Artillery related movie - any ideas (1 Viewer)

[The Military Workshop]

We have had plenty of movies showing the infantry and Fury covered the tankies well.

Lets assume one of the big studios are going to produce an artillery related movie. Do the artillery have a particular event/battle that would make a great movie ? Were there any particular incidents in WWI / WW2 that could make a good movie ?

For the Americans the role of the artillery in Gettysburg (ie. Alonso Cushing etc). For the Brits possibly the Last Stand at Colenso (not commercial enough as Boer War but might make a good UK production). Although not artillerymen the SAS fight at Mirbat where they manned an old artillery piece against lots of tribesmen in Oman.

What are the interesting artillery stories ?

 

[Obee]

Guns of Navarone would be my first choice

John

 

[Obee]

Guns of August

John

 

[Obee]

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

John

 

[wayne556517]

Dr Gerald Bull was a genius at designing and building superguns. (Very large long range guns capable of shooting more than 100 Miles.) When a plan by the CIA to export restricted material using him was exposed, the CIA denied all knowledge and he went to jail. He was later released to help Saddam Hussein build a new supergun capable of firing over 500 miles. Israel, upon learning of the supergun, fears it would be used against themselves.

 

[The Military Workshop]

Wayne and John,
Not heard of Guns of August or the Doomsday Gun so ones to watch out for. Charge of the Light Brigade is a cavalry movie{sm4}. Dont think I have seen the older version but the 60's one was good and one of my favourite books is The Reason Why (about all the politics behind that charge in the days when commanders bought their promotions).

Looking for subjects not been done but any good artillery related movies / scenes already done would be interesting to see what members can come up with. Not sure if it was a French movie or a documentary but I remember watching something about Dien Bien Phu where the French artillery officer committed suicide due to the stress of the battle.

The scene in War Horse where the horses were moving the heavy artillery was a good one.

Brett

 

[trooper]

The pride and the Passion with Cary Grant, Sophia Loren and Frank Sinatra. Based on C. S. Forester's book "The Gun" it features a large calibre cannon being used by the partisans during the Peninsula War. Trooper

 

[Go for Broke]

When I was kid, I remember this movie during the American pre-civil war, where I think, Anthony Quinn and crew we're dragging this cannon around. Its vaguely in my mind and that's all I remember. Gun of San Sebastian? I don't know.

 

[Poppo]

I wish a film about " the siege of Sebastopol ( 1941-42)", during which Manstein used a huge cannon to destroy the soviet bunkers , a film that will never be done of course!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sevastopol_(1941–1942)

 

[Jack]

Wayne and John,
Not heard of Guns of August or the Doomsday Gun so ones to watch out for. Charge of the Light Brigade is a cavalry movie{sm4}. Dont think I have seen the older version but the 60's one was good and one of my favourite books is The Reason Why (about all the politics behind that charge in the days when commanders bought their promotions).

Looking for subjects not been done but any good artillery related movies / scenes already done would be interesting to see what members can come up with. Not sure if it was a French movie or a documentary but I remember watching something about Dien Bien Phu where the French artillery officer committed suicide due to the stress of the battle.

The scene in War Horse where the horses were moving the heavy artillery was a good one.

Brett

Brett

The Reason Why is indeed a superb book. It has pride of place on my shelf!

Jack

 

[Napoleon1er]

Napoleon in Toulon?
Bringing the guns to Boston with Knox?

 

[lancer]

There is a rather neat bit of artillery work in the movie 55 Days at Peking when the Allies use a home made cannon to retake the wall. I always thought that someone should do something on the BEF stand at Nery with L Battery of the RHA in September, 1914. There is also some rather neat scenes involving German artillery in a couple of the Band of Brothers episodes. Add artillery use in Major Dundee and Glory, as well. Quite a bit of artillery use in the various Alamo movies, too. -- Al

 

[trooper]

The Turkish artillery against the ALH at Beersheba in "The Lighthorsemen". Trooper

 

[blaster]

there were some early arquebuses in this movie too.

