What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Discussions on naval-war movies, films and games.
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Kyler
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What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by Kyler »

Here is my list of war movies that either need to be made or redone.

1. Bismark
2. Jutland (In Progress?)
3. Stalingrad
4. The Battle of Leyte Gulf
5. The Battle of Britain
6. The Fall of Berlin
7. Anzio
8. Trafalagar
9. Tushima
10. Kursk
11. Adm. Graf Spee's Chase
12. Iron Bottom Sound
13. The Battle of Thermopylae
14. The Battle of Salamis
15. Midway

What movies would anyone else like to seen be made?
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by Karl Heidenreich »

Red Dawn and Amerika
War and Peace
Waterloo
Bismarck
Midway
Pearl Harbor (¿¿¿???) I think that with Tora, Tora, Tora we are OK.
Greatest Battle (Battle of Kursk, ruskie propaganda movie but with good tanks)
Stalingrad
Is it there a good movie for Trafalgar?
There was this movie of a German ship with John Wayne as a captain being hunted by a RN ship. It was really cool....
Blue Max
Lepanto and Salamis

I would like to see very much a movie about the German Campaign against France with a triumph march on the Elisses and the french crying on the streets.

And a movie about the Battle of Cannae
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by tommy303 »

Is it there a good movie for Trafalgar?
Nelson Affair with Peter Finch as Nelson was fairly good in the battle scenes.
There was this movie of a German ship with John Wayne as a captain being hunted by a RN ship. It was really cool....
I believe that was Sea Chase.

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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by RF »

Yes it was Sea Chase. John Wayne was completely mis-cast in that film.
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by The_Ships_Cat »

I really can't see the point in re-making a lot of films, they all have their place in History.
Take The Battle Of The River Plate it is as perfect as we can hope for it's time and where else can you see real ships on film?
Waterloo doesn't need a re-make unless we are going to alter History and have the French as the winners, ahh I see a James Cameron film there.
There was a brilliant Trafalgar mini series? On ITV I think in the 80's? I'd love to remember more about it as that would be great to find on DVD or video. If anyone has info I'd be grateful to recieve anything.

I'd prefer Peter Weir to carry on with the Aubrey-Maturin stories. I think Master and Commander was superb!
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by hammy »

Until recently the problem with making Naval films was that the ships were not available and later substitutes ( as used in Battle of the River Plate ) looked "wrong"
Models rarely looked completely convincing ( I think Tora Tora Tora is a superb exception to that )
While "mocked up" ships tended to leave you wincing ( I think of the old USN Tug , got up to be a German destroyer , at the end of that excellent film -- I forget the name -- which showed how the Americans captured the enigma machine )

However , computer animation and generated images proceed by leaps and bounds , and I am regularly astonished at how good and realistic they are , when done well in films .
I would like to see some naval war novels made into films now ;-

Firstly Alistair Maclean's book " HMS Ulysses " , possibly the best fictional account of the Russia convoys ,
In which a Black Prince type ( Dido ) Light cruiser with a battle-fatigued crew is sent out as escort flagship for a convoy to Murmansk which undergoes unremitting attrition from every hazard imaginable while trying to bait the Tirpitz to come out and attack it , during the run up to D day .

Although many of his later books are pretty formulaic thrillers , often appearing to have been written as virtually straight commercial screenplays , this one is from his earlier , and I think better , period .
"The Guns of Navarone " is one which everyone will know as the film with Greg Peck / David Niven .
Another one of his you could make into a film would be " South by Java Head " , in which a big tanker flees fallen Singapore in 1942 with many extra escaping passengers on board , well worth a read if you havent yet .

Secondly C.S.Forester's book " The Ship " , which uses a fictionalised account of the Battle of Sirte to meet the forty or so of the crew of the Arethusa class light cruiser " HMS Artemis " through the course of the battle to get a convoy through to Malta from Alexandria .
C.S.F. actually visited the real life HMS Penelope during the Mediterranean Sea war , so the book is written from life .

You will all know this author as the source of the Horatio Hornblower books , some of which were made into another Greg Peck film , but his other stuff is well worth a read too , in particular "The Good Shepherd " in which a USN Commander , captain of a Mahan class destroyer ( and escort commander ) with just one other destroyer and two corvettes has to get an Atlantic convoy east through a wolf pack , in the course of which he spends nearly three days on the bridge . One of the few books I have ever read where someone actually goes to the loo in it ! That probably WOULDN'T make a good film because a lot of the book is set during the long nights and in dirty weather .

You will remember "The African Queen" with Humphrey Bogart / Kate Hepburn ; - originally one of his books . Another good one about the First World War at sea is "Brown on Resolution" . A fictional additional cruiser is detached from Maximilian Graf Spee's squadron to raid the American coasts of the Pacific . She encounters a weaker British light cruiser , sinks her in short order , and pulls one survivor from the water . She has sustained one hit during the action which requires a difficult and complicated repair , so they head for one of the uninhabited Galapagos islands to do this work . While they are there , the survivor they picked up escapes , taking a rifle with him . Go read and enjoy .

