War Movie Bloopers

[watchdog811]

Lets have some fun - and see who has the eagle eye?

For example:

FULL METAL JACKET:

The stars are flying in a Sikorsky S-55 however the camera pans and the shadow is of a OH-58A Kiowa.

CROSS OF IRON:

Hauptmann Stransky arrives at the front and goes to the side of the road and takes a piss - then he zips up his pants. German army pants had buttons not zippers.

Thats a couple to start it off.

cheer

[Piet Duits]

Hi,

I remember a "war movie" I once saw, depicting italian soldiers in the libyan desert defending a trench.
The germans -in their M113's and M48's with large crosses on them- are withdrawing and are leaving the italians behind.
Almost immidiatelly the british attack -also in M113's supported by M48's.
This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
Too bad I don't remember the name. So, I can't warn you for it.

I am reluctant to watch italian war movies. I know of a recent movie I saw in the videostore: El Alamein. Has anyone seen it? Is it worth the 2 Euro's renting it?


Piet

[L. Kafka]

The British bought a number of UH-34s from the US Marines circa 1980 and refitted them with turbine engines; the 34 had a radial piston engine originally. Full Metal Jacket was shot in Britain. The 34 was apparently on lease for the movie.

I flew in the UH-34 in Vietnam while with the Marines in 1968. It was noisey compared to the UH-1 Huey with its turbine engine. I am not familiar with the H-55 Sikorsky, unless that is the designation the Brits gave the 34.

Full Metal Jacket is worth some laughs for its campy dialogue, but as a story about Vietnam it is largely irrelevant. I suspect a good bit of booze and/or drugs went into the screenplay. The same has been said about some Oliver Stone movies. The cocaine culture that blossomed in the 1980s is said to have affected movie making of that period.

[Ernest Penfold]

Should we consider movies in which modern-era tanks were used to fill-in for vintage armour? "Battle of the Bulge" (already blooper-prone), "Patton", "The Big Red One", and "A Bridge Too Far" all come to mind - I'm sure there's many more instances of this.

Or are you looking for small-scale technical errors? In the movie "Von Ryans Express", my father noticed that Frank Sinatra's P38 had smoke coming from the center section where there is no engine. Apparently that is where the movie makers attached the smoke canister.

Something else that may be an error that someone may be able to confirm. There was a television programme on recently in which archaeologists went back to the actual prison camp that was the basis for "The Great Escape" to look for artifacts. They interviewed an American POW who said he was upset because he had worked so hard on the tunnel but never got a chance to escape because all the Americans were moved to another camp before the escape took place. If that's true, then none of the escapees would have been American. (Although we would have been deprived of Steve McQueen's motorcycle scenes.)

[Beppo Schmidt]

The actor who plays Rommel in Patton isn't wearing the Pour le Merité.

Patton is shown reading “The Tank in Battle, by Erwin Rommel”. There are two problems with this. In the first place, the name of Rommel’s book was not The Tank in Battle, it was The Infantry Attacks. There was a book by the name of The Tank in Battle, but it was written by General Heinz Guderian, not Rommel. In the second place, while Patton did read Rommel’s book, the scene shows him reading it in North Africa in 1943, while it was not even translated into English until 1944. Patton actually read it shortly before D-Day.

The swastika on the tail wing of the Heinkel in North Africa is too large.

[Mobile Infantry]

@ Piet Duits:
Hi,
the (in-)famous movie about italian forces and the M113 is named "Battaglia di El Alamein" aka "Desert Assault" from 1969. In Germany the movie had the title "Königstiger vor El Alamein" though there was not a single Tiger in that movie but lots of M113 and M47
http://www.angelfire.com/film/eurowar/d ... sault.html

Yesterday I saw "Force 10 from Navarone" - nice movie but I´m pretty sure that the german tanks originally were T34.

[derGespenst]

how about the recent "Island at War" on PBS? While a generally excellent work, twice they had German soldiers referring to being sent as punishment to "the Eastern Front" - in 1940!

[Rolf Steiner]

one of the criticisms that's sometimes levelled at cross of iron is that david warner (kiesel) was allowed to keep his 70s-thesp hairstyle. incongruous in a 1940s trench, it could be argued. Still, let's not even start on the sequel!

[Michael N. Ryan]

Island at War is loaded with bloopers. Set in 1940, it's very confused with 1942 Don't forget that the Baron is wearing the Gold Cross. Don't forget the actions against Jews which actually began in 1941. And Walker's refurences to Jews being sent to Concentratian Camps. I think the biggest is Bernhardt Teilman's involvement with the big raid. He serves aboard a Heinkel 111, but the bombers shown in the action are Stukas.

