“Firebase” is a short film from Oats
Studios. Oats Studios is the brainchild
of South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp who was nominated for an Oscar for
“District 9”. His idea is to make
experimental short films and provide them free via YouTube and Steam. If there is enough interest and financing
becomes available, the films might be expanded into feature films. The start-up is a gamble as, based on
“Firebase”, production costs are clearly way above whatever revenue they bring
in. Good luck, Neill. Until his business model proves a failure, let’s
enjoy the free content.
“Firebase”
starts with a viewer discretion warning.It is definitely not for children.A title card informs us:“This
world is not our permanent home;we are
looking forward to a home yet to come.”Sci-fi vibe established.Immediately followed with a horror vibe via a mutilated corpse tied to a
post.But it’s also a war movie because
it is set in Vietnam in 1970.Footage
establishes that Vietnam was hell.Blomkamp imagines it as literally hellish.The plot is so gonzo it is hard to
summarize.There is a River God who is
wreaking havoc on American soldiers, transforming them into zombielike
creatures.A CIA operative enigmatically
calls the monster “a mistake”.He needs
Sgt. Hines to liquidate the anomaly.Hines is basically an anti-virus.He is not only a kick-ass warrior, but he seemingly is invulnerable to
the River God’s godlike powers.
I
tend to think of short films as being low budget and thus low in production
values.This film does not fit that
stereotype.Blomkamp filmed in the
jungles of South Africa with a snake wrangler to protect the cast and crew from
black mombas.So the jungle looks legit,
but it’s the special effects and makeup that wow.The reanimated corpses are shown in all their
anatomical creepiness.The River God is
scary as hell.It’s not a film you want
to see alone on a stormy night.Or if
you are eating anything.As hard as it
is to believe, the movie is clearly a war movie.Besides the footage, there is a fire-fight
and Hines goes down into a tunnel.There
is a nifty recreation of a base camp and the film uses several Hueys.It is also a sci-fi movie as there is some
space-time continuum thrown in to make heads spin.And there’s this electromagnetic coil gun
(think BFG, Doom fans) and a relativity capsule to provide a force-field around
the demon-slayer Hines.The only
weakness in the film is we don’t get to see that bad boy in action as the movie
leaves the YouTube watchers screaming for more.
If
it is transformed into a feature length film, it will have to have a big budget
to follow through with what Blomkamp was able to do in 27 minutes. He’ll probably look for big-name actors, but
the cast here is good. And they don’t
have to spout ridiculous dialogue. On
paper, it might read as ridiculous, however.
Don’t think too much when you are watching it. Let me know what you think in the comment section.
SYNOPSIS:“The Killing
Fields” is a war journalism movie.It is
a tragic buddy film.A New York Times journalist
(Sam Waterson) is covering the situation in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge is
taking over.He is aided by his
Cambodian interpreter (Haing Ngor).When
the foreign journalists are evacuated, the interpreter is captured by the Khmer
Rouge and put in an indoctrination camp.
BACK-STORY: The movie was Roland Joffe’s directorial
debut. The screenplay was based on Schanberg’s article in the NY
Times entitled “The Death and Life of Dith Pran”. The movie was a
critical and box office success. A British film, it did very well at
the BAFTAs winning Best Picture and Actor (Ngor) among other awards.Amazingly, Ngor also won the award for Beat
Newcomer. It was nominated for Academy Awards for Picture, Director,
Actor (Waterston), and Adapted Screenplay. It won for Supporting
Actor (Ngor), Film Editing, and Cinematography. It is #30 on AFIs
list of “Most Inspiring Movies”.It is
#100 on BFIs list of greatest British films of the 20th Century.
TRIVIA:Wikipedia, imdb
1.Ngor
was in the labor camps.His wife died in
childbirth because she refused to call for his help because she knew the Khmer
Rouge was murdering doctors.After four
years, he escaped to Thailand.He was
discovered by the casting director at a Cambodian wedding in Los Angeles.He became the first Southeast Asian to win an
acting Oscar.He was the second
non-professional actor to win one.(First was Harold Russell for “Best Years of Our Lives”.)He was murdered in his garage by a thief
interested in his gold locket (which had a picture of his wife).When his Oscar was found in his home, all the
gold had been rubbed off it indicating that he had clutched it a lot.
2.It has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
3.The
score is by Mike Oldfield of “Exorcist” fame.
