Historical Naval actions that would make good movies?

[SparkVark]

Sorry, it's a boring day at work...

Though I imagine no ready audience exists today for a studio to "green light" any of these for a big sceen release (maybe Bismarck).

1. Cruise of the Emden
2. Jutland (probably difficult to successfully put on the big screen)
3. Bismarck (a modern remake)
4. Battle of Samar (the Taffys, Johnston and Hoel)

[turlock]

How about The Battle of The North Cape? Scharnhorst is overdue to be so honored.

[_Derfflinger_]

Or, a much better done saga of the Admiral Graf Spee and the Battle of the River Plate with all the drama and diplomatic games that went on prior to the AGS scuttling.

Please, no 8" triple gunned, triple turret USN CA this time!

Derf

ps: Your suggestion of SMS Emden, along with my suggestion above, made me think of the 1914 saga of Vice Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee, Coronel and the Falklands. What a great motion picture adventure that story would make!

[Karl Heidenreich]

1. Battle of Tsushima
2. If Americans are needed to have an expesive SFX movie then Guadalcanal or Leyte.
3. Trafalgar will be an great movie!!!

[marcelo_malara]

I have always wondered if the millions that goes to make a fiction story like Lord of the Rings or Starwars wouldn´t be better expended in more historic (or quasi-historic) movies like Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven.

[José M. Rico]

I was thinking of a modern remake of Under Ten Flags, the story of merchant raider Atlantis.

Trafalgar would be a good one too.

[Bgile]

I have always wondered if the millions that goes to make a fiction story like Lord of the Rings or Starwars wouldn´t be better expended in more historic (or quasi-historic) movies like Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven.

I don't consider those two to be comparable at all, even though I enjoyed both. Tolkein had a huge following long before the movies, and millions of people eagerly looking forward to them.

You seem to be saying that it isn't worth making a movie unless it's based on history. You must not be a Sci-Fi or Fanatasy fan, but there are millions who are.


If you have read the story on this site of the survival of the crew member of Bismarck during her final battle, I think that would be a good basis for a movie. Something similar to the recent Japanese movie about Yamato. Noone has ever done a Bismarck movie from the German point of view.

[marcelo_malara]

You seem to be saying that it isn't worth making a movie unless it's based on history. You must not be a Sci-Fi or Fanatasy fan, but there are millions who are.

Yes, you are absolutely right.

[Karl Heidenreich]

You know which will be the best (and will never be made):

Gunther Prien and the U-47 getting into Scapa and sinking the Royal Oak!

It´s a story with all the elements necessary to be a huge hit. With one problem: the cool hero will be German. Too Bad. Don´t think Hollywood would appropiate the money for that. And let´s hope that Pearl Harbor´s producers never thought in doing it or neither Cameron. In that case the U-47 will be an American Fleet Sub in a duel at the "Bongo" straits somewhere in the Artic Ocean!

[Bgile]

In that case the U-47 will be an American Fleet Sub in a duel at the "Bongo" straits somewhere in the Artic Ocean!

I have to laugh, Karl ... at your example!

Are you aware that there was a movie in the 50's called "Run Silent, Run Deep" about a US fleet submarine in the BUNGO strait in southern Japan? It's a real place. Did you invent that, or were you aware of the movie, which was actually quite good?

Wasn't Cross of Iron, which was about a German soldier, a Hollywood movie? I thought that was very good.

[SparkVark]

Yes, Cross of Iron is a very well done movie. Sam Peckinpaugh directed it (and his background was in making Westerns, The Wild Bunch, etc.).

Thanks for bringing the memory of that movie up! What imagery! The introductory "Hänschen klein" being sung with Nazi footage of young pioneers, the high-ranking officer thanking the wounded troops at the hospital and offering a handshake.. when one guy who has no limbs offers a stump in return! A great movie that leaves imprerssions like that is hard to forget. Also, real T-34s! (ok they were -85 models but hey, they meant well) great stuff!

Lastly, to end the film with a quote by Berthold Brecht:

"Don't rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world stood up and stopped the Bastard, the Bitch that bore him is in heat again." - May 6th 1945

Yes, how in the world did Hollywood and a famous Wild West movie director make this one?!

Also... a movie about the Goeben would be interesting...

[Karl Heidenreich]

Bgile:

Are you aware that there was a movie in the 50's called "Run Silent, Run Deep" about a US fleet submarine in the BUNGO strait in southern Japan? It's a real place. Did you invent that, or were you aware of the movie, which was actually quite good?

Wasn't Cross of Iron, which was about a German soldier, a Hollywood movie? I thought that was very good.

Hi! I was aware about a movie of a sub duel or something of the sort that happens in the Bongo Strait. Well, thanks to you I know it´s the Bungo Strait now. Wasn´t that based on a book wrote by an actual US Sub Commander?
Yes, Sam Peckinpah directed the "Cross of Iron"... and no one knows how he managed to get financed, not only with that movie but with others quite more controversial as "Straw Dogs" which was laveled as the First Facist Movie Masterpiece. He directed also "Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia" and a more commercial "Convoy" with Kris Kristoferson. Peckinpah loved violence (some say he actually hated it) and his movies are a bloodbath. But of impecable facture.
Best regards!

[Bgile]

It does involve a Japanese submarine, as well as "down the throat" tactics vs Japanese destroyers. I'm not aware of the source of the story, but it was a favorite of mine as a kid. It must have come out in the 50s.

[Karl Heidenreich]

Run Deep Run Silent
OK. It looks that it is a naval masterpiece. The writer is, as I suspected, Commander Edward L. Beach, a WWII sub skipper that in 1960 got the command of the USS Triton, a nuclear powered sub (SSN-586).
In the movie the sub´s captain is... Clark Gable! And listen to this, the executive officer is Burt Lancaster!
And they spell "Bongo" the place where the Japanese adversary is stationed.
Best regards.

[Bgile]

Run Deep Run Silent
OK. It looks that it is a naval masterpiece. The writer is, as I suspected, Commander Edward L. Beach, a WWII sub skipper that in 1960 got the command of the USS Triton, a nuclear powered sub (SSN-586).
In the movie the sub´s captain is... Clark Gable! And listen to this, the executive officer is Burt Lancaster!
And they spell "Bongo" the place where the Japanese adversary is stationed.
Best regards.

OMG I have to find a map! Maybe I have it all wrong and it really is correctly named "Bongo".

Triton was huge for it's time. Two reactors, I believe. She made the first underwater global circumnavigation IIRC.