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So what IS the most accurate war movie about aircraft in War?


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Dive Bomber and Strategic Air Comand, while great movies, weren't war movies.

Do not know what you mean by that Terry, you mean Strategic Air Command was a love or other form of movie, Or are you implying the cold war, was not war?

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I had forgotten that "Memphis Belle" had various versions.

I know there's the Hollywood Release version, seen it many times. Then there's the graphic version, ala the whole crewmember from "Windy City" actually hitting the nose of Belle, not just the streaking blood. Other stuff here and there. I would love to see the uncut version.

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Do not know what you mean by that Terry, you mean Strategic Air Command was a love or other form of movie, Or are you implying the cold war, was not war?

C'mon Wayne my friend. You know what I meant. I was referrring to an actual war movie. The cold war was not a typical "war". At least not in the sense of WWI or WWII or Viet Nam or Korea..where there were actual humans in combat on a large scale. You can twist it however you want but the cold war was not an actual combatants war.

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Starfighters!

That is, if you want to know about inflight refueling...

The mystery science theater showing of starfighters is one of the funnyest episodes ever.

Crow looks over at one point and says " so let me get this straight airforce guys are a bunch of hard drinking, leather faced not so smart speed freaks who poop their pants and cant make it with women? " my buddy a USAF staff seargent ended up lauhging so hard he fell off the couch and landed on his face.

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Wow, I must look for that, looks like a very good movie.

I would really like to see another mini series from Dreamworks/HBO along the lines of Band of Brothers and The Pacific but based on the air war...

Empire is a very good movie, highly recomended!

And I agree about a new DW/HBO series on the airwar. I'd love to see it done with view points from both sides of it though. Too much much good history on the side of the luftwaffe to ingnore.

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I had forgotten that "Memphis Belle" had various versions.

I know there's the Hollywood Release version, seen it many times. Then there's the graphic version, ala the whole crewmember from "Windy City" actually hitting the nose of Belle, not just the streaking blood. Other stuff here and there. I would love to see the uncut version.

Can someone please explain this to me please? I've never heard of the 1990 memphis belle having differant versions. I remember seeing it in theatres when it came out and it matches whats on the DVD, which has a horrible special features section. I've never heard a graphic version, is there a better DVD that I've never been able to find?

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In no particular order:

Battle of Britian

Tora, Tora, Tora

Piece of Cake (actually a Brit mini-series that was released on DVD)

A Gathering of Eagles

Strategic Air Command

Bridges at Toko-Ri

Men of the Fighting Lady (a 1954 flick with Van Johnson & Walter Pidgeon about carrier ops during the Korean War)

There is another foreign flick, who's name I can't recall, that was about what former RAF Czech pilots went through at the hands of the commies after they returned to their homeland. I saw it a while back & it has some WW2 aerial flashbacks scenes.

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Can someone please explain this to me please? I've never heard of the 1990 memphis belle having differant versions. I remember seeing it in theatres when it came out and it matches whats on the DVD, which has a horrible special features section. I've never heard a graphic version, is there a better DVD that I've never been able to find?

B-17,

I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to find the post, but couldn't find it here or at simhq.com

It was from a couple of years ago, but the original poster mentioned that the screening (don't remember if he was part of a test audience) he saw was MUCH more graphic than depicted in the original theatrical release of Belle. He said the audience was incredibly squeamish with "Windy City" exploding in front of Belle and the crewman hitting the plexi nose.

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Well after reading about some of the movies here, I had to go find them. I found at Wal-Mart a four pack of DVD's including Battle of Britian, A Bridge To Far, Force Ten From Navaro and The McKenzie Break. Only $10 bucks too.

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A couple of people have already mentioned the Czech film "Dark Blue World". I fully agree that it deserves to be on a list of these sorts of films that portray matters realistically.

For example, when the battles get going and the pilots start speaking to each other in Czech. Realistically, I'd expect that they wouldn't talk to each other in English under such circumstances; they'd have to think too much and it would be inefficient.

I particularly liked it because there were some real aircraft being used in the flying scenes. If you're sharp, you can pick out the Buchon standing in for the Bf-109 and the variety of spitfire marks that likey would not have been serving concurrently; however, the film is well put together to a degree that these things aren't a bother.

The whole scene of the unit's first combat mission was quite poignant. You see all the bravado you'd expect when the scrammble gets called; but when they get back with their planes shot up, a man short and their illusions shattered, it's quite something to see. (The flying starts about 30 seconds into the clip.)

Another of other flying scenes from the film that I quite like:

The film's non-combat scenes are also quite within the realms of believability.

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Another of other flying scenes from the film that I quite like:

The film's non-combat scenes are also quite within the realms of believability.

Thank YOU for those links. Fantastic- especially the second one!

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I'm with chuck, thanks for those links. I wanna see this movie now, didnt even know it existed.

Most of the time anymore the foreign films of the war are sooo much better than what is made in hollywood anymore. Reeally good and gritty but compelling movies.

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I actually saw Dark Blue World before I moved from Canada to the Czech republic, so I know you can get it with subtitles to cover the Czech language sections of it.

Here's one more scene I quite like from it:

I'm not giving away much of the film with this and the other two clips; there's plenty more good flying in it and the whole story itself is pretty compelling.

Edited by Kevan Vogler
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I agree, "Dark Blue World" is very good. The resaon that Buchons are standing in for 109s is that much of the flying/combat footage was comprised of outtakes from "Battle of Britain." They cleaned it up digitally, and even changed the some of the squadron codes. They also added CGI tracers and shell casings falling from the planes.

I've also never heard of an "alternate" version of "Memphis Belle." But then I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the film in the first place, and haven't watched it in years (in fact, I got a copy on VHS for Christmas back in the 90s that still in the shrink wrap.) I found the characters to be typical Hollywood cliches, and the dialog was obviously written by someone who knew little or nothing about the military or aviation. I agree with a veteran quoted in an aviation magazine, who said that the crew in the movie behaved like a bunch of unruly children, and if a real crew were that undisciplined they wouldn't have survived one mission, let alone 25.

Before anyone accuses me of being a joyless Luddite, I will come clean and admit that "Independence Day" is one of my favorite guilty pleasures, even though it's wildly implausible in pretty much every respect.

SN

Edited by Steve N
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Except for a hokey story line and bad acting "Captains Of The Clouds". The bush flying and BCATP sequences were authentic. The only detraction from the flying was the final combat involving the Hurricane painted all black to represent a bf109. This film was made in Canada prior to the American entry into the war but was 100% Hollywood.

Wayne

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Can someone please explain this to me please? I've never heard of the 1990 memphis belle having differant versions. I remember seeing it in theatres when it came out and it matches whats on the DVD, which has a horrible special features section. I've never heard a graphic version, is there a better DVD that I've never been able to find?

there was the one that used real film footage, and was only shown at the Air Force Meuseum. I saw it many years ago, and have since seen it several other times. There was a difference between the first and second time, and it was toned down even more later on. The original was very graphic

gary

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I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo - an amazing film, especially considering it was made during the war. Otherwise, my votes are for The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Twelve O'Clock High, Blackhawk Down, and Strategic Air Command (if we define the Cold War as 'war'). As for the 1990 version of Memphis Belle, I thoroughly detested it when I saw it, and would rank Red Tails far above it in every way. Perhaps I would feel better about it now, but my memory of it places it more on a Pearl Harbor level.

Cheers,

Scott

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