Belle and Blade = N/A
Brassey’s=4.0
Video Hound=N/A
War Movies=5.0
Military History=no
Channel 4=#15
Film Site=no
101 War Movies=yes
Rotten Tomatoes = no
OPINION: The plot is
solid. The theme of friendship is not maudlin. The final
reunion is touching and believable. The movie does a good job of
leaving doubts about Schanberg’s motives. His guilt feelings come
out and there is an element of redemption, but I felt he was something of an
ass hole. This ambiguity added to the depth of the
character. The theme of the perseverance of the human spirit as
exhibited by Pran’s survival and escape is the main reason the film is rated as
inspirational. The camaraderie and competition between the
journalists and their love/hate relationship with war is not ground-breaking,
but well handled. The government as cover-upper is also
stereotypical, but Joffe does not rant.
“The
Killing Fields” is an overrated movie, as are most from this
subgenre. Movie critics like to imagine that because they write for
newspapers, they are kin to war journalists. If they give one of
these movies a bad review, they may have to face a collegue who will ask them
if they have ever been in the shit. Plus, those guys are fracking
crazy and may bash your head with a beer bottle (or put their joint out on your
face). As far as the Academy voters are concerned, they love their
screenwriter buddies who are cousins to the war journalists.
“War Game” is an animated war movie
based on the famous Christmas Truce of 1914.
It is a faithful rendition of the story told in the children’s novel by
Michael Foreman although some characters were added for the film. The book is very popular and the movie won
several awards, including the Children’s Choice Award at the British Animation Awards. The movie was a welcome addition to the WWI
movie fraternity.
The movie opens with some
British blokes playing one last football (soccer to Americans) match before enlisting for a much
bigger game.The soldiers are portrayed
as puppets.This movie is not exactly
subtle.Lord Kitchener literally comes
out of the poster to encourage impressionable young men to “play the
game”.Crowds cheer and peers pressure
and the main characters say “everyone else is going” to their parents.So they’re off to the trenches with mother’s
sobs ringing in their ears. The trenches
are nicely rendered, as is no man’s land.
Months pass and it is Christmas
time.On the eve, German’s can be heard
singing “Silent Night”.On the morn a
Brit comes out with a soccer ball and the fraternization kicks off, literally.It’s more of a kickabout than a game, but fun
is had by all.Naturally, when the
generals find out they are incensed with the thought that fun could coincide
with hatred for the enemy and commitment to the war effort.“There is to be no repeat of this unwarlike activity.”And there isn’t, as the final scene
emphasizes.The Tommies go over the top
following a soccer ball.With
predictable results.
Clocking in at less than thirty
minutes, “War Game” is a nice little movie and it does the service of introducing
kids to a semi-famous incident in the Great War.It is educational in that respect because it
accurately renders the legend of the Christmas Truce.I say “legend” because the incident (actually
several similar incidents) is debated by historians.The evidence for the fraternization comes
mainly from letters and memoirs so there could have been some
embellishment.Evidently it did begin
with Christmas caroling wafting across no man’s land on Christmas Eve.Then the next day, some brave Christian soul
dared to buck the trend and come out without belligerence.Others followed and gifts of food, tobacco,
and liquor were exchanged.Tentative
hand-shakes were followed by heartfelt hugs.The soccer story is the cherry on top of the Christmas pudding.This act of comradeship is referred to in a
few primary sources and may have been more than one “game”.The most heralded version had the Scots
squaring off with the Germans.According
to one version, the Scots used the distraction of their kilts being blown by
the wind to expose their bare bums to win the match.Sadly, the movie does not depict this.Maybe in the future “unrated, adult” edition.
The animation is
interesting. However, that strength does
not overcome the main flaws of the movie.
Even for a movie aimed at children, the plot is trite and very
schmaltzy. I think our current
generation of kids who have been weaned on the Cartoon Network will not be impressed or
entertained. Plus the movie is pretty
depressing. The anti-war trope is better
aimed at an adult audience. Or young men
approaching military age. It is hardly
ground-breaking to suggest that the youth of Britain were naïve about war and
the powers that be were using them. The
movie deserves some credit for giving children an idea of trench life, but it
does not give a realistic account of the Christmas Truce. Hopefully it encourages research on the
subject.
GRADE=C
THE BOOK: War Game by Michael Foreman is a children’s book.