Thirdly , some of Douglas Reeman's books . Again , some of the later works got formulaic in regard to the main plot , but I do like "The Pride and the Anguish" which is about "China" gunboats operating along the coast of Malaya during the 1942 campaign which ended with the surrender at Singapore .

Lastly , I would like to see a film telling the story of Operation "Pedestal" , the famous Malta convoy ,( known there as the "Santa Maria"convoy ) , with the tanker Ohio and her captain Dudley Mason . Perfect for an extended action film , with a true " Hollywood " ending .

The trouble is , you will see the trailer and hear that guy with the deep Gravel voice say the words " ...... And DANNY DE VITO IS ......... " and just know It'll be another load of old Cac ! Oh well , can but dream I suppose .
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by RF »

The_Ships_Cat wrote:I really can't see the point in re-making a lot of films, they all have their place in History.
Take The Battle Of The River Plate it is as perfect as we can hope for it's time and where else can you see real ships on film?
I'm sorry but I can't agree with that statement.

And its not just the use of the Salem as a pretend AGS, but also the myriad of other fictionalised parts involving particulary Captain Dove and ambassador Millington-Drake.
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RF
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by RF »

hammy wrote:
Thirdly , some of Douglas Reeman's books . Again , some of the later works got formulaic in regard to the main plot , but I do like "The Pride and the Anguish" which is about "China" gunboats operating along the coast of Malaya during the 1942 campaign which ended with the surrender at Singapore .
Another of Reeman's books which could be made into a good film was ''The Last Raider'' a book set in 1918 about a fictional hilfskreuzer called Vulkan. If you have read that book you will know what I mean.
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by hammy »

yes R F , I liked that one too . There is another , which uses the Vulkan captain's son , I think as a U-boat skipper , set in WW2 , But I cant remember the plot of that one .
And another which took the little China gunboat " Robin " as the ship type for the book , and pitched it up against the Communist Chinese , in the late 1950s/early 1960s .
As I say , some of his stuff does get a little bit formulaic , and if you've read half a dozen , you can often script number seven !
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by RF »

hammy wrote:
And another which took the little China gunboat " Robin " as the ship type for the book , and pitched it up against the Communist Chinese , in the late 1950s/early 1960s .
A very similar incident I recall was made into a film, concerning HMS Amethyst. The leading role was taken by Richard Todd, who passed away a few days ago.
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

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There is a funny story about Amethyst .
After she got out , the time being the height of the Cold War , the government wanted to bring her home for a big celebration , but as you can imagine she was in pretty poor state , tired and shell damaged and grubby , so the first port of call was Hong Kong for a dockyard refit . The crew were all put ashore into barracks for some R+R , and a maintenance and repair crew assigned , along with the dockyard workforce doing the repairs .
When this was nearing completion , and the drydock had been flooded to put her afloat again , one of the standard tests you have to do is the "inclination" , where you flood beam compartments to check her stability is still according to the book .

A guy I knew called John Brunt ( dead now ) was a Stoker petty officer , in the engine room , working the pumps . He told me that they heeled her over , but didn't get the order to stop flooding , and then finally there was a bloody great clang and a shudder and graunching of metal , and the emergency alarms went off and the broadcast came to leave the ship immediately , so they clambered up the ladders ( now laying down nearly horizontally ), got out on deck , and saw her lattice mast had become an integral part of the dockside crane , and he thinks it was only that which stopped her from rolling over completely in dock !
Cue a lot of rushing about and uproar .
Apparently her second in command was at the yard that morning and said some very cruel and hurtful things to the dockyard superintendent , Port Admiral , C-in-C Far Eastern Fleet , etc , who had all rushed down to view the mishap , suck their teeth , and go " Hmmm..... " at the sight .
VERY GENTLY the water was got out of her partially , the wreck of the mast then cut away , and then the ship emptied and got back onto an even keel , for a further set of repairs to commence .
There is a photo of her finally at home in the UK with Vanguard moored just ahead , but she oh so nearly didnt make it !
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by RF »

She was lucky to get out of the scrape in the Yangtze......
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by Gary »

Not a war movie but is it not about time we had another "Mutiny on the Bounty"?
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by hammy »

Starring suggestions please in the following categories

1 ) - Sensible suggestions

2 ) - Very silly suggestions
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Re: What New/Remake War Movies Are Needed?

Post by José M. Rico »

Gary wrote:Not a war movie but is it not about time we had another "Mutiny on the Bounty"?
Who can play the role of Fletcher Christian better that Marlon Brando? Can't think of any.
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