 

[Mirof]

And the very famous Gun Ga Din {sm4}

 

[Desertkiwi]

There are some truly great Artillery stories: the Battle of Long Tan comes to mind, in which a heavily outnumbered Australian force was saved by the defensive fire of Kiwi artillery and is celebrated in Australia even if it's largely unknown here in New Zealand.

The skill used to save our Aussie cousins that day is truly impressive and the stuff of legend. It would make an awesome 'flick' even though it's about the very unpopular Vietnam War. Still would be great to see another story about the ANZAC's.:salute::

 

[The Military Workshop]

There are some truly great Artillery stories: the Battle of Long Tan comes to mind, in which a heavily outnumbered Australian force was saved by the defensive fire of Kiwi artillery and is celebrated in Australia even if it's largely unknown here in New Zealand.

The skill used to save our Aussie cousins that day is truly impressive and the stuff of legend. It would make an awesome 'flick' even though it's about the very unpopular Vietnam War. Still would be great to see another story about the ANZAC's.:salute::

Toddy,
Whilst the Kiwi artillery fire was certainly important there a number of aspects to the success at Long Tan :
The ability and courage of the D Coy men themselves when encountering a significantly larger unit.
The ammo drop by the Hueys.
The arrival of the armoured cars with A Coy infantry on board who came up behind the Vietnam Kong who had surrounded D Coy.
and the artillery support which was called in pretty much on the Australian positions.

Without any one of the above they would not have survived.

It would make a great movie. But ...............

In 2006/07 there was talk that Bruce Beresford was going to direct the movie and script was going to be based on the book Long Tan by the Commanders. I have spoken to or exchanged emails with three of the commanders that day as well as spoken to a few other ranks. Have also read various accounts. The movie got to the point of seeking support from the Army (always a great help for such a project in terms of manpower and vehicles etc). The Army did not agree to support the movie and this was due to issues with the script. Some accounts differ in relation to events in the battle where the participants are still alive and it would be hard to resolve them. I doubt the movie could be made whilst the participants are still alive.

Brett

 

[ivanmoe]

Here's a really old one that I don't believe has been cited:

Now, that was a big cannon!{eek3}


Closer to home, some of the better depictions of artillery that I can recall were in The Alamo:

I don't know why there's not more glamour in gunnery. It must be that it looks to be safer work than most than what's experienced by the other combat arms, until, that is, that the gun gets overrun! Now that a posthumous MoH has been awarded to Cushing, I wouldn't be surprised if a movie gets made regarding the action in question.

-Moe

 

[Desertkiwi]

Toddy,
Whilst the Kiwi artillery fire was certainly important there a number of aspects to the success at Long Tan :
The ability and courage of the D Coy men themselves when encountering a significantly larger unit.
The ammo drop by the Hueys.
The arrival of the armoured cars with A Coy infantry on board who came up behind the Vietnam Kong who had surrounded D Coy.
and the artillery support which was called in pretty much on the Australian positions.

Without any one of the above they would not have survived.

It would make a great movie. But ...............

In 2006/07 there was talk that Bruce Beresford was going to direct the movie and script was going to be based on the book Long Tan by the Commanders. I have spoken to or exchanged emails with three of the commanders that day as well as spoken to a few other ranks. Have also read various accounts. The movie got to the point of seeking support from the Army (always a great help for such a project in terms of manpower and vehicles etc). The Army did not agree to support the movie and this was due to issues with the script. Some accounts differ in relation to events in the battle where the participants are still alive and it would be hard to resolve them. I doubt the movie could be made whilst the participants are still alive.

Brett

Cheers Brett, yeah totally agree it was a team effort that got the lads finally out of there in the end. Pretty harrowing stuff really, bit of a shame about all the disagreement of the events of that day, but I can certainly understand why. Still a movie would be an interesting watch, here's hoping it happens one day.
Ta Toddy

 

[blaster]

Of course, the obvious movie related to this thread: