War Movies: the Root Canal Collection (1 Viewer)

jazzeum said:
I thought Apocalypse Now was great until the Marlo Brando parts towards the end. The travel to the heart of darkness was very well done but when they got there, it seemed to suffer. Perhaps Coppola didn't know how to finish it off.

You know, I hear this about not paying homage to the people who served but that wasn't the time when these films were made so you're expecting too much. You had to live through that time (I was a teenager in the 60s) to understand it; I think some of those saying it were probably just being born in that decade As a result, you have films like Apocalypse Now and the Deer Hunter. These are great movies and reflected -- and I think they did although others may disagree -- the attitude of the time. We can't impose today's attitude on films made back in the late 60s or early 70s. This was a time of doubting society, changing things (for better or for worse), instability in our culture and cynicism towards politicians which, considering Watergate, might have been justified. As the Byrds said, "the times, they are a changing."
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I agree with you mate. As one of the ones who was over there for some of that time, I think those movies reflected the attitude of many (if not most) of us who served during those divisive times. Homage, hey I just wanted it to end. For that reason, I really have little taste for movies about Vietnam. Maybe it is axiomatic that you don't care for movies about the war you were in; or maybe that's only true if you thought the war was a really bad idea.

I didn't like the ending of Apocalypse now either or the very strange beginning. There were some classic scenes in the middle but I think overall it was a disappointment.
 
OzDigger said:
1) ...And I also reckoned 'Cloverfield' had some good ideas, but then I'm a badge wearing Sci Fi nerd :eek:
...
2) ...But imo 'Stealth' is Number One on the Worst list. Most of the actors, the producer, and the director should have been taken behind the wood shed and soundly beaten with a pick handle.
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Regarding (1),:eek::eek: I am an ardent SF fan too but that movie was a disgrace to any genre, IMHO. I have good ideas too but I wouldn't try to pass them off as a movie.:D

Regarding (2), good put down, I agree that was one of the truely bad ones.;)
 
Hello There,
Ken & I have been trying to compile a list of our worsts and are finding it impossible to keep to just three. Many years ago when I was an interpreter at a Civil War Fort all the staff would get together for weekly "Bad Civil War Theatre". Each of us would try to bring the worst Civil War movie we could find. After watch some truly horrid movies, the winner at the end of the season was a film called "Drums of the Deep South". If you ever feel the need to lose an hour and a half of your life, Drums of the Deep South is your flick.
As for Ken's list:
Force Ten from Navoronne
Steel Helmet
and the worst of all time for him is: The Patriot.

All the best,
Ericka Osen
 
Or how about that U Boat flick with Matthew McConnaughty U-571 or something like that, it was just drivel, compared to some of the great old black whites or das boat
Agree with Jazz some great scenes in Battle of the bulge like them singing the song, other inaccuracies aside.
The other turkey , which was also enjoyable was Heartbreak Ridge with Clint Eastwood,
 
The US Army tanks in Battle of the Bulge and Patton used as Panzers kind of spoils it for me. :D
 
Oh and then there's Kelly's Heroes featuring 1940's military personnel with 1970's style language, attitudes and even haircuts that really spoilt that movie for me. :(
 
Well. about Apocalypse Now I have to say to me it's one of the best films I have ever seen, war or no war film. Brando's minutes in the film are movie history, so is about everything else, from music to acting, you name it. I won't evaluate this film on the message it is or is not sending, I just don't care about that, I am only involved with the fact that it is a real piece of art, politically correct or not. Also, even taking into account any possible message the film might send ( which I think it does not ), I believe Brad is absolutely right on spot on this...
This is the End, my friend, the End, my beautiful friend the End...( remember that? )
Another favorite film of mine is The Deer Hunter, which I believe has a different point of view ( De Niro is a glorified American soldier, for sure ), for which it was labeled rightist, at least here in Europe. I just don't care about that, what I am interested in are the fabulous beautiful images from the film ( remember the deer hunting? ), the famous Shadows music, and superb acting from a superb cast.
I think sometimes people tend to evaluate films based on how they portrait the military in Nam, which is understandable when you've been there, or in the military, or have family people who were there. I am also a 42 year old foreigner, so I will never feel the same way about this as people in America do. So maybe it's just easier for me to sit back and enjoy cinema...:rolleyes:
Oh, I have also enjoyed the Thin Red Line...:rolleyes:


Regards everyone,
Paulo
 
I have found this thread to be almost addictive and analysing why that is, I came up with a simple conclusion. A few of us have posted our top 5 war movies on Gary's thread and our personal faves are not going to change that much until the studios release another decent combat film that might make our list. But that unfortunately does not look like being anytime soon, Hollywoods output seems to go in cycles with some genres almost disappearing altogether whilst we get a glut of others. Currently we have a plethora of Super Comic Heroes & bio-pics; can anybody tell me why we need two Truman Capote films in one year?