The art work is watercolorish, but effective. In the book, Freddie and his mates go to war
due to peer and crowd pressure. When
they arrive in France, they go through typical soldier jobs which do not
include combat until the end. In the process
of covering soldier life, Foreman throws in a lot of facts usually in the
form of captions to actual pictures. The
book includes not just the drawings, but also a lot of cool propaganda posters
and advertisements. In this respect the
book reads like a docudrama. This sets
it apart from most children’s books. It
also makes it a weird hybrid. The story
is aimed at children, but the facts are above their level. Without the trivia, the book would be
light-weight and frankly, boring. You
don’t really get to know the characters.
The plot is very simplistic, which is natural for a book aimed at
children. You get little of the misery
the soldiers went through until the big, depressing finish. As far as the soccer “match”, it is more of
an actual game than the kick-around of the movie.
Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a
war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard
die for his country.
3. What movie is this?
The movie fits into the sub-genre of
old-school all-star epics with vignettes supporting the main story line. It’s sisters are “The Longest Day” (1962) and
“The Battle of the Bulge” (1965). It was directed by Guy Hamilton of
“Goldfinger” fame. The screenplay is
based on the book The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek
Dempster. During the filming,
more bullets (in the form of blanks) were fired than in the actual battle. The movie has a very impressive list of
technical advisers which included Adolf Galland and Robert Stanford
Tuck.
“The
Burmese Harp” is a film by Kon Ichikawa (“Fires on the Plain”). He also co-wrote it based on a children’s
book by Michio Takeyama. The book was
more of a fantasy than the movie. It was
nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.
The movie was one of the first Japanese films with a pacifist bent. It was remade by Ichikawa in 1985 and was a
big hit. I have not seen the remake.
The
movie opens in July, 1945 in Burma. A
Japanese company led by Capt. Inouye (Rentaro Mikuni) is retreating across mountains
to try to reach Thailand. One of the
soldiers, named Mizushima (Shoji Yasui), plays a harp. The men are anachronistically healthy,
well-dressed, and not exhausted. (And
this is the director of “Fire on the Plain”?)
They stop at a village and the Burmese give them food without any
coercion. How nice of them. Suddenly, a British column appears. The Japanese join them in singing “Home Sweet
Home” to avoid a firefight. The Brits
inform them that the war has been over for three days. Mizushima volunteers to talk a more warlike
unit into surrendering. They are holding
out in a cave. The negotiations do not
go well as this unit is more typical of the Japanese you find in war
movies. The British are not in a patient
mood and Mizushima is lucky to survive in a life changing incident. He decides to become a monk and bury dead
soldier bodies. His mates want him to
return to Japan with them. They
communicate via talking parrot. Make
sure you get the DVD with parrot subtitles.
“The
Burmese Harp” is certainly different.
While not as fantastic as the source novel, it is like a fable in many
ways. If you treat it that way, you will
be able to overlook the unrealistic elements of it. Most of the plot could only have occurred in
a children’s book. I doubt many Japanese
veterans recognized the Burma of this movie.
For a much more realistic view (although it is set in the Philippines),
watch “Fires on the Plain”. Ichikawa
must have made that movie to balance “The Burmese Harp”. Another fanciful theme is there is no
dysfunction in Mizushima’s unit.
Everyone loves him. It must be
his harp playing. Or his singing. The movie has a lot of songs for a war
movie. I counted eight. Hard core war movie lovers might want to
factor that in when they decide whether to watch the movie. If you don’t like a lot of songs, watch the
movie for its creative cinematography.
It is a film school type movie.
You won’t learn about film clichés from it, however. There is no sinister villain and it is not
predictable. The acting is fine and
there is a unique character in the Burmese woman who trades with them and gives
them the talking parrot.
“The
Burmese Harp” is not a must-see. It is a
nice little movie and I enjoyed it. It
depends on what you are in a mood for.
It and its evil cousin “Fires on the Plain” pretty much cover the two
extremes of moods. Fable or
funereal. Take your pick.
“Bat*21”
is the true story of the rescue of Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton after he parachuted
into North Vietnam.He was an electronic
warfare officer whose EB-66 was shot down during the 1972 Easter
Offensive.The planes call sign was Bat-21.Hambleton was Bat-21 Bravo.He survived eleven days on the run and was rescued
in the longest and most costly rescue mission in the war.His story was told by retired Air Force
Colonel William Anderson in a book of the same name.Anderson adapted his book for the
screenplay.The movie was directed by
Peter Markle (“Faith of My Fathers”).Hambleton served as the technical adviser.It was made in Malaysia with substantial
cooperation from the Malaysian government and military.
