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RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:01 am
by Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: jomni
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
the great triumphalist American war movies.
Does Starship Troopers count?
I feel about that like some here do about "Pearl Harbor."
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:14 am
by The Gnome
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: jomni
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
the great triumphalist American war movies.
Does Starship Troopers count?
I feel about that like some here do about "Pearl Harbor."
Starship Troopers was at least a fun wargame from Avalon Hill!
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:02 am
by Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: The Gnome
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: jomni
Does Starship Troopers count?
I feel about that like some here do about "Pearl Harbor."
Starship Troopers was at least a fun wargame from Avalon Hill!
I played my brother for about an hour, then went and played baseball. I hate cardboard counters.
It is a GREAT book, though.
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:44 am
by Apollo11
Hi all,
ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo
Question, hypothetical, one....why has no one ever made a movie about the battles in The Slot. If I were navy I would be rightly upset that the whole narrative is about the Marines.
There were two a books by Herman Wouk: "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance".
And there was TV series (for both books) with Robert Mitchum as Victor "Pug" Henry (USN officer).
IIRC the Savo island battle was quite prominent in book and TV series (the Robert Mitchum was captain of one of the cruisers)...
Leo "Apoolo11"
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 7:33 am
by witpqs
I didn't get to catch but a bit of either series. What did you think of them?
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 8:38 am
by Apollo11
Hi all,
ORIGINAL: witpqs
I didn't get to catch but a bit of either series. What did you think of them?
The books are massive and quite OK... war, history and romance... something for everyone...
The miniseries are also OK - they were from early 1980's though!
Leo "Apollo11"
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:16 am
by AW1Steve
ORIGINAL: Apollo11
Hi all,
ORIGINAL: witpqs
I didn't get to catch but a bit of either series. What did you think of them?
The books are massive and quite OK... war, history and romance... something for everyone...
The miniseries are also OK - they were from early 1980's though!
Leo "Apollo11"
The books were big, but easy reading. "Mind-candy". Except for the fact that Mitchum was rather "long in the tooth" for the role , it was not a bad series. Fairly historically accurate, and it had a respectable budget.
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:45 am
by USSAmerica
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: The Gnome
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
I feel about that like some here do about "Pearl Harbor."
Starship Troopers was at least a fun wargame from Avalon Hill!
I played my brother for about an hour, then went and played baseball. I hate cardboard counters.
It is a GREAT book, though.
A fantastic book! Anyone interested in military matters, no matter what era or setting, will really enjoy it. [&o]
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:08 am
by Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: AW1Steve
ORIGINAL: Apollo11
Hi all,
ORIGINAL: witpqs
I didn't get to catch but a bit of either series. What did you think of them?
The books are massive and quite OK... war, history and romance... something for everyone...
The miniseries are also OK - they were from early 1980's though!
Leo "Apollo11"
The books were big, but easy reading. "Mind-candy". Except for the fact that Mitchum was rather "long in the tooth" for the role , it was not a bad series. Fairly historically accurate, and it had a respectable budget.
I read both, saw WOW once, have WAR on VHS. It's as you say. But I'd guess "huge budgets." They are from the pre-cable era of great mini-series ("Roots", "Rich Man, Poor Man") when the form was a staple, bookend feature of network fall scheduling. WOW especially was shot largely on location in Europe, although WAR has a lot of European and Asian scenes as well (the whole concentration camp arc for example.)
There is a very large romance aspect (Mitchum/Pug's slow-motion divorce and taking up with a much younger, beautiful woman; his wife, actress Polly Bergen's affair with actor Peter Graves of "Mission Impossible", who just "happens" to work on the Manhattan Project, etc.)
For viewers with only a smattering of history it did a lot to illustrate the flows, particularly with Hitler's rise, and, once the war started, with some of the battle strategies, especially in the Pacific.
Outside of the romance features, both mini-series and both books reminded me of Woody Allen's great "Zelig", with Pug as Zelig, a man who just happens, by sometimes tortured plot contrivance, to be present at Every Major Historical Event. It's not every four-striper who is FDR's go-to guy with the world. But if you can overlook that bit of novel mechanics needed to make the thing hang together, I'd recco both to forumites.
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:10 am
by Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: USS America
A fantastic book! Anyone interested in military matters, no matter what era or setting, will really enjoy it. [&o]
I recall that it was on the Commandant of the Marine Corps official reading list for Marines back in the 1980s. Officers and enlisted.
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:21 am
by Apollo11
Hi all,
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: AW1Steve
ORIGINAL: Apollo11
The books are massive and quite OK... war, history and romance... something for everyone...
The miniseries are also OK - they were from early 1980's though!
The books were big, but easy reading. "Mind-candy". Except for the fact that Mitchum was rather "long in the tooth" for the role , it was not a bad series. Fairly historically accurate, and it had a respectable budget.
