movies?

Aggie08 · 04-19-2005, 02:29 AM

I'm trying to find some good world war two aviation movies, I'm looking for memphis belle, I've got pearl harbor (not entirely nonfiction but cool nonetheless), I've seen tora tora tora and the Battle of Britain, any other suggestions?

Royzee617 · 04-19-2005, 03:06 AM

633 Squadron! Plus maybe the sequel.

There is a great TV series called Piece of Cake based on the Robinson novel of the same name... both are superb! Try Ebay.

Royzee617 · 04-19-2005, 03:08 AM

Oh, and to risk the wrath of the multitudes herein, try The Final Countdown - Tomcats vs Zeros! Wacky but fun.... no less stoopid than Top Gun IMHO.

Brunner · 04-19-2005, 04:20 AM

That's the movie where USS Nimitz appears somehow near Pearl Harbour in December 1941? It was weird one. well I like wxperiments, but that one was a bit too much

Aggie, try also battle of midway, classic one.
Recently there has been one interesting Czech movie: "Dark Blue world" or something like that.

mosquitoman · 04-19-2005, 04:38 AM

There's a film called Mosquito Squadron that's quite good

Brunner · 04-19-2005, 06:13 AM

I think I saw it long, long time ago. Wasn't it something with skip-bombs?

evangilder · 04-19-2005, 07:20 AM

Look for the original Memphis Belle documentary. It's 45 minutes, done by William Wyler. Well worth a look. Battle of Britain is well done. Of course, Saving Private Ryan is a good one, tough to watch in parts. The HBO series Band of Brothers is one of my favorites.

For aviation I also like 12 o'clock high, Command Decision and the Tuskegee Airmen. There are many others that I am sure will come up through this thread.

Enemy at the gates is good, but like Pearl Harbor, is riddled with inaccuracies.

Royzee617 · 04-19-2005, 11:06 AM

Yeah Tuskeegee Airmen - brilliant! The Red Tails were the preferred escorts to B17s.

I saw a crappy USAAF B17 type film a while ago on Nat Geog Channel around Xmas but can't recall its title... used models and stock footage so for purists only.

Mosquito Squadron is I think the sequel to 633 Sqdn.

IMHO Band of Bros is so much better than SPR... tedious except for the first bit on the beaches.

Not much of the air war in BoB tho.

Good for Mustangs is the JG Ballard book film...Empire of the Sun.

In the factual arena get to EBay for some bargains! There's a good doc on Liberators called 'Raid on Ploesti' or some such....

Of course there's always:
The Dambusters
Hells Angels
Reach for the Sky
Target Tonight
One of Aircraft is Missing

Iron Eagle... Blue Thunder... Hot Shots.... The Right Stuff.... The Peacemaker.... etc Dr Strangelove if you like B52s... there's also a good one on B47s but can't recall the name... Bridges at Toko Ri.... that Vietnam one... Flight of the Intruder.... Bat 10.... the one about CIA airlines over Laos with Mad Max in it... Always - great low flying of firefighters...

Mitchells Do Fly in IMC is brilliant about getting the B25s ready for Hannover Street (yuck)....

Catch 22 is also about B25s... weird but worth a look...

Phew that's enough for now.... maybe we should have an archive on this site...

evangilder · 04-19-2005, 11:21 AM

Catch 22 was actually very good. It is different though, I will give you that.

FLYBOYJ · 04-19-2005, 12:12 PM

THE BATTLE OF BRITIAN - I THINK ONE OF THE ALL TIME CLASSICS FOR ATTEMPTING TO "GET IT RIGHT" Too bad they could come up with any JU-88s!

the lancaster kicks ass · 04-19-2005, 01:49 PM

and the stukas were obviously remote controlled..........

but the dam busters is one of the all time great war films surely........

Aggie08 · 04-19-2005, 01:53 PM

cool, i'll be sure to give those a look, i just got pearl harbor, it was funny how 5 zeroes couldn't take down two p-40s... the movie is sort of ridiculous but im a sucker for the special effects. Also, i can't say because I don't actually know, but just judging from the guncam footage ive seen planes don't disintegrate with several .50 rounds. Even when he was fighting in britain, the he-111 he took down in his spitfire blew up after one pass and the me109s just fell apart like they were made of cardboard. Am I right or completely wrong about this

Royzee617 · 04-19-2005, 02:33 PM

Please don't let us revisit the topic of fighter armamanets... an octet of 303s vs a barrage of fifty cal... cannon etc... argh. One thing is for sure the Zero was a lot more frangible than the P40 etc.

I like the BoB film - seen it loads of times and have just bought the DVD so I can hear the commentary.

I reckon they did a great job with the limitations of the time. Not sure I ever liked the arty farty musical dogfight interlude though....

IMHO PH was a load of disappointing tosh for a million reasons...

Enemy at the Gates was almost as bad....

What a shame, what a missed opportunity.

Royzee617 · 04-19-2005, 02:35 PM

Maybe I will make a short clip of Piece of Cake so you can see how it should be done...

reddragon · 04-19-2005, 04:11 PM

I thought Memphis Belle was a pretty awful movie. Sure, the reenactment of her final raid over Germany is very good, but that first hour is pretty much a dog, in my opinion. It's kind of like Pear Harbor where the scene about the attack is very good, but you've got to sit through about 2 hours of garbage to get to it and I think about another hour of garbage after it. I've just gotten Twelve O'Clock High but I haven't seen it yet, so I can't tell you what it's like, but I believe it's a pretty good movie.