Kelly's Heroes

Crossroads · (This post was last modified: 12-18-2011, 06:27 AM by Crossroads.)

Indeed. Kudos for HBO for coming up with Band of Brothers and the Pacific. I am not holding my breath for the next one though.

On the other hand, every now and then you get a pleasant surprise. I really liked Saints and Soldiers that came out a good few years ago, but which I only managed to catch on DVD a couple of years ago. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373283/

A really athmospheric little indie movie, with a budget of was it only 2 mills or something like that. Made possible with history buffs loaning equipment and stuff.

So let us keep faith for the next one maybe.

---

Sheesh, having posted this I had a closer look at the IMDB and it mentions a budget of 780 000 USD. Wow.

Larry Reese · 12-18-2011, 10:27 AM,

I saw saints and soldiers when it was first released. Don't remember much about it, other than it was a good effort for a really low budget film.

LR

Oh, and yes, the turret being forward on the KH Tigers is one of the key give aways, the proportions are exactly T-34/85. The drive wheels and the treads themselves are another (besides the overall dimensions).

And I'm sure I'll PO a bunch of folks here, but I have to say again, that while I appreciate the effort in Saving Private Ryan, I actually find the movie itself very poor (see other posts on this topic, particularly because there would be no need to try and hold the bridge, and I just can't suspend my disbelief). There are so many true stories worth telling - I just don't understand the need to make something up, and more over, to make up something that is just ****** quality. The same with a movie like Titanic - what a disappointment. Huge budget, lots of reasonably done period pieces and sets, and a vast number of fascinating true stories to tell, and instead they concoct some dumbed down vomitus to put on the screen. I just don't understand this fascination with "the Hollywood writer can make things so much better than real life." Same with "The King's Speech." Nice film, sure. Oscar quality, nowhere close. And far too many liberties with the real history to "make it exciting." More than ten years prior to the speech noted at the height... oh, skip it. You guys can read about it if you want. Particularly the speech he made at the opening of the Australian parliament in the early 30s.

Sorry for the book length post dudes...

LR

**Mr Grumpy** · 12-18-2011, 08:13 PM,

Having stood on Omaha beach with my back to the sea looking at the various pillbox's littering the buffs overlooking the beach the first thing that strikes you is the angle that pillbox's are laid out in, none of them face the actual beach but are angled at 45 degs to provide enfilading fire in conjunction with another pillbox maybe 100 yards away, this has the huge advantage that it protects the structures openings from supporting naval fire coming in from the sea.

[Image: e0c8aaec08Pillbox.jpg]

So having seen SPR i was struck by the fact that the pillbox shown being attacked and burnt out actually faces the sea which historically is not correct (but maybe changed to make the film more watchable?) and a detail you would not have picked up unless you have actually been there. ;)

**Ashcloud** · 12-18-2011, 11:08 PM,

(12-18-2011, 08:13 PM)Foul. Wrote: Having stood on Omaha beach with my back to the sea looking at the various pillbox's littering the buffs overlooking the beach the first thing that strikes you is the angle that pillbox's are laid out in, none of them face the actual beach but are angled at 45 degs to provide enfilading fire in conjunction with another pillbox maybe 100 yards away, this has the huge advantage that it protects the structures openings from supporting naval fire coming in from the sea.

So having seen SPR i was struck by the fact that the pillbox shown being attacked and burnt out actually faces the sea which historically is not correct (but maybe changed to make the film more watchable?) and a detail you would not have picked up unless you have actually been there. ;)

I dream of one day being able to walk these beaches and battlefields.

Larry Reese · 12-19-2011, 02:16 PM,

If I win the lottery here I will pay for all you guys to visit the beach and I'll set up in the bunkers with MGs and have at you. What do you think?

LR

**Ashcloud** · 12-19-2011, 09:24 PM,

(12-19-2011, 02:16 PM)Larry Reese Wrote: If I win the lottery here I will pay for all you guys to visit the beach and I'll set up in the bunkers with MGs and have at you. What do you think?

LR

Don't know if I want it that bad that I would be willing to be sprayed by MG's to get it. That is the downside to the free tickets.

Outlaw Josey Wales · 12-20-2011, 01:05 AM,

The thing I would love to see is more series like Band of Brothers, but not limited to just a U.S. unit. I'd love to see a rotation or several coming out each year covering units from all countries. Let's see one folloing 51st Highland or 21st Pz or.........you get the drift. Every country involved had units that could have something to tell. Devil's Bde was an entertaining movie, but let's see something better. Rangers, 45th inf, something from the Finns, Italians, Rumanians, Hungarians, French, Poles etc etc. Somebody with the money needs to keep the memory of that generation alive forever not just a side note in a history class. Show something with an SS unit to actually prove to those doubters there really was a difference between frontline SS and the camp guards.

About the Tigers, last I heard there were three operational that were used in SPR. How true that is, I don't know, but does make sense. I also saw a program once about a company on the west coast actually makes all kinds of AFVs for movies use, but in reality are cars or trucks on the inside and look like AFVs from the outside. It was interesting show.

Also saw an article about some of these guys that renovate AFVs. They own a lot of land and actually had warehouses built to do the work and store the completed ones. One was somewhere in Oregon or Washington. I would love to go there some day.

Kool Kat · 12-20-2011, 06:55 AM,

(12-18-2011, 06:12 AM)Ivan The Big Wrote: To bad, with today's film technology, a remake of the Battle of the Bulge would be a little bit of work and a labor of love.

Now, I would pay good money... at a movie theater... to see such a remake! :)

Crossroads · 12-21-2011, 11:09 PM,

"Oh, yeah. All the tanks we come up against are bigger and better than ours. So that all we can hope to do is like scare them away.

This gun is an ordinary 75 millimetre......but we added a piece of pipe onto it and the Krauts think......maybe it's a 88 millimetre.

We got our own ammunition. It's filled with paint. When we fire it, it makes pretty pictures. It scares the hell out of people.

We got a loudspeaker. When we go into battle, we play music very loud. It kind of......calms us down."

Whip