RIP Brian Hutton
Discussion
The Hypno-Toad said:
Geoff Love's Big War Movie Themes..... memories...
I have a feeling that if I ever met Mr Murray we would find we had a lot in common. Seems like a top fella and his name on a documentary is always the sign of a good programme.
Ah, one of my favourite vinyls I have a feeling that if I ever met Mr Murray we would find we had a lot in common. Seems like a top fella and his name on a documentary is always the sign of a good programme.
Agree on Mr. Murray, well worth catching him live if you can - one of the best stand ups I've seen.
Off topic, the blue ST you sold me is still going well
The Dam Busters wins every time. True story and combines the idea of training and fighting and everything it took for what was a handful of aircraft of a single mission, with the cost of their actions with a perfect end scene between Gibson and Wallis, the look around the empty crew housing and their personal belongings and of course, that top lip wavering music to play out.
Love A Bridge Too Far, the sheer scale of it blew my mind as a kid; all those DC-3s and gliders they made for the film , really gave a great sense of what it must have been like. As a film it was a little too Hollywood for my like with the usual cigar chomping Americans and tea drinking Brits, but certainly right up there as a great war film.
The Cruel Sea( snorkers ! ), Ice Cold in Alex, and The One That Got Away are faves.
Kelly's Heros and Where Eagles Dare were the equivalent of a porn film to a romantic film. Dispense any reality and just go crazy and OTT.
Love A Bridge Too Far, the sheer scale of it blew my mind as a kid; all those DC-3s and gliders they made for the film , really gave a great sense of what it must have been like. As a film it was a little too Hollywood for my like with the usual cigar chomping Americans and tea drinking Brits, but certainly right up there as a great war film.
The Cruel Sea( snorkers ! ), Ice Cold in Alex, and The One That Got Away are faves.
Kelly's Heros and Where Eagles Dare were the equivalent of a porn film to a romantic film. Dispense any reality and just go crazy and OTT.
Although Kelly's Heroes is an enduring fave, those films based (even loosely) around real events of WWII offer something more, and in that genre I'd offer The Cockleshell Heroes.
It's actually quite bad, but the subject matter is undeniably top drawer. After seeing one of these contraptions at the museum in Maldon it gives you a better idea of just how demanding it was. There's a lot more here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frankton
I think part of the appeal of the older films is the general 'shabby' state of everything - no glistening hunks with gym trained physiques, just everyday people (albeit less portly than now too).
It's actually quite bad, but the subject matter is undeniably top drawer. After seeing one of these contraptions at the museum in Maldon it gives you a better idea of just how demanding it was. There's a lot more here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frankton
I think part of the appeal of the older films is the general 'shabby' state of everything - no glistening hunks with gym trained physiques, just everyday people (albeit less portly than now too).
What I love about the Dam Busters is how it shows the patient process of inventing something. We recall the heroism and sacrifice of the fighting men and women, but can also be wowed by the sheer ingenuity of the back room teams who devised solutions to often very complex problems. Take the convoy escort system, for example. The men in those tiny warships and those vulnerable merchant ships were brave and tough, but also working to a system devised by very thoughtful types back at base. The hunting and killing of U Boats became a refined art. The Battle of Britain was won partly through grit and skill and partly through good planning, organisation, and systematic command and control. The inventiveness and the planning that went into D Day are simply stunning.
rasto said:
Ah, one of my favourite vinyls
Agree on Mr. Murray, well worth catching him live if you can - one of the best stand ups I've seen.
Off topic, the blue ST you sold me is still going well
I saw him a few years ago in Pompey, laughed til my sides hurt.Agree on Mr. Murray, well worth catching him live if you can - one of the best stand ups I've seen.
Off topic, the blue ST you sold me is still going well
Glad you are still enjoying the ST.
Breadvan72 said:
What I love about the Dam Busters is how it shows the patient process of inventing something. We recall the heroism and sacrifice of the fighting men and women, but can also be wowed by the sheer ingenuity of the back room teams who devised solutions to often very complex problems. Take the convoy escort system, for example. The men in those tiny warships and those vulnerable merchant ships were brave and tough, but also working to a system devised by very thoughtful types back at base. The hunting and killing of U Boats became a refined art. The Battle of Britain was won partly through grit and skill and partly through good planning, organisation, and systematic command and control. The inventiveness and the planning that went into D Day are simply stunning.