Hambleton
(Gene Hackman) suggests a reconnaissance flight over an upcoming bombing route
to ferret out enemy anti-aircraft positions.Although he is a valuable electronic warfare expert, he hops a ride on
the EB-66.The very fake-looking plane
gets hit by a SAM in a scene where you wish they had had CGI back then.Hambleton ejects and is the only survivor.On the ground, he comes under fire from enemy
mortars, so the movie gets off to a shaky start.Things pick up when Danny Glover shows up as
“Bird Dog” Clark.Capt. Clark is
piloting a Cessna Skymaster in his role as part of search and rescue.The two men communicate via radio and do the
requisite bonding.Since, besides us,
the enemy are listening in, Hambleton devises a code using his favorite golf
courses to inform Clark where he is going next.He has to keep moving because the Commies are on his trail.Keep in mind that this guy knows so much
about our electronic warfare that if he is captured, the North Vietnamese will
win the war!The Air Force and the
filmmaker are willing to do whatever it takes to rescue him.Virtually every Vietnam War movie references “leave
no man behind”.This movie shows the
efforts made to live up to that mantra.
“Bat*21”
is the kind of movie that you wonder as you are watching it:“how much of this is bull shit?”It has several moments that made me face
palm.For example, Hambleton is ready to
be picked up by a village.Easy,
peasy.But it’s a trap!A Huey drops mines between the enemy and
Hambleton.The mission is aborted, but a
Jolly Green gets hit by an RPG and crashes.The pilot and co-pilot are captured.They shoot the co-pilot and force the pilot to tell them where Hambleton
is.Then they force him into the
minefield where he steps on a mine.Hambleton opens fire and Clark comes in to fire missiles so he can
escape.Phew!There are some moments of truth in this
scene, but most of it is for entertainment purposes only.(See my Historical Accuracy section
below)
The
reason to see the movie are the two leads.Hackman and Glover are their usual reliable selves and they elevate the
material.It needs elevation because it
is a pretty generic action thriller.It
may be set in the Vietnam War, but it could easily have been a Bruce Willis
movie (with Samuel L. Jackson).It does
not avoid clichés.The rear echelon
MFers learn what war is really like.Clark is disobeying orders because he knows what is right and to hell
with his bosses.There is a lot of
action, in between all the talking.It’s
unrealistic as hell, but fun.And it’s
not just gunfire.Hambleton is defended
by a fleet of missile-firing and bomb-dropping aircraft.Whoever was in charge of pyrotechnics earned
their pay.You get a lot of bang for
your buck with this movie.Much of the
budget must have gone to explosives (and two salaries), leaving little for the
rest of the production.And you get to
see the 58 year-old Hackman trekking through the jungle.(Hambleton was 54.)The cinematography is fine and we get some
nice chopper-eye views.The Malaysian
jungle stands in well for the Vietnam jungle.I hate to be a jungleist, but if you seen one, you’ve seen them all.
When
it comes to Vietnam War, “Bat*21” is second tier.If it wasn’t based on true story (loosely),
it would be third tier.That would put
it with Hackman’s other opus – “Uncommon Valor”.He made that movie five years earlier.It did a lot better at the box office which
reflects the public’s desire to see fantasy fiction over fantasy nonfiction.I personally prefer “Bat*21”.It is decent entertainment and it encouraged
me to research Lt. Col. Hambleton out of curiosity about that bull shit issue I
mentioned.The real story is even more
amazing.
GRADE= C
HISTORICAL ACCURACY:The setup is accurate.Lt. Col. Hambleton was an electronic warfare officer assigned to Korat
Air Base in Thailand.It was his 63rd
mission as a navigator aboard an EB-66 codenamed Bat-21.It was a typical signals intelligence
gathering mission to enable countering anti-aircraft efforts by the North
Vietnamese.This was in conjunction with
a B-52 bombing strike as part of the Air Force’s reaction to North Vietnam’s 1972
Easter Offensive.The EB-66 was hit by a
SAM and Hambleton was the only survivor.Hambleton did have Top Secret access to Strategic Air Command operations
and was an expert of SAM countermeasures, so he was avaluable commodity.It is possible the North Vietnamese knew
about his status and value.This
explains why both sides expended so much effort to get him.
