100 knots, drop off and/or pick up, few discernible sounds other than jet turbine and radio crackle. Then back to electric lights, cold soda, hot shower, and my personal library. Tough life, eh? Hell, I didn't even have running water at HOME then. I was having the time of my life.

Anyway, I wouldn't know what an up-close infantryman's battle looked like if I were stuck in the middle of it. Whatever a "warrior vet" is - I ain't it.

[BLUEHAWK]

They who were tell me that even being with the gear in the rear amounts to the same thing... but, something tells me that ain't so... hence, we have Psycho-Vets whose unique experiences do, it seems, qualify as warrior level, eh?

[Tamaroa]

I really can't judge a lot of ground combat movies as to their accuracy. I can however apply standards to Naval movies and to a large extent Civil War movies.

Master and Commander I thought was extremely realistic. I was actually stunned when Russel Crowe used the command "On the up roll, FIRE" Somebody went to that level of detail to get it right. In the american Navy at the time, the command was "Mind the weather roll, FIRE". This was to account for the rolling of the ship and the cannon were to be fired at an upward angle.

Staying on the maritime theme, I was also impressed with the Movie Titanic. That dumb stuff with Leonardo and Kate notwithstanding. I noticed that they useed the right distess signal, CQD Come quick disaster instead of the SOS, which was implemented around the same time. Also unless you were a real nut, you would not have noticed that when they were trying to "port around" the iceberg, they turned the wheel to the right. Nowadays, when you want the ship to turn right, you spin the wheel right as in a car. the Titanic was one of the last ships built where it was the opposite. You turned right to go left.

By the same token, finding an accurate Civil War movie in its entirety is very difficult. Every Civil War movie I have ever seen has flashs of brillance but in the end, they always screw something up big time. One movie that comes to mind is Glory. Terrific in the sense that it sets the mood and really gets you into it. The last half hour of the movie is especially good with the charge into the breastworks of Battery Wagner.

Trouble is the movie while accurate as regards uniform detail had a whole bunch of facts twisted. I had the good fortune to talk to one of Robert Gould Shaw's great great grandneices. She is a pastor here in Rockland County. She told me things that made my head spin relative to the information as told in the movie. For example Shaw was married when all of this started. We see no evidence of that. Shaw refused command of the 54th at first. His domineering mother forced him into taking the position. Again we see nothing of that. Remember the scene when the 54th left? All the cheering and huzzahs, etc. In reality most of the population turned their back to the men as they marched out. And the number one thing that really irritated me was at the end of the movie they showed the troops being buried in the trenchs dug by Confederates. There were approximately 600 Union soldiers buried in a mass grave. The movie shows all Blacks. I read the battle reports of LTC Halliwell, Shaw's XO, he says that 9 were killed 100 missing and 150 wounded. The Confederate commander of the Fort, Taliferro stated he buried 600 soldiers the next day. So was there justice in that? I think not. The movie was good. It may have piqued the interest if several people to dig deeper into the war but if they do and find out as I did how distorted the hollywood version is........... Well, I dunno, I now go to be entertained not with any hope of accuracy.


Bill :cd:

[BLUEHAWK]

Bill -
Yes, I believe you have hit it, by saying the best idea is to attend the films to be entertained, nor necessarily to be educated.... but I find it very interesting HOW DEEPLY many of us really would like to be educated at the same time...