An interesting observation; the ships I work on are a little smaller than the average corvette on convoy escort, they're reasonably spacious with a crew of 15, with 85-100 on board in some cases convoy duty must have been horrendous just from the living conditions in typical North Atlantic weather, never mind the hazards of fighting U boats.Monsarrat's novel The Cruel Sea gives a flavour of how hard life was on a corvette, and he also wrote more documentary accounts, published as Three Corvettes, and an article called It was cruel. All well worth reading. See also River Class Frigates and The Battle of the Atlantic for a good account of the organisation and tactics of convoys and escorts.
633 squadron has the best theme tune and Mosquitos!
But my favourite war film: The Wild Geese. Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Stewart Granger, Harvey Kruger, Ronald Fraser, a kickass theme by Joan Armatrading. Plenty of 70s weapons - SLR and GPMG action. And man tears are allowed at the scene where Richard Harris ties to board the Dakota.
Kill count clip here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yvTgiEJrP28
But my favourite war film: The Wild Geese. Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Stewart Granger, Harvey Kruger, Ronald Fraser, a kickass theme by Joan Armatrading. Plenty of 70s weapons - SLR and GPMG action. And man tears are allowed at the scene where Richard Harris ties to board the Dakota.
Kill count clip here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yvTgiEJrP28
Ayahuasca said:
633 squadron has the best theme tune and Mosquitos!
But my favourite war film: The Wild Geese. Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Stewart Granger, Harvey Kruger, Ronald Fraser, a kickass theme by Joan Armatrading. Plenty of 70s weapons - SLR and GPMG action. And man tears are allowed at the scene where Richard Harris ties to board the Dakota.
Kill count clip here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yvTgiEJrP28
The Wild Geese is rather good apart from the horrendous, fingernails-down-the-blackboard, sand-in-the-vaseline element that is Rafer Janders' (Richard Harris) son...But my favourite war film: The Wild Geese. Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Stewart Granger, Harvey Kruger, Ronald Fraser, a kickass theme by Joan Armatrading. Plenty of 70s weapons - SLR and GPMG action. And man tears are allowed at the scene where Richard Harris ties to board the Dakota.
Kill count clip here
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yvTgiEJrP28
Breadvan72 said:
633 Squadron suffers from daft casting - Greek dude plays Norwegian hero. Surely the Wild Geese is just another far fetched shoot 'em up thriller in the WED mode, not really a war movie.
Both are super cheesy and very much in the same vein as Hutton's work. 633 Squadron I only like for the fact its colour footage of the Mosquito. All should be in a group below such films as The Dam Busters , The Battle of Britian etc, which at least were based on real events and had some nod towards reality. My half-way house film would be something like Angels One Five, which should be in the super cheese category, but which I can't help but love.Another good film I liked as a kid is The Man Who Never Was. Kinda lost something though when you read the true story of it and why the film version goes off on a tangent with the Irish spy.
It's still a good and atmospheric movie, though, and Stephen Boyd's turn as the IRA guy is well played.
PS: 633 Squadron is meh, but Mosquito Squadron, made to use up the unused footage from 633, is megapants, and a travesty as an account of Operation Jericho. I once flew with one of the guys who flew one of the Typhoon escorts on the Jericho mission (yes, the Typhoon was a rotten choice as an escort, and he barely made it back from what was his first op, but went on to fly another 99 ops and end up still alive and with a DFC).
PS: 633 Squadron is meh, but Mosquito Squadron, made to use up the unused footage from 633, is megapants, and a travesty as an account of Operation Jericho. I once flew with one of the guys who flew one of the Typhoon escorts on the Jericho mission (yes, the Typhoon was a rotten choice as an escort, and he barely made it back from what was his first op, but went on to fly another 99 ops and end up still alive and with a DFC).
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 29th August 21:06
Not a film, but thought I'd chuck in Piece of Cake TV series anyway. I kinda liked it as it was at least an attempt to not going down the Angels One Five route of portraying the pilots ( not that it would have ever worked if they had ) as some David Niven types.
Didn't seem to go down well with the public, as despite its production cost, I don't think its ever had a repeat on mainstream TV. Think Joe Public was actually expecting a more Angels One Five type portrayal of the pilots.
Anyway, hours of great footage and a great book on how they made the series.
Part One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMyhvsD5ceI&li...
Didn't seem to go down well with the public, as despite its production cost, I don't think its ever had a repeat on mainstream TV. Think Joe Public was actually expecting a more Angels One Five type portrayal of the pilots.
Anyway, hours of great footage and a great book on how they made the series.
Part One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMyhvsD5ceI&li...
Breadvan72 said:
It was OK, ish, if you overlooked the fact that there were no Spitfire Squadrons based in France in 1940.
When it was first broadcast the producers stated that part of the reason for using Spitfires was that there would be far too many arm chair experts picking holes in squadron numbers and insignia if they used Hurricanes.They obviously foresaw the rise of the internet pedant
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