I read both, saw WOW once, have WAR on VHS. It's as you say. But I'd guess "huge budgets." They are from the pre-cable era of great mini-series ("Roots", "Rich Man, Poor Man") when the form was a staple, bookend feature of network fall scheduling. WOW especially was shot largely on location in Europe, although WAR has a lot of European and Asian scenes as well (the whole concentration camp arc for example.)
There is a very large romance aspect (Mitchum/Pug's slow-motion divorce and taking up with a much younger, beautiful woman; his wife, actress Polly Bergen's affair with actor Peter Graves of "Mission Impossible", who just "happens" to work on the Manhattan Project, etc.)
For viewers with only a smattering of history it did a lot to illustrate the flows, particularly with Hitler's rise, and, once the war started, with some of the battle strategies, especially in the Pacific.
Outside of the romance features, both mini-series and both books reminded me of Woody Allen's great "Zelig", with Pug as Zelig, a man who just happens, by sometimes tortured plot contrivance, to be present at Every Major Historical Event. It's not every four-striper who is FDR's go-to guy with the world. But if you can overlook that bit of novel mechanics needed to make the thing hang together, I'd recco both to forumites.
Yep - wholeheartedly recommended to both read and watch!
I think I read it twice when I was younger (1st time when I was 13-14 and then again at 17-18)... it might be good time to read it again... [:)]
BTW, I think that the miniseries (I watched it, I think, in mid to late 1980's) prompted me to re-read the books the 2nd time...
Leo "Apollo11"
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:24 am
by Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: Apollo11
I think I read it twice when I was younger (1st time when I was 13-14 and then again at 17-18)... it might be good time to read it again... [:)]
I know my WOW "died" in a sauna when I didn't have a magazine handy to read.[:)]
BTW, I think that the miniseries (I watched it, I think, in mid to late 1980's) prompted me to re-read the books the 2nd time...
Arggh! You're making me want to go look on Amazon to see if there are DVDs. I can't be doing that right now!!![:)]
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 8:12 pm
by bradfordkay
Kate Beckinsale is gorgeous.
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 1:12 am
by AcePylut
ORIGINAL: witpqs
I didn't get to catch but a bit of either series. What did you think of them?
Imho "Winds of War" was great. The story was about the Henry family.
Then the director changed, and War and Remembrance was horrible... as they changed the focus from the Henry family to the Jastrow family.
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:34 pm
by thegreatwent
quote:
ORIGINAL: USS America
A fantastic book! Anyone interested in military matters, no matter what era or setting, will really enjoy it.
I recall that it was on the Commandant of the Marine Corps official reading list for Marines back in the 1980s. Officers and enlisted.
His thoughts on citizenship were interesting. The movie however struck me as 90210 in space. The DI and Doogie Howser Psychic were fun though. Sadly I did end up rooting for the bugs.
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:37 pm
by thegreatwent
When I was considering the "Green to Gold" program in the Army that book and We Were Soldiers Once and Young were on the reading list.
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:25 pm
by Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: thegreatwent
quote:
ORIGINAL: USS America
A fantastic book! Anyone interested in military matters, no matter what era or setting, will really enjoy it.
I recall that it was on the Commandant of the Marine Corps official reading list for Marines back in the 1980s. Officers and enlisted.
His thoughts on citizenship were interesting. The movie however struck me as 90210 in space. The DI and Doogie Howser Psychic were fun though. Sadly I did end up rooting for the bugs.
The director (forget his name, but I think he's some semi-famous Euro guy) thought the book's citizenship argument was nazi, so he thought it would be artsy to turn it around and make the humans the bad guys. Notice how Doogie's uniform looked no so subtly like that of the SS? And all of the "newsreels" were right from Himmler's playbook?
You were supposed to root for the bugs. The sad thing is that a whole generation will never read the book because they've seen the movie(s). I think they're up to four of them now.
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:26 pm
by Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: AcePylut
Then the director changed, and War and Remembrance was horrible... as they changed the focus from the Henry family to the Jastrow family.
The Jastrow family intermarried with the Henry family. And, as the Jastrows were Jewish, it allowed Wouk to, you know, explore that pesky Holocaust and all. It WAS a fairly important bit of WWII. The director had little to do with it. He shot the book.
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 10:58 pm
by Pascal_slith
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: jomni
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
the great triumphalist American war movies.
Does Starship Troopers count?
I feel about that like some here do about "Pearl Harbor."
Oh my God! You mentioned the Movie That Should Never Be Mentioned!
RE: Slightly off topic - New Midway movie
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 11:32 pm
by Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: Pascal
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
ORIGINAL: jomni
Does Starship Troopers count?
I feel about that like some here do about "Pearl Harbor."
Oh my God! You mentioned the Movie That Should Never Be Mentioned!
I march to my own drummer.
[:)]