But when considering ones worst war movies, coming up with a definitive list is not so easy as there really are many contenders that you keep dragging up from your memory, due I suppose to most of them having been mentally discarded as soon as you've suffered them. I'm sure we have all seen plenty of stinkers that were made on shoe-string budgets such as Sven Hassel's Wheels of Terror or The Last Panzer and voting for these terrible B movies would be a little unfair when we should, as indeed we have been, be considering the bigger budget turkeys where the studios should be really ostracised for insulting our intelligence.
One such contender which should go on the list but possibly falls into a unique war film category as The Film Industry's Greatest Joke is Inchon. The film was not released here in the UK but did I believe get a small run in the States but I finally caught up with it only a couple of years ago when a pal of mine got hold of a truncated version on VHS tape.

Any of you guys seen this real turkey?

Leaving the moonie connection to one side it really is a $45m Godawful film with an almost incoherent script and some of the worst acting committed to celluloid especially surprising when you consider the calibre of actors such as Olivier and Gazarra. I had always thought well it cant be as bad as the stories say it is not with Sir Larry in the lead role and Terence Young directing. Oh boy! it sure is, and perfectly summed up by Gazarra who stated some years later;
"It wasn't an actors film, it was a film about exploding bombs. I just shouted my lines and then quickly ducked before my a## got blown off"
However, another pal of mine in the British movie business actually saw the first cut shown at the Cannes film festival and he still tells the story today of the scene where Jesus appears (I'm not making this up) to persuade a reluctant pilot to bomb the Communists and an intro that explains that Macarthur repeatedly sent messages through a psychic to cast Olivier in the role. Definitely would have gone on my root canal collection but left it off because as far as I'm aware little seen by the public at large.

A final sidebar; a couple of the posters mentioned the song at the beginning of Battle of the Bulge, I seem to remember that was discussed by "our movie gang" here in the UK for some time trying to come up with the songs title, it went everywhere from Horst Wessell to being composed specifically for the film. That is until our resident WWII military expert came up with "Panzerlied" or something like that but he was able to sing the whole song in German so we assumed he was right. Just wondered if any of our Panzer experts can confirm that
Reb
 
UKReb said:
I have found this thread to be almost addictive and analysing why that is, I came up with a simple conclusion. A few of us have posted our top 5 war movies on Gary's thread and our personal faves are not going to change that much until the studios release another decent combat film that might make our list. But that unfortunately does not look like being anytime soon, Hollywoods output seems to go in cycles with some genres almost disappearing altogether whilst we get a glut of others. Currently we have a plethora of Super Comic Heroes & bio-pics; can anybody tell me why we need two Truman Capote films in one year?

But when considering ones worst war movies, coming up with a definitive list is not so easy as there really are many contenders that you keep dragging up from your memory, due I suppose to most of them having been mentally discarded as soon as you've suffered them. I'm sure we have all seen plenty of stinkers that were made on shoe-string budgets such as Sven Hassel's Wheels of Terror or The Last Panzer and voting for these terrible B movies would be a little unfair when we should, as indeed we have been, be considering the bigger budget turkeys where the studios should be really ostracised for insulting our intelligence.
One such contender which should go on the list but possibly falls into a unique war film category as The Film Industry's Greatest Joke is Inchon. The film was not released here in the UK but did I believe get a small run in the States but I finally caught up with it only a couple of years ago when a pal of mine got hold of a truncated version on VHS tape.

Any of you guys seen this real turkey?

Leaving the moonie connection to one side it really is a $45m Godawful film with an almost incoherent script and some of the worst acting committed to celluloid especially surprising when you consider the calibre of actors such as Olivier and Gazarra. I had always thought well it cant be as bad as the stories say it is not with Sir Larry in the lead role and Terence Young directing. Oh boy! it sure is, and perfectly summed up by Gazarra who stated some years later;
"It wasn't an actors film, it was a film about exploding bombs. I just shouted my lines and then quickly ducked before my a## got blown off"
However, another pal of mine in the British movie business actually saw the first cut shown at the Cannes film festival and he still tells the story today of the scene where Jesus appears (I'm not making this up) to persuade a reluctant pilot to bomb the Communists and an intro that explains that Macarthur repeatedly sent messages through a psychic to cast Olivier in the role. Definitely would have gone on my root canal collection but left it off because as far as I'm aware little seen by the public at large.

