|
RhinoDad -> RE: OT: WWII Pacific theater films (12/28/2020 5:15:17 AM)
|
Despite how bad the unmentionable story was, I watched it with some Pearl harbor survivors. Battleship men who had been topside for at least some of the battle. They agreed with you whole heartedly, except for the quick few moments of the battle scene. After that we had to stop, dare I call it a film, and sat quietly for a few moments while a few murmured that a movie for once actually did a pretty good job of capturing the moment and feel. So I am guessing do to the rarity of their reaction the movie has a good chance of having a snippet of value.
Would agree with RangerJoe on “Bridge over River Kwai”; the one vet I knew that had lived it would spit bullets, start swearing and such at the mere mention of it. Said in about 3 hours they had disgraced 3 some years of sacrifice and work on that bit of road.
Unfortunately, there were few ww2 movies that any of the vets I was around liked. Have not seen any since the “unspeakable one”, just do not watch movies anymore and all of my friends I would visit with regarding ww2 have passed on. These were all that had seen way to much combat in real life, many had been wounded multiple times. They varied from seamen to admirals; with a few marines thrown in; some had gained recognition for their successful service.
Mostly during a ww2 action movie they would just sit, laugh and make sarcastic comments. When asked why they would say, “It’s just like watching a comedy”, or they would compare them to comic books. Or say something like, “the story, the scenes, the behaviors are quite untrue only very occasionally does it resemble the facts as they were at the time.”
One who had done technical advising, for at the time, a well know submarine movie commented when asked by his friend about the movie said something like, Well it is Hollywood, there is only so far they will go with aiming for accuracy.
Even some that had written books commented on how some of the material had been sanitized or generalized or were just numbers; how it was very hard to just read books for a thorough understanding of the situation.
Or in sitting round with others of the same experience, the one who had been ship captain would say from speaking with you who were at the forefront of the information I was supposedly relayed, I would have a hard time recognizing it was the same incident. Unfortunately, those Captains are the ones who often write the book.
Unfortunately, with the loss of the ones in the trenches we have lost the keys to a fascinating piece of history.
It is very difficult to take one way of life and time, and try to understand a very different way of life and time, especially when the attitudes of the military towards its members, equipment and tactics are so different than currently. Movies and books have to try to bridge that gap but the picture is never all that clear, and sometimes just plain bad.
|
|
|
|
