just saw it on tv again
they ran this followed by sands of iwa jima and patton
cool movies
anyway some real nice aircraft shots in the movie
yea watching patton right now.lol.
One of the problems with the movie Patton is that Omar Bradley was an advisor on the film. The other is the Farago biography, which the movie is based upon, didn’t have any material from the Patton family. Bradley may have thought of himself as a friend of Patton, but Patton didn’t. Patton drank and swore, Bradley, a teetotaller, disliked those that did (the only two members of Bradley’s staff that drank were the only ones never promoted to General although they had excellent reviews). Patton specifed to his wife two men who were not to attend his funeral, Bradley and Beedle Smith. The movie shows more of his “war face” only, as his daughter called it for his public face, and not much of the other side of his character.
Read Carlo d’Este’s “A Genius for War” which may be the defintive biography of Patton. It shows what a complex man he really was, problems and all.
Patton would have loved to have the speaking voice of George Scott, instead his voice was more akin to Ross Perot’s, which always bothered him.
That’s interesting, because from my memory, I thought the movie portrayed the relationship between GSP & Beedle as a fairly good one. Mind you, as they say in the classics, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. I’ve got the book “Lucky Forward” - which is the story of George’s 3rd Army & it’s march towards Berlin, for those not familiar. This quick thread has prompted me to pull it out & start reading it.
BTW Tora, tora, tora is on Fox in my part of the world this weekend. Seen it, I don’t know, 10 times. Can’t wait till it comes on though for #11.
Both of them are cool movies and I own both of them on DVD. Tora, Tora, Tora is a little inaccurate during the attack but it’s still worth watching. I got Patton just because of the desert attack by the He-111 (well actually a CASA 2111).
Given that it was made in 1970, some very good special effects. For me, particularly the attacks on the airfield, with parked US fighters exploding, engines and prop blades flying across the tarmac, ground crew running for their lives, looked very realistic, when you consider that there were no CG effects in those days.
I think I remember reading something about the prop chopping across the tarmac. It supposedly really was out of control and those guys really were running for their lives! They showed that same shot at numerous different angles during the attack scene.
speaking of Patton- I was watching it a few weeks ago and noticed something I had never noticed before.
The Tank traffic jam scene…look behind Patton, Jet contrails in the sky.
I love all of those movies
You are correct. That “shot” with the P-40 prop wasn’t supposed to happen, but it was so good they put it in the film. The other “oops” was the Nevada steaming down the channel. Somebody messed up and it happened too soon, leaving the cameramen scrambling to get the shots since it was a one time deal, came out good tho.
Tora, Tora, Tora may be “dated”, but as far as I’m concerned it’s still the best Pearl Harbor movie. Much better than the movie “Pearl Harbor”, which is not only mostly fiction but highly inaccurate (Check out the other ships in the harbor, look awlful modern to me). Also, I’m probably the only guy who noticed the car the two pilots drive to the airfield. It’s a '40 Ford standard with two (instead of one) tailights, plus Ford only made the convertible in the “Deluxe” model (picky, picky,picky). If it ever comes on again, watch the documentary about the making of "Tora, Tora, Tora, very interesting.
Yep saw it once - beore my interest in military aviation modelling, & didn’t tape it. Have I seen it since - nope!
DOH!
I first saw “Patton” in 1970, at what passed for a base theater at Phu Cat, Vietnam. During one of the big battle scenes, we started taking incoming rockets. None of the rounds landed close enough to the theater to be a threat, but still close enough to scare the s*** out of everyone. How’s that for realism?
I remember that when Tora first came out there was a story going around that in the scene withthe run-a-way P40 one of the people running away didn’t quite make it clear and was seriously hurt.
I first saw Patton at the outdoor theatre at U-tapao. Not a good idea. It was located about 50 yards from the end of the runway. Every time a strike mission took off you couldn’t hear the movie for a few minutes but you got a good view of all those aircraft going by at very low level.
I remember when this movie was made. In the “pre-computer graphics” era, they had to build really large models. IIRC, most of the P-40s etc. were actually 1:1 scale models made of fiberglass.
The ships were huge. I recall that the battleships were on the order of 60 feet long. One of the old modeling magazines (Scale Modeler?) ran a feature on those models and showed them sitting on wooden supports in between shots. They also modified a number of T-6 aircraft to look like Japanese fighters and, IIRC, some of them are also still around.
BTW, am I the only one who gets irritated at that vintage movie footage showing “Japanese” aircraft dive bombing some target but the aircraft are actually U.S. Navy Dauntless dive bombers?
Another oops I read about was the B-17 coming in with the one main gear stucked in the up position, it was a real emergency and since the landing looked so cool, they put that in the film too.
Scott
Yea I like Tora Tora Tora so much I bought it on DVD. We just watched it in ROTC yesterday.[:)]I always liked the part where the PBY blew up when they were trying to move it!![:D]I cant find Patton on DVD though although I have seen it a billion times.
Chris
Got 'em both on DVD. Haven’t watched Patton yet, but I will someday (not much of an armor guy), but I never tire of TTT. Great movie. That it is shown from both perspectives is what makes it so appealing to me. I can deal with the mechanical inaccuracies since IMO they do not detract from the story.
That B-17 used in TTT is the only flying F model in the world today as all the others are G models that came with the chin turret, And also speaking of models, in the John Wayne movie, “Flying Tigers”, those P-40Bs used on the ground were 1:1 models powered by auto engines, not actual aircraft.
Man, those were the days - I was taken to Tora, Tora, Tora as a birthday present. I still have, somewhere, the special premier book they were selling at the theater.
What appeals to me the most from a technical aspect is that it was made in the days when they actually had to put some thought and effort into framing the shots and creating the scenes, none of this, We’ll just fire up the mainframe! garbage that you get today.
TTT is also a film that I love as well. It was one of the first that I got in DVD format.
There are other gems out ther as well. Anyone remember “A Walk in the Sun”? They have a flight of P-38’s in a flybye during the film. Too bad its in B&W.
As to the B-17 F’s. The last batches started to have chin turrets as well. I didn’t know that either until a customer of ours talked to me about his wartime experience. He was a ball turret gunner on one of the first chin turret F’s. It came in a baremetal finish. He remembered the serial number and I matched it with a batch of F’s which I believe came out of Witchita. As this was also one of the first baremetal planes in the ETO it became a target for German fighters. On a mission over Holland, they were set upon by German fighters and shot down. I believe he said that it was their 6th mission. The rest of the war he spent as a PoW. He also confirmed one of the stories about the released PoW’s. After their release by the Russians from their camp they walked back to US lines that they were straffed by our own fighters. Their senior officer ordered the former PoW’s to form the letters PoW in the field with their bodies. On the second pass, the fighters waggled their wings and flew away.
Mike