Worst Military Portrayal in a Movie

[RustyBattleship]

Actually, all German tanks were gasoline powered. And it was true that a lot of the success of Operation Autumn Mist depended on capturing American fuel dumps. ;)

I just remember seeing one film about the Battle of the Bulge in which American prisoners are shot by a German in the back of a truck with an American water-cooled Browning machine gun. Talk about a big mistake!

NOW you are going to make me dig into the historical specs. Simply because when I was in uniform (late 50s and early 60s) I recall all of the WW II vets in my outfit (including my motor pool sergeant who was in the OSS) that US and British advances were hampered by lack of gasoline fuel whereas if they were diesel powered, like the German and Russian tanks, confiscation of fuel dumps would have put us ahead faster.

As for a German using a 1917 Browning machine gun (that's the one with the water cooling jacket as opposed to the 1919 model) they were trying to impersonate a German Maxim. But in real life (or death depending upon your point of view from either the trigger or the muzzle) it would NOT be unusual to use captured weapons or vehicles. I recall browsing through a picture book on M-4 Shermans and it showed a captured Sherman with German markings. And it wasn't for a movie.

[Amled]

..A much better film was in 1949 with "Battleground" with Van Johnson (Thirty Seconds over Tokyo), Ricardo Montalban (Fantasy Island & Khan of Star Trek) and George Murphy (US Senator from California). A little hokey in some areas, but at least it looked c-c-c-c-cold.

A favorite of mine. TCM shows it occationally.
Get a kick out of Van Johnson running around with his helmet full of eggs he never get a chance to cook, and James Whitmore as the cigar chewing topkick.
Hokey at times yet...but good.
Worst got to be Starship Trooper.
Now if they would have stuck to the novel that would have been different!!!

[ChrisF202]

Actually, all German tanks were gasoline powered. And it was true that a lot of the success of Operation Autumn Mist depended on capturing American fuel dumps. ;)

I just remember seeing one film about the Battle of the Bulge in which American prisoners are shot by a German in the back of a truck with an American water-cooled Browning machine gun. Talk about a big mistake!

I think that was BoB as well.

Another stupid one is Buffalo Soldiers (2001) and of course Pearl Harbor.

[Bluesman]

I'm sorry to remind anybody that was trying to forget this piece of dreck, but Iron Eagle and it's putrid sequel have to be the absolute LOWEST EVER portrayal by Hollywood of what the military is like.

I need a drink. GodDAYUM.

[Horrido]

You barely beat me to it, Blues.

As to female Russian snipers, there were a few hotties in the mix that would give Rachel Weiss a run for her money.

[Bill]

Horrido i seriously doubt you'd feel warm and loved around a filth covered hardened killer...even if she has a nice figure

I know you pretty well bro, don't seem like your type.

You are more of the cute USAF C-141 pilot type methinx.... ;)

[sparten]

Crimson Tide anyone?
"Go Bama, Roll Tide."
It sucked like hell.

As for the tanks, I think post-Panther all were Diesel Powered.

[RustyBattleship]

Actually, all German tanks were gasoline powered. And it was true that a lot of the success of Operation Autumn Mist depended on capturing American fuel dumps. ;)
:

Now I am getting worried about my memory recall. Or I'm getting paranoid and believe all fuel specs for WW II German tanks have been altered. According to one website that is historically very accurate and detailed, it is true all (or at least most) German tanks were gasoline powered.

However, I do recall some of the vets in my outfit mentioning that the Germans were using diesel fuel for something that had an advantage over us. Don't forget, I was only 18 when I first joined up and today I'm on Medicare. So be kind with your answers.

[RustyBattleship]

Thought I'd throw in another movie that was totally historically incorrect (except for the opening) and that was "Operation Crossbow" with George Peppard. There actually was such a special ops mission to discover what the German rocket program was all about. But after the opening scene that showed a piloted V-1 buzz bomb being tested by a female test pilot, the rest of the movie was all hogwash especially the transatlantic V rocket.

"Guns of Navaronne" was an exciting movie to watch but historically never happened. It was (very) loosely based upon a couple of large German howitzers we had to face during our Italy campaign.

The British seem to put out the most historically accurate movies such as "Pursuit of the Graf Spee". I still haven't been able to convince the USS Salem museum group to mention the fact that Salem played the title role. They don't like the idea that the ship played a Nazi ship.

[lemontree]

I'm sorry to remind anybody that was trying to forget this piece of dreck, but Iron Eagle and it's putrid sequel have to be the absolute LOWEST EVER portrayal by Hollywood of what the military is like.

I need a drink. GodDAYUM.

You beat me to it, IRON EAGLE and its sequels II & III are really sick.
One the good old movies was the Wild Geese.

[Bill]

Crimson Tide anyone?
"Go Bama, Roll Tide."
It sucked like hell.

Yer crazy dude.

[Bluesman]

I know it's the complete opposite of what the thread was about, but I thought one of the very BEST movies to portray the military - especially LEADERSHIP AND COMMAND - was 12 O'Clock High.

Brian Donlevy's acting as the two-star general is not-so-hotso (he was REALLY 'old school', so I give him a pass), but Gregory Peck, the guy that played the XO, Major Cobb, and Lt. Zimmermann were a credit to their craft.

It has been a required feature at Air Force professional military education courses for many years, and rightly so. It shows what it means to be in command, to LEAD, instead of just doing your job. It actually made me see what the word meant, and if you look behind the storyline, the acting, the combat scenes and the 'movie' aspects, there is real value there.

Can't say more for a military movie than this: it was a realistic portrayal of what the military is like, and it inspires military people to become better leaders. QED.

[bull]

Enemy at the gates ...thats one of my favourite!!!

[Ray]

Sniper and Bluesman,

You would not have posted on this thread if you saw and understood Hindi movies (Bollywood).

In Indian films no matter how serious or dangerous the scene maybe, there has to be the village belle cavorting, romancing and singing songs!

There was this film (I forget the name) which was supposed to be based on the 1962 War with China, where India got a drubbing.

In that film, the heroine was dancing, singing, parancing, romancing with the military hero up in the High Altitude mountains (Ladakh) with the Chinese all around!

When I went to Ladakh and started climbing the High Altitude mountains, I was out of breath owing to the rarified atmosphere. This film came back in my memory's eye as to how the hell the woman in Ladakh could be so energetic and romantic, when to take a step it appears as if the lungs would burst!

If that was not a silly and stupid film, I wonder what is!

[HistoricalDavid]

Ray,

http://thetvroom.com/p-bbc-one-2002-b.shtml

(Second set of pictures from the top.)

The BBC likes to throw random Bollywood in its adverts, though we never actually have any Indian films at all.