Off topic Armor...Tank movies.

Modeling Subjects Armor
1

I have to ask, anyone here seen that movie … “The Beast (of War)”…?

Soviet tank crew on the run trying to evade a bunch of Mujahadeen in Afghanistan…

USMC Dale Dye was the military advisor for the movie.

Great soundtrack by Mark Isham (Children of a Lesser God)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B00005AVZU/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=130&s=dvd

CAUTION! “Spoilers” at this link…

http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Beast_of_War,_The

2

Yup, Great movie for tank nuts. I have the DVD around here somewhere that I picked up in the $5 bin at Walmart. I believe the tank was a Israeli Tiran 5. I believe that was modified to look more like the original T-55 by removing some of the Israeli fittings. (someone who is versed in Israeli armor chime in here to verify please) Some great references for someone wanting to weather up a desert tank. Not a bad movie in it’s own right either.

Guess i’m gonna have to go watch it now… [:D]

3

One of those in my collection. Definitely one of the better “modern” war movies! Showed it to my buddy who was with sF in Afghanistan and he thought well of it and its portrayal of the Afghans.

4

I grabbed a couple of copies of the Beast from the Wal-Mart bin for $5 each as well. Had to have been more than 5 years ago. It is a really good movie, although having been in a T-59 (Chinese copy of a T-55), there is a scene where they are all inside and the alarms trip outside. The interior scene makes the inside of that tank look as big as an RV. It is roomy for 3 men inside the turret (compared to US tanks), but they had 5 guys inside. They’d have been sitting on each others’ laps.

5

So it’s actually a T-59 huh? How bout that… Thanks Rob.

Yes, I have “The Beast” in my collection too. I sought out a copy last year having remembered seeing it latenight on HBO some number? of years ago and was haunted by it’s memory.

One of the better war films made–a must see for enthusiasts & a rare gritty look at a slice of life of a little storied war including alot of insight into the Afgans from a time when the puplic knew far less than now.

Now, can anyone tell me …is this the same film as the Russian title The Tank, Klim Koloshniv II? & if not, where in the world can i get a copy of that one?

6

No, it is actually a T-55 that Israel captured and modified into what model companies call a T-67i (the IDF calls it a Tiran 5). It is interesting that they take a Soviet T-55 modified into a Tiran 5 and modify it to look like a Soviet T-62.

7

Great movie, have it in my collection. Kinda pushed me to this:

Still have to fix that dang track.

Bob

8

Best tank movie: “Kelly’s Heroes”

Worst tank movie, from a technical standpoint: “Battle of the Bulge”

It’s still an enjoyable enough movie, though, just to watch.

9

I wonder if I am the only one that remembers (let alone saw) this one:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088224/

A bit cheesy, but c’mon, it has a Sherman running rampant all over the place…what’s NOT to like! [:D]

Brian

10

Yes, it was a topic on another armor modeling board, the Hooker is a hottie, she is the girl that replaces Suzanne Sommers in the sitcom Three’s Company.

11

Sorry Rob, you seemed to have been saying it was a T-59…now I see you we’re likely refering to the experience of being inside a cramped T-59…right?

my guess prior to this thread wasthe tank was a T-62

Which ever it was… I believe the tank in the story was supposed to be a T-62,

and the tank used played it’s part well.

Anyone into tanks who aint seen The Beast—see it!

Bob-- nice model (whatever it is [:D] )

12

Definately a film for armor fans! I had forgotton all about this one. Saw it when it came it back in [whstl]… Not too long after I went thru Benning where it was filmed. I gotta find it…

13

Bob, you are correct. I have been inside a T-59 and it was fairly cramped, even without any service ammo inside the turret. The ammo takes up a lot of room inside a tank turret like a T-55, T-62, M48, M60.

Yes, the T-55/Tiran 5 played a T-62 in the movie. I said that in a follow up post. It is close enough that the common movie goer would not be able to ascertain the difference; sort of like an M48A5 vs. M60A0, they look close enough that they can pass for one another from certain angles.

The movie is a good character study, the tank itself plays a part in the movie, like a silent crewman.

14

Indy - its Tamiyas T62A

Bob

15

While I’m no expert, I think the Chinese made T-59/69 had headlights on top of the the front fenders, and different turret vents, and searchlight, maybe a laser rangefinder above the main gun barrel, and side skirts.

When I first saw the movie, I thought the turret, when viewed from the front, appeard to be too flat in height to be a T-55…thought it looked more like a T-62.

But the road wheel spacing definitely looks to be a T-55…not a T-62

Rear views of the turret led me to believe it was indeed a T-55, or the Isreali derivitive.

I understand Dale Dye chatted up the IDF over drinks to get them to sell him at least two tanks to do this movie, and he had some fun rigging up water filled dummy rounds to get the right recoil effect when the main gun fired.