First
contact with Hambleton was made by Forward Air Controllers in a Skywalker.In fact, Hambleton made radio contact while
he was still parachuting down.They
pinpointed his location in some bushes in a dry rice paddy.They also reported that he was smack dab in
the middle of the offensive.Hundreds of
soldiers were within 100 meters and the area was full of anti-aircraft
assets.Hambleton was able to direct
Skyraiders and Phantoms in to harass the enemy closing in on his position.A rescue attempt by two choppers failed as
both were hit by ground fire.One crashed
with all but one of the crew killed (the one survivor was captured) and the
other was severely damaged and forced to abort.When the Air Force was informed of the identity of Hambleton, it
declared a no fire zone to the standard 27 kilometers around him.No friendly artillery or bombardment was to
be done in the zone unless approved from the highest up.The North Vietnamese, with the cooperation of
the Soviets, were monitoring the situation and moved in more anti-aircraft
units.Two Jolly Greens were badly shot
up.The Air Force tried bombing around
him, but the area remained very hot.Another Jolly Green was shot down with all six killed.All this time, Hambleton was hiding in a
hole.At one point ten Skyraiders tried
to pave the way forSearch and Rescue
team, but eight were damaged.A
Skywalker was shot down while directing protective fire.One of the FACs was killed and the other was
captured and died in prison.
It
was the rescuers who suggested the golf holes code so he could avoid mine
fields and get to the river.Hambleton
moved and went through the bombed out village that had shot up the two choppers
earlier.He killed a North Vietnamese
soldier with a knife.He fell off a
cliff and broke an arm.Continuing to
move, but nearing the end of his rope, Hambleton managed to signal some Skyraiders.One of the few SEALs left in Vietnam made it
his mission to get to Hambleton.Lt.
Thomas Norris should have been the other hero in the movie.This remarkable man risked his life to go
behind enemy lines to rescue not only Hambleton, but another downed airman in
the area.Norris was accompanied by a
South Vietnamese SEAL named Nguyen Van Kiet.They located him and put him in a sampan and paddled down the river,
sometimes under fire.They called in air
support and managed to deliver Hambleton to friendly forces.
“Rescue Dawn” is the true story of
Lt. Dieter Dengler, who was held prisoner in a Laotian prison camp until he
escaped. The film was written and
directed by Werner Herzog (“Aguirre, the Wrath of God”). It was his debut as a director of feature
films. Herzog adapted his screenplay
from his documentary about Dengler entitled “Little Dieter Needs to Fly”
(1997). The documentary included
extensive interviews with Dengler. The
movie is in the subgenre of survival films like “Hell in the Pacific” and “The Way Back”. It was filmed in Thailand.
In
February, 1965, Lt. Dengler (Christian Bale) was involved in bombing missions
over Laos.He flew off the aircraft
carrier USSRanger in the Gulf of
Tonkin.Before his first mission, the
pilots watch a jungle survival film and joke around.Foreshadowing.On that very first mission, Dengler’s A-1
Skyraider rolls in on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, is hit, and crashes in a rice
paddy.The CGI for this scene is poor,
but the movie is not going to rely on effects.He is quickly captured by the Pathet Lao.Herzog does not use subtitles, so we are as
confused as Dengler is.He is
interrogated by the usual English-speaking, suave enemy officer.He is tortured and eventually taken to a
camp. The camp holds only a few prisoners, two of them are Americans – Sgt.
Gene DeBruin (Jeremy Davies) and Lt. Duane Martin (Steve Zahn).Dengler immediately takes charge of the
prisoners who all sleep in the same barracks with their feet in stocks.Life in the camp is more gross than graphic.Dengler hatches an escape plan which Debruin
opposes because he feels they all will be killed.The plan involves surprising the guards and
getting their weapons.Then all they’ll
need to do is survive the jungle to reach friendly forces.
“Rescue
Dawn” is the best Vietnam War POW movie.Granted, the competition is weak.Most of the movies are exploitation flicks like “Rambo II”, “Uncommon
Valor”, and the “Missing in Action” series.“Hanoi Hilton” is the closest equivalent, since it is also a true story.(Actually, the closest movie to it is the
WWII drama “The Way Back”.)“Rescue
Dawn” merges the action of the escape/rescue films with the prison life of
“Hanoi Hilton”.The prison scenes
accurately reflect the fact that Dengler and his mates were being held in
conditions far from those of the Hanoi Hilton.The movie is not a tutorial on Vietnam War prison camps.And the escape accurately reflects the fact
that this is not Stalag Luft III from “The Great Escape”.The decision by Herzog to forego
“enhancement” of the narrative probably explains the disappointing box office.
