Now here are two movies worth seeing even though 1917 is somewhat unbelievable.
Danger Close is the true story of a major battle fought in Viet Nam in 1966 by the Australian Army. The movie is very accurate compared to the book I had read many years ago. The battle scenes are well done and the uniforms and weapons depicted at that time was also accurate. There is one true scene which has been the subject of debate ever since. When one platoon was running out of ammunition, two helicopters volunteered to drop crates. When over the target the pilots rolled the helicopter to the side and all the boxes came crashing down. It was getting dark and the soldiers had to drag the boxes. Incredibly, none of the ammunition had been preloaded in the appropriate clips and tired soldiers anticipating another attack had to fumble in the dark loading up.There had been plenty of time at camp to have loaded these clips. The artillery barrages were accurately depicted as compared with the book and that is what broke the VC`s attack. Well above average war flick.
“1917” I had difficulty with the premise of the movie. Two NCO´s are ordered as runners to deliver a critical message to a field commander halting a British attack during WW 1. Briton was one of the first Armies to deploy Marconi´s wireless radio before the First World War. The soldiers were ordered to travel 9 miles through no man´s land. With all of the resources the British had; could not there have been a better means to have deliver such an important order? There were so many discrepancies,like pouring milk in your canteen, messing around too much (time was of the essence), a shot down pilot obviously seriously injured stabbing a well armed soldier, the usual Germans cannot shoot straight scenario, but the good guys never miss and finally the James Bond Syndrome, nothing can stop me not even being grazed by a 8 millimetre bullet to the head.
The visual effect is excellent as well as the acting. The costumes were also accurately portrayed. I can recommend this loosely based true story, but it is hard to swallow.
Considering there aren’t too many movies made of “The Great War” as it’s referred to, 1917 was a pretty decent movie. The movie attempts a single shot throughout with stunning visuals that were thought provoking. The greatest part about the movie is how it’s able to depict a redeeming aspect of humanity during something as inhumane as war to reach a conclusion along a profound narrative of historical perspective.
I bet it was with it only being 20 years removed. Imagine all those soldiers that returned home to live through the gangster era of prohibition where some continued their rampage on the streets suffering from PTSD something that wasn’t diagnosed yet!
Thanks for the compliment! I currently do reviews for “Total Film”. Best resource for vetting films past and present!
Have you seen Peter Jackson’s film “ They Shall Not Grow Old”? A sobering insight in how brutal WW1 was. One detail about trench warfare that I didn’t know about was how soldiers got stuck in mud and left to die. What a horrible way to go.
That is very impressive and pretty cool. Thats a frequent read for me. Writing reviews takes a special skill and its not one I have ever or will master. I take my hat off to you.
I spent a fortune on going to the movies. It is my passion. I like to expose myself to all genres but right now cannot get enough of movies coming out of South Korea. Park Chan-wan and Boon-Joon Hu are two of my favorite directors and yes I liked them before it was “trendy” to talk about them and S Korean movies…
Yeah there is a lot good edgy stuff coming out of SK, and I was watching some movies from there in the early 2000’s and was impressed with their production quality. One such movie was "City of Violence which was well done with a good story line. I was a big fan of the HK movies and their stylistic approach that seemed to have created their own genre of film making, especially a lot of the productions from the 70’s 80’s and early 90’s, with early Jackie Chan, Jet Lee, Bruce Lee and Jonny Mo. One such movie that has always been a favorite of mine that is really indicative of this is “Kung FU Hustle” and if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. Now the HK movie industry has turned to shit as China has taken over most of the industry. Occasionally there are some decent productions being produced, but for the most part its hit or miss and there are only so many Kung Fu and war with the Japanese movies that one can make. I like to see more productions from SK, and Japan, as I am fascinated with their cultural differences and they seem to put more into aesthetics and organic storylines than their Chinese counterparts. Speaking of Sk movies, which is your favorite? Which one would you recommend I check out?
Radio messages could easily be intercepted by the enemy, even the field phones often ended up with the enemy tapping lines and listening in and the lines were constantly cut by both men and machine as well as the often near constant artillery barrages along the lines.
As a result messengers were frequently the only reliable way of getting messages through.
Hitler himself served as a messenger for a good portion of the war before being wounded.
As for your first point. Fully loaded mag’s were almost never delivered to the front lines during a fight. You took fully loaded mags with you along with bandoleers of ammo in stripper clips for rapid reloads but having fully loaded mag’s delivered to the front lines would have been an exception to the norm.
Can’t really comment on much of the rest because I haven’t seen the movies.
You are correct, but they where running out ammo. It makes sense to have delivered pre-loaded magazines. I have read more than once from military historians that this was a mistake not delivering pre-loaded magazines. In James Jones fictional “From Here to Eternity” during the Japanese attack, BAR clips are thrown from the roof to be reloaded on the ground and delivered up stairs. Of course that could all be a fictional fantasy. I might add the Mr. Jones book is a masterpiece and the movie is only slightly faithful to the book.
You have to remember that particularly in Vietnam supplies were often unloaded at the fire bases directly from the main supply depots and in the case of major battles had to be then transferred immediately to choppers for emergency resupply missions. There just wasn’t anyone sitting around doing nothing to load mag’s for the guys in the field.