A final sidebar; a couple of the posters mentioned the song at the beginning of Battle of the Bulge, I seem to remember that was discussed by "our movie gang" here in the UK for some time trying to come up with the songs title, it went everywhere from Horst Wessell to being composed specifically for the film. That is until our resident WWII military expert came up with "Panzerlied" or something like that but he was able to sing the whole song in German so we assumed he was right. Just wondered if any of our Panzer experts can confirm that
Reb
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Hey Reb,

As far as I know, the song is called Panzerlied, and it is a genuine World War Two German military song - here's a link to the relevent Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerlied

As regards my all time turkey of a war film, that dubious title would have to be reserved for "American Soldiers: A Day In Iraq". Made the mistake of renting this one out when bored one summer a year or two ago - one of the worst mistakes I've ever made. I usually find it extremely difficult for a war film not to hold at least some interest for me, but this one was the sole exception to that - it still remains the only film in this genre I haven't been able to bring myself to watch to the end.

For the uninitiated (and I sincerely hope most of you have been spared the pleasure) it was an attempt to depict an average day in combat for US soldiers in Iraq - quite an interesting idea in principle, but the film-maker's chosen method of doing that was to pack just about every contemporary issue about the War on Terror into one single patrol. So, in the space of twelve hours or so, our squad of GIs is hit by a score of IEDs and suicide bombers, finds themselves let down by corrupt Iraqi police officers, comes across a Guantanamo-style CIA detention facility (in the middle of Baghdad?), etc. Just about every cliche in the book is present and accounted for.

To cap it all, the flim was made on a shoestring budget, and was all shot in North America, either in the US or Canada, so every scene in "Iraq" is patently in a small town in America, with a couple of potted palms thrown in for realism. Absolutely dire stuff.

I think some day to come we will be seeing very worthwhile films about this current period in history - but this one definitely won't be one of them.

Anway, rant over, has anyone else come across this:D??

Cheers,

Molloy.
 
Molloy said:
Anway, rant over, has anyone else come across this:D??

Cheers,

Molloy.
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Yep.
Made the same mistake as you :rolleyes:
Another one that was pretty dire (IMO) was 'The Last Drop'.
One of the few films I couldn't see through till the end.

Simon
 
Wraith said:
Yep.
Made the same mistake as you :rolleyes:
Another one that was pretty dire (IMO) was 'The Last Drop'.
One of the few films I couldn't see through till the end.

Simon
Click to expand...

Alright, Simon!

"The Last Drop", eh? Can't say I've ever come across that one - what's it about?

Cheers,

Molloy.
 
I'm pretty sure it is Panzerlied because I remember Tony and Bob put it on UK Television when they first started to get the operation rolling and I think there was some discussion about it here.

Regarding the Battle of the Bulge, the opinion of some seems to be that because they used Pattons for Tigers, that ruined the movie but as Reb and Harry noted, how many of the movie going public really cared. When I first saw it and when I watch it now, I don't really think about that and I actually likes the movie as I thought it hit several good points: American unpreparedness, the deadline the Germans needed to be on, Malmedy, the fake Americans and so forth. I thought it was generally well acted, certainly no better or no worse than some of the performances in D Day. Also, let's face it, the movie may have been the only exposure of some people to what the Battle of the Bulge was all about and if that's the case, then the movie succeeds admirably.
 
Yes, it is Panzerlied, but they just repeated the first verse a couple of times.

Brad, you're right about the use of American tanks for Panzers, when I first saw that movie as a kid, I didn't really know the difference, or care. But when you think about production techniques and special effects in the years before CGI, it's really not that bad.

Oh, to be a kid again, and be able to enjoy things like that, without knowing what we know as adults! (there's probably a lesson in here, somewhere ;) )

Prost!
Brad
 
The other song that's hard to beat in a film , is the red army song (that's all I can think to call it) in any of those russian sub films, (The Hunt for Red October,K-19: The Widowmaker)
 
The General said:
Oh and then there's Kelly's Heroes featuring 1940's military personnel with 1970's style language, attitudes and even haircuts that really spoilt that movie for me. :(
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Oooo, so many negative waves so early in the morning.:( Another example of one person's favorite as another's bain.:rolleyes:

KH featured a cast of characters brought together for one movie which has never been (or likely ever will be) duplicated. Clint Eastwood was at his most impressive whether being serious, humorous, or letting other people steal scenes without losing presence. Just about everyone in the cast was spot on their roles and was or would go on to being great as a starring or character actor. Besides Eastwood, Carrol O'Connor, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, Gavin MacLeod and Stuart Margolin and Jeff Morris were standouts. Donald Sutherland was just too good for words. The screenplay was written by highly-respected British film and television writer Troy Kennedy Martin, who also wrote for the original Italian Job.