Herzog
deserves a lot of credit for adapting his documentary into a movie that would
bring Dengler’s amazing tale to a broader audience.He did well with the casting.The acting is excellent, especially from Bale,
Davies, and Zahn.They committed totally
to their roles (those are real worms Bale is eating) in what must have been a
difficult shoot in the tropical Thailand climate.No trailers were provided for the actors.All the main actors lost weight for their
roles (Bale lost 55 pounds) and in a show of solidarity, Herzog lost 30 pounds.The film was shot in reverse chronology so
they could gain back their weight during the shoot.All three leads could have been nominated for
their performances.In many ways it is
an ensemble effort as the other prisoners have their moments and the group
interaction is entertaining.There is
naturally some dysfunction.
The decision to film in Thailand was great
for verisimilitude.It is a lush, but
menacing setting.The cinematography
works well with the setting.The camp is
accurately depicted as low-rent and the guards are hardly the malevolent
psychopaths we are used to seeing.They
have interesting personalities, as do the prisoners.In fact, they are just as messed up as the
prisoners.Herzog sacrifices POW tropes
for realism.The movie is refreshingly
free of clichés and implausibilities.For instance, the escape is sloppy.The violence is sudden, vicious, and thus, realistic.Herzog also was not interested in taking a
position on the war or being overly patriotic.Dengler and the other prisoners do not debate whether it was all
worthwhile.
The
plot is divided into four acts.The
opening and closing are the weakest.The
sections in the camp and the trek of Dengler and Martin are powerful.This is mainly due to the acting.Unfortunately, this results in the biggest
problem with the movie.When you hire
Jeremy Davies, you get Jeremy Davies.DeBruin is an excellent foil for the optimistic Dengler.He is played as an unstable fly in the
ointment.But the truth is the real DeBruin
was maligned by the film.(See my
Historical Accuracy section below)His
family was severely critical of the final product and justifiably so.Herzog has subsequently admitted he should
have known better.He should have
created a fictional character.
Overall,
although not perfect, “Rescue Dawn” is one of the better Vietnam War
movies.It tells a remarkable story with
a commendable amount of accuracy (aside from the DeBruin portrayal).Keep that in mind if you see it, because you
are not going to get “John McCain Meets Rambo”.It does have a lot of suspense, but it is not a pulse-pounding
movie.It is best viewed as a survival
movie.
GRADE = B
HISTORICAL ACCURACY: Dengler entered the
Air Force simply because he wanted to fly.The Air Force would not let him, so he ended up in the Navy.Although the movie depicts the pilots not
taking the survival film seriously, Dengler had actually excelled at survival
school.He was the only one to gain
weight as his poor upbringing had trained him to eat almost anything.The movie does an excellent job showing this
ability.The flight was his first
mission.The crash is basically as it
happened.He was capture while crossing
a clearing, not while drinking from a stream.He was staked to the ground at night and marched during the day.The movie does not show him escaping when his
guards fell asleep.He climbed to the
top of a hill and tried to use a mirror to signal planes, but none appeared.After several days, he came down to get some
water and was recaptured.The ant piles
and water torture did occur.The torture
was more varied and worse than the movie showed.He did refuse to sign a document condemning
America.
He
spent some time in a Pathet Lao camp before being transferred to the camp of
the movie.DeBruin and Martin had been in
captivity for over two years.DeBruin is
very different than the character in the movie.He taught the others English and shared his food.He was the main author of the plan.He used the nail to free their feet before
Dengler even arrived.It was also his
idea to save their rice in the tubes.The way the movie handles the rice situation is almost exactly the
opposite of the real DeBruin!It could
be argued that the movie character assassinates DeBruin.You cannot blame Dengler for this as he had
nothing but positive things to say about DeBruin and if he had lived (he passed
in 2001), he probably would have been upset with the movie.
The
sleeping arrangement was accurately depicted.They did supplement their food with snakes and rats.The movie refers to the dysentery problem,
but downplays it.The plan was
essentially the same, but it had been concocted before Dengler arrived. Dengler took charge because he was in the best
shape and was the most determined to escape. They did initiate the plan after
overhearing that they were going to be liquidated.The escape was close to the actual escape.Dengler killed five as they approached him
and Phisat Indradat shot another.Two of
the guards got away.Seven prisoners
escaped.They broke into three groups
with Dengler and Martin pairing up.DeBruin apparently stayed with a prisoner who was ill.It is unclear what happened to him.
