Awful War Films

[FierceKitty]

Why? It's an English word.

But it doesn't mean "kind". It has a very specific (in a Scottish  context) meaning, and has fallen victim to attempts to impress by using an unfamiliar term.

[Heedless Horseman]

Many of the above...although some listed are faves, if inaccurate in some ways.
Will add:
Mosquito Squadron. 633 Squadron rip off, (using footage!), wasting David McCullum...633 was a fave for the soundtrack, not the balsa planes!
The Blue Max. Planes were just WRONG...even to a child.
Tobruck! Loved it as a child...now yuck.
John Wayne war films...though I like watching him...just too Gung Ho and yet...nice.
Any war film involving secret missions by tiny units of misfits to destroy Big Guns, V weapons, nuclear weapons plants, fuel depots, Nazi H.Qs, blah, blah...even with big name actors...but with unlimited ammo and explosives...unless gun jams at appropriate moment, requiring derring do and sacrifice...and obligatory treachery! Music could often be good though.
Does ANYONE watch Rambo 3 now, without feeling a little bit...
Those, (never bothered to remember the names, but often Spanish), WW2 war films hired from the video store on way back from an afternoon in the pub...with clips poached from any film available, Hollywood or newsreel!

Not quite War Films, but:
The Blitz sequence starting a Narnia film. Thought I might just enjoy it, (kid actors apart), as I loved the books as a child,  but...just couldn't be bothered to continue.
Spartacus, Blood and Sand! Porn with CGI gore. Lasses love it though...can't think why? !!!   
Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands. Forget Beowulf...(and he IS very forgettable)...why use the name? Could have been a just passable fantasy, otherwise.
Star Wars after the amazement over the first one wore off.
Who Dares, Wins! Lewis Collins great but the SAS must have laughed themselves sick!
ZARDOZ! (I liked it, costumes aside!0 But curious about reaction!   

[Ithoriel]

Spartacus, Blood and Sand! -  I rather liked it. Gratuitous nudity and gore aside it was a bit of a romp.
Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands. - Half a dozen tribes which appeared to consist of about 30 people each! Agreed, passable fantasy with not connection to Beowulf. I got bored after about half a dozen episodes and haven't watched since. Last episode I saw involved mini Dune-style sandworms.
Star Wars after the amazement over the first one wore off. - I've enjoyed all seven so far. The prequel trilogy wasn't brilliant but not as bad as many made out either.
Who Dares, Wins! Lewis Collins great but the SAS must have laughed themselves sick! - never liked it.
ZARDOZ! (I liked it, costumes aside!0 But curious about reaction! - Very silly. Not even Sean Connery could save this turkey!

[FierceKitty]

It's interesting that even Boorman is on record as advising people to fast forward through the bit where Zed is inside the crystal.

[FierceKitty]

I'm rather pleased to remember that when I read the Narnia books at 10 years old, my reaction, even then, was "Why is the witch automatically the bad guy?"

[Leman]

I'm rather enjoying Beowulf, but am a little perplexed over the exceptionally large number of non-European immigrants in post-Roman Britain. I had thought this was a post 1500 phenomenon.

[Aksu]

Though the vessel in question did not sink it took no further part in the war and the Tuskegee airmen undoubtedly believed at the time that they had sunk it.

I'm afraid this story has very little to do with awful war films, apart from sinking ships... I just recalled one of my relatives was photographed during a ship-busting mission in the Baltic in 1944. The photo series shows them shooting up Soviet ships with the nose mounted 20mm in their Ju88, crew is very keen after hitting a ship. Then the cockpit  gets a flak hit. Luckily only light wounds all around. I think the best photo in the series is this one showing them after they land and get into an ambulance. My great uncle Capt. Jouko Saarinen is the one in the middle.

The photographer Nils Helander who flew quite often with my great-uncle and took these photos fell when an airbase was being strafed. Everyone ran for cover, apart from him. He ran onto the tarmac, took aim with his camera and shouted "I'm getting great pictures".
Awfully heroic and pointless...
Cheers,
Aksu

[fsn]

Wow! Good story Aksu.

[Ithoriel]

When I posted about the Tuskegee airmen hitting the Giuseppi Missori I couldn't remember the name and had to google it. Came across the Finnish account that your pictures is part of while rummaging for the info. Colour photos of Finnish bombers being few and far between, in my experience, it attracted my attention and lead me to the B&W images.

No idea, obviously, that it involved a to connection anyone I might come across. The whole "Six Degrees of Separation" thing in action!

[Roy]

U-571 (but only for rewriting history the way it did)

Has there been any other war films that have been criticised in the British Parliament, like this one has?

[Aksu]

@ithoriel the world is indeed tiny. The J. Saarinen in the photo you posted is Jorma Saarinen, the fighter ace brother of the bomber pilot Jouko Saarinen who was married to my great aunt. The fighter pilot died during the war (shot down in the last weeks of the war in an ambush while landing). The bomber pilot brother died after the war in an unexplained flying accident, most likely caused by PTSD. Quite sad, really. On a weirder six-degrees note: my dad spent summers at the airbase during the war, and remembers a really large plane landing there once, and everybody being really flustered. Turns out it must have been the time adolf flew over for Mannerheim's birthday. Never realised six degrees goes back in history too :/
Cheers,
Aksu

[NTM]

Still smarting over the entire Light Brigade being clad in red trousers in Charge of the Light Brigade.

According to an article in Military Illustrated many years ago it could have been a lot worse.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

-King Arthur (the recent Clive Owen one)

I may have to report this past to moderator central, as this film features the original forum sweetheart Keira Knightly!
Plot, historical inaccuracies, dialogue, locations, sets, acting all forgiven as it has Kiera. Nik no doubt will soon food this thread with pictures of her...

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

food the thread

IanS

[Leman]

She's good enough to eat!