It's a good film. I wish there was a sequal.

For trivial bloopers, try The tv movie The Crossing starring Jeff Danials. Set during the early American revolution around the battle of Trenton. One, when Danials (who plays Gearge Washington) is surveying the town he plans to attack, you see a modern smoke stack and telephone line.
Two, the battle was faught in the middle of a snow storm but no such weather is shown. Otherwise, it's a beutiful film.

For deliberate bloopers, I would say the Bloopermeister would be Mel Gibson's The Patriot. The costumes and the fighting scenes are superb, very accurate. But he has the unit passing for Tarleton's legion in red coats when they actually wore green (they were Loyalists, and according to those encountering them, one of the worst group of scoundrels they ever met. Some of them were actually arrested by British offiicers during the war for misbehavior. After the war, some of them show up on the wrong side of the law in Canada). Gibson's character owns a plantation, but his workers are not slaves. It's a comic book.

Ironicly, If Mel Gibson wanted to do a family values film set during the period, he could have done actual people like Paul Revere (spy, counter spy, propogandist, committeeman, messenger, father of Sixteen children), or General John Stark who could be best described as a Super Commando, having won his spurs with Robert Rogers and his rangers during the previous war as his second in command. Robert Rogers and his Rangers are also good action material.

[awaygood]

In 'The Winds of War', the American hero sits on an open-topped double-decker bus, in London, and passes the Canadian High Commission which is sporting the modern Canadian flag....

[Michael N. Ryan]

Though not a war movie Brothers of the Frontier is a certifiable blooperberg. Awful movie. A turkey.

It's the creation of Star Trek's Riker.

It's supposedly set in the late 1700s Post American Revolution upper new york. The whites are wearing clothing of the 1820s. One carries a bowie knife (not available until Jim Bowie of the Alamo era). Another appears to be packing a rifle, not a common sight until after 1800. The Indians, (Seneca) part of the Iroquois, were dressed in skins (clothing styles discarded by the early 1700s). The village was nice, but not the actual Long House variety.And the Iroqouis would have been on reservations at the time. Not one was packing a musket, all bows and arrows. They were fighitng with members of another tribe (something the United States would nto have allowed under treaty).And if there was one awful line among a great many, I would say the worst is when one of the Brothers asks a squaw why she speaks such good english; she responds by telling him most Indians speak english and then asks him why he does not speak INDIAN? It would be like asking why does one speak good european?

Somebody should have done some research beyond a couple of brief visits to the library.

This isn't a war movie, I know, but I'm puppy sitting for mother and I
spent the morning watching it as the puppies did their business. I need to share with somebody my disgust with such a bad movie.

[TheFerret]

A gigantic one:

The Film Classic Charge of the Light Brigade was shown to have taken place in India.

The actual Charge of the Light Brigade was during the battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. The enemy was Russian and not Indian. Whats more, there were no Indians serving in the British Army which served in the Crimea. Lord Cardigan (the think headed fool that he was) insisted on that.

Also:

In John Wayne's propaganda tribute to the Vietnam Conflict, The Green Berets the ending scene shows a sunset over the South China Sea. He would actually be facing east.

Finally, in the movie Shining Through, The hero (played by Michael Douglas) is wearing a combat infintry badge. This took place at the beginning of the US involvement in that war. This badge did not exist at that time (as my father was quick to note) and furthermore, it was unlikely that an intellegence officer would wear this badge.

[Rolf Steiner]

spotted another possible in cross of iron, but i'm not 100% sure. After Stransky leaves the colonel's bunker and falls in the mud during a bombardment, he's greeted by Meier, who he's never met before. 'Leutenant...' 'Meier sir.' Meier has a camouflage anorak over his uniform jacket, so his epaulettes aren't visible. How would Stransky know his rank?

[derGespenst]

Ferret, I have to disagree with you. The charge shown took place in the Crimea against Russian troops. The absurdity was that the Regiment's arch-enemy, an Indian who had betrayed and massacred British soldiers and civilians, was with the Russians as a visiting observer - and the soldiers knew it! That, supposedly, was the motivation for the gallant self-sacrifice of the Brigade - to kill their Indian enemy (but in the Crimea).

[TheFerret]

Ferret, I have to disagree with you. The charge shown took place in the Crimea against Russian troops. The absurdity was that the Regiment's arch-enemy, an Indian who had betrayed and massacred British soldiers and civilians, was with the Russians as a visiting observer - and the soldiers knew it! That, supposedly, was the motivation for the gallant self-sacrifice of the Brigade - to kill their Indian enemy (but in the Crimea).

I would have to see that again.