The
Dengler/Martin trek is accurately depicted in the movie.They did build a raft to float to what they
hoped would be the Mekong River.They
did have trouble with some rapids.They
did have a single sole that they shared.The leaches were real.They did
manage to build a fire, but it was to signal a C-130, not a helicopter.(After all, what would a helicopter be doing
over Laos.)The helicopter attack was a
rare moment of enhancement by Herzog.Martin’s death is pretty much how it happened.They were trying to steal food from a village
when a boy alerted the villagers.A
villager slashed Martin in the leg and then he was beheaded. Dengler escaped
and went back to the abandoned village which he set afire to successfully
signal a C-130, but the fire was not recognized as a plea for help. Later after 23 days, Dengler was able to use
a parachute to signal an Air Force Skyraider and got himself rescued by a
helicopter.He was taken to a hospital
in Da Nang.It was Navy SEALs who
liberated him in a gurney because the Navy did not want the Air Force
debriefing him.He was greeted warmly
back on the Ranger.
SYNOPSIS:“The Dam Busters”
is an old-school British film about a bombing mission to destroy some German
dams.It covers the development of a
“bouncing bomb” by a scientist named Barnes Wallis (Michael Redgrave) and the
training and delivery by a squadron of Lancaster bombers led by Wing Commander
Guy Gibson (Richard Todd).The movie
concludes with the iconic bombing raid.
BACK-STORY:The studio asked
Paul Brickhill to write a treatment of his book for a possible Richard Todd
vehicle.Brickhill decided to concentrate
on just Operation Chastise and not include the later missions covered in the
book.Operation Chastise was the bombing
of three Ruhr Valley dams using Wallis’ bouncing bombs.R.C. Sheriff (“Journey’s End”) wrote the
screenplay.The director was Michael
Anderson (“Operation Crossbow”).It was
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Special Effects.It was nominated for BAFTA’s for Best British
Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Film From Any Source.It was voted the 68th best British
film of the 20th Century.It
was the biggest box office success of 1955.
TRIVIA:Wikipedia, imdb
1. It is based on “The Dam Busters” by Paul
Brickhill and “Enemy Coast Ahead” by Guy Gibson.
2. It was the biggest box office hit in 1955 in
Great Britain.
3. The climactic attack scene (and the one in
“633 Squadron”) influenced the attack on the Death Star in “Star Wars”.
4. The War Ministry made four Lancasters
available for 130 pounds per plane per day.This cost was 10% of the budget.
5. Guy Gibson’s dog was named N*****, so the
movie is accurate about that.The dog
was not as beloved by the squadron as the movie implies.The men would get him drunk and he would pee
on their pants.Unlike the movie, the
driver of the car tried to avoid hitting him and several passengers were injured
in the crash.The dog used in the movie
was also named N*****.In 1999, ITV
censored the name and in American versions of the movie, the name was changed
to Trigger.
6. Before release, Gibson’s widow sued, which
held the film up for months until references to her husband’s book were added
to the movie.
Belle and Blade=3.5
Brassey’s=4.0
Video Hound=N/A
War Movies=3.8
Military History=no
Channel 4=#11
Film Site=no
101 War Movies=yes
Rotten Tomatoes=no
OPINION:It is
historically accurate in the main points. It is pretty realistic for its
time. It was a huge hit in England, helped by the thrilling opening
theme. It glamorizes the RAF like "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"
recruited for the U.S. Air Force. The two parts are both interesting and
the raid itself is thrilling. However, it is definitely old school in its
quaintness and Peter Jackson's version should be much better, although
unnecessary.It may be the 53rd
greatest war movie, but it is not the 53rd best war movie.
There are two people in this barracks who know I
didn't do it. Me and the guy that did do it.
3. What movie is this?
It is a black and white old-school war film released in
1953. It is an unofficial sequel to the
biopic “The Desert Fox” and James Mason portrayed Rommel in both. It is set in the siege of Tobruk in
1941. It lauds the 9th
Australian Division’s role in the defense of the port. It was directed by Robert Wise who later won
Oscars for “The Sound of Music” and “West Side Story”. It stars Richard Burton in only his seventh
film.
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