And how about George Dzunda as the Tank commander?..never recognized him as the same guy that played the restaurant owner in Deerhunter…

http://www.filmdope.com/Gallery/ActorsD/5092-4744.gif

16

For me though, the best tank movie has to be Bogie’s “Sahara”. The tank was the star over Bogart. I have a question on another tank movie. This is an old '50’s BW movie about an American tank behind enemy lines in Korea trying to escape and picking up a bunch of different people to escape the NK or Chinese. I never caught the name of it as it was a very late night TV catch.

17

yeah–man Sahara is an (old)favorite for sure

from 1943

pretty notable as being a war movie made during the war

From IMDB :

Trivia for

Sahara (1943/I) More at IMDbPro »

  • The German aircraft strafing the tank was actually an early P-51B.
  • Based upon an incident in the Soviet film The Thirteen [See: Trinadtsat (1937)] directed by Mikhail Romm and made about six years prior to this movie.
  • “Lulubelle” is an M3 Lee tank.
  • The movie utilized real soldiers as background artists and extras. They had been situated close by to the production at Camp Young, California where they were in training.
  • According to the documentary Going Hollywood: The War Years (1988), two months after Italy surrendered in World War II, this movie was released with an Italian as a principal character - and a good guy. This was J. Carrol Naish playing Giuseppe.
  • The film’s opening prologue states: “In June, 1942, a small detachment of American tanks with American crews, joined the British Eighth Army in North Africa to get experience in desert warfare under actual battle conditions. History as proved that they learned their lesson well - - .”
  • The film’s dedication states: " . . . a film dedicated to the IV Armored Corps of the Army Ground Forces, United States Army, whose cooperation made it possible to tell this story."
  • The Sahara desert in this movie was portrayed by the California desert’s Borego Desert which is located in the Imperial Valley, north of the American-Mexican border as well as Brawley, Imperial County, California; Chatsworth, California and the sand dunes of Yuma, Arizona.
  • The Hollywood Reporter during mid January 1943 reported that Humphrey Bogart replaced Brian Donlevy for this Columbia Studios film whilst Donlevy in turn replaced Bogart on the same studio’s Once Upon a Time (1944). Donlevy was reportedly tired of appearing in war pictures and he doesn’t actually appear in the credits for Once Upon a Time (1944).
  • A Hollywood Reporter production report once stated Jess Barker; Bill Carter and Lewis Wilson being cast in this movie but none of them feature in the film’s credits and they are either uncredited or do not appear in the film.
  • Bernard Nedell was tested for a leading part in this movie.
  • This movie originally was going to star Melvyn Douglas and Glenn Ford according to an edition of the Hollywood Reporter in November 1942.
  • During the production, cast and crew resided at the Planter’s Hotel in Brawley, Imperial County, California. The hotel was located approximately forty miles from the location where the film was shooting.
  • Make-up artist Henry Pringle created the look of sweat and perspiration on the actors’ faces by mixing Vaseline with water. According to Look magazine, he would rub Vaseline on their faces then spray their faces with water.
  • Two thousand tons of sand were transported to the filming set in order to create the feel of loose desert sand, so reported the New York Times. The newspaper also reported that shadows were spray-painted on desert hills to make them be seen more clearly by the audience. Moreover, sand dune ripples were created by spray-painting the sand with light paint and then turning on a wind-machine.
  • Last of the Comanches (1953), made by the same studio about a decade later, was loosely based on this movie.
  • According to the Hollywood Reporter, this movies premiere was held at Camp Campbell (aka Fort Campbell) in Kentucky. This event was included as part of a program to celebrate the 1st Anniversary of the formation of the IV Armored Corps of the Army Ground Forces, United States Army.
  • Louis Mercier plays a character in this movie called Jean Leroux but his dog tag in the movie CBCS and in reviews has the name Pierre Leroux.
  • Williams’ poetry quote “…a book and verses underneath a bough, a jug of wine … and thou …” is from Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam by Edward FitzGerald.
18

Have any of you caught the remake of Sahara,starring Jim Belushi,not in the same league as the original,but a decent movie none the less.However they did depart slightly from the original.

19

You are correct, but I never said the tank in the movie was a Chinese T-59. I said I had been in a T-59 which is similar in size and layout to a Soviet T-55 since it is in effect a copy. I said that the T-59 turret I had been in was tight for three men without any ammo stored inside. So the scene in which the crew is inside at night is inaccurate because they had so much room, plus they had an extra crewman (the Afghan interpreter) making the tank crew consist of 5 men instead of the normal 4 man crew.

I make the assumption that since an empty T-59 turret has limited space inside that a battle loaded T-55 turret would be even tighter inside because the lion’s share of the main gun ammunition is stored upright inside the turret.

Again, I did not say that the tank in the movie is a T-59.

20

I grabbed a copy of that movie off the internet some time ago on a cheap eBay-like website. It turned out to be (probably) a bootleg copy on DVD of what was probably transferred from a VHS tape. I only watched the first 5-10 minutes when they came upon the British aid station and then decided to leave and a few of the men at the aid station wanted to come. The acting seemed forced and I turned it off.

The original Bogie version is what made me want to be a tanker when I was a kid and I didn’t want to see my childhood memory tarnished by a remake that didn’t look so good.