So many good performances; so many good lines, many of them by Sutherland:
"....The only way I got to keep them Tigers busy is to LET THEM SHOOT HOLES IN ME!...
....To a New Yorker like you, a hero is some type of weird sandwich, not some nut who takes on three tigers....
....You don't want in this thing, you don't get in this thing. I cut you out of everything. I don't need you. Sixty feet of bridge I can get almost anywhere. Schmuck!....
.....Look! We're not worried about the German army, we've got enough troubles of our own. To the right General Patton, to the left the British Army, to the rear our own god**** artillery, and besides all that it's raining. And the only good thing to say about the weather: it keeps our air corps from blowing us all to Hell because its too lousy to fly, versteh?....

So whatever the haircuts, to borrow another line,..."Why don't you dig how beautiful it [was]? Woof, woof.:D:D
 
Spitfrnd said:
Regarding (1),:eek::eek: I am an ardent SF fan too but that movie was a disgrace to any genre, IMHO. I have good ideas too but I wouldn't try to pass them off as a movie.:D

Regarding (2), good put down, I agree that was one of the truely bad ones.;)
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I may well be in the minority with 'Cloverfield' because my two boys and my wife didn't think much of it either, partly because the camera work nearly made her ill. But I'm still going to rent the dvd :eek: :D

I did buy 'Kelly's Heroes' several weeks back as a few guys here recommended it, but I can't honestly say I was to impressed with it, it was ok, but not something I could watch over and over as I do with some of the better war movies I've seen. Maybe it was something to do with those haircuts, I'm a bit of a stickler for correct haircuts in movies ;) :D

Now if you want a worst comedy movie I can highly recommend 'Silence of the Hams'. It had some good comedy actors in it, but man was that movie bad.
 
OzDigger said:
...Maybe it was something to do with those haircuts, I'm a bit of a stickler for correct haircuts in movies ;) :D
....
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Each to his own I suppose; as someone who never had a "correct haircut" for any of my service tour after OCS, I am obviously not a haircut stickler.;):D
 
Forum Squadron Members:

I must admit that I like and or have enjoyed many of the films on this "RCC" list especially the Battle of the Bulge & Midway despite historical mayhem. I also own them on DVD!:eek: However, I do have a qualifying film for the "RCC" Hall of Fame and I actually bought it because there was a dh98 Mosquito on the cover which was the only highlight of the film-the rest was 100% viewer pain. Here she is...

The Purple Plain
DVD(1954)
Grief-stricken and suicidal following the death of his wife during the Blitz, Royal Air Force pilot Gregory Peck confronts his own mortality after his plane crashes in the Burmese jungle. Struggling to reach safety, Peck begins to realize how strong his will to live is as he leads two wounded companions through enemy territory, where he encounters an enchanting native. Captivating World War II drama co-stars Win Min Than, Brenda De Banzie, Bernard Lee. 102 min. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital mono, Spanish Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish.

In short-DO NOT WATCH IT!

NUTS!
Beaufighter
 
Hey Guys,
Talking about real bad movies; After visiting the K&C shop here in Hong Kong this afternoon, (finally completed obtaining all available SOHK sets except 2 of the Chinese Bobby's), I decided to give the ladies in the shop some peace and quiet while they packed all Missus Heid's new SOHK sets and drifted off to the Queensway shopping mall for a while. Found an HMV shop, so reckoned I could lurk around there for a while and waste some time. Well, they have this brilliant sale of old DVD's on at the moment with some real doozy's for around US$5.00 each. Lemme see, what did I get? Okay;

Mary Of Scotland - The old B&W version with Katherine Hepburn and directed by John Ford. I remember seeing this on Sunday TV a looooooong time ago.
Looking forward to watching it for all the wrong reasons. :eek::eek::D

Mussolini, The Untold Story, His Downfall To Death - Not expecting this to be a blockbuster, but George Scott's in it so it might be okay.

The War Lover - Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner. Got this cos a young Shirley Ann Field is in it.

War And Peace - The classic Henry Fonda/Audrey Hepburn version

Black Narcissus - Honestly, this is for Missus H

Waterloo Bridge - Another one for Missus H, but its such a tearjerker that there's bound to be some positive vibe outcome from drying the wife's eye's at the end - and mine....:eek::eek:

And, and, I had to do it. Simply had to buy this one when I saw it, cos we've been discussing it as a real turkey recently;
THE CONQUEROR - The Duke as Genghis Khan.......:D:D:D
I'll tell Missus Heid that it's a History Channel documentary about her ancestors......:rolleyes::rolleyes:

But the piece of the resistance has to be;
Waterloo
Which i'm about to stick on the laptop and watch right now.

Adios Amigo's
H
 
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