My Movie and Character

In this movie my dad
owned a scrap yard and
I was a Marine Division
Boxer. What movie was
this and what was my
nick name?

We were soldiers!

Top Left: Rod Serling, US Army Airborne Demolitions Expert

Top Right: Charles Durning, US Army Infantry 1st Infantry Division

Bottom left: Eddie Albert, US Navy, LCM commander

Bottom Right: James Whitmore, US Marine Lt. Ground campaign Pacific Islands

Head Shots

Clint Eastwood

Best known as Dirty Harry Callahan and the "Man with no name", Clint has appeared in over 70 movies and has countless walk ons, behind the scenes work, guest shots, and so on. Clint is a tue action star with his cowboy, police, and average citizen movies. He has only 4 war movies to his credit but they are true actioners; Away All Boats (1956), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Kelly's Heroes (1970), and Heartbreak Ridge (1986). In 2008, during an interview, Eastwood was asked if he would reprise the role of Harry Callahan smiling, Eastwood said that Harry is retired and a local Angelina Jollie piped up that Harry has a daughter and she is a cop. Jollie finished by say she would love to resume where Clint left off.

Eastwood is an accomplished musician, director, actor, and somewhat politician.

About the Movie:
Filmed in and around San Antonio, Texas Rough Riders is the somewhat paraphrased and true retelling of the first modern war the US waged against Spain’s taking of Cuba. Rough Riders uses talented actors that also look similar in appearance to the people they portray to tell this gripping story. Tom Berenger’ uncanny resemblance to Teddy Roosevelt makes the movie. Several other portrayals like Bucky O’Neill (Sam Elliot) "Black Jack" Pershing (Marshal Teague) Stephen Crane (Adam Storke) Frederick Remington (Nick Chinlund) William Randolph Hearst (George Hamilton) add to the truth of the telling.

Military advisers abound! Several well-known military advisers were used in the making of this film. Dale Dye (Leonard Wood), R. Lee Ermey (John Hay), and Pablo Espinosa (Frederick Funston) lent their military talents to the making of the film while Milius donated his weapons collection and those of his friends as props for the filming.

From Bucky O’Neill’s assembly of the Arizona regiment to the training camps in the south the film follows their exploits as a fledgling military unit all the way to Tampa their jump off point. Items are left intact such as Teddy’s commandeering of an infantry troop train to move his men to the embarkation point or the fact that they had to leave most of their horses behind because of lack of transport ships. Once the battle sequences begin some items are either bunched up or in the case of some of the characters they are compilations of people or their demise is more heroic or out of sequence.

Fortunately, it is not distracting and makes for a better movie. When I first heard that Turner was making this movie, I was skeptical. I had seen some of his movies and frankly was not enthusiastic. However, as press packs became more available I started to have second thoughts. From the attack on Las Guasimas to the frontal assaults on Kettle Hill and San Juan Heights the movie pulls along nicely.

An interesting note; William Tiffany is killed in action in the movie. He is shot while setting up machine guns on the opposing hill to San Juan heights. The fact is he died as a result Yellow Fever on the return trip home. In addition, Edward Marshall is shot in the spine at the battle of Las Guasimas and does not get to see the assault on the hills. Though one fact is somewhat clear, he asked Crane to get the story, or Crane offered to get the story for him.

Stars:
Tom Berenger, Sam Elliot, Gary Busey, Brad Johnson, Chris Noth, Brian Keith, George Hamilton

Attention to Detail:
With John Milius helming the picture, I am going to assume he decided to do this because he wanted to show off his own personal arsenal. Krag Jorgenson bolt action rifles, Springfield repeaters, Colt potato diggers, Mausers, Cavalry uniforms, and other period weapons were used to film this movie. Dale Dye and R. Lee Ermey taught cavalry and infantry tactics of the day. The detail of the hills (Kettle and San Juan Heights) is close to accurate including the boiler and packing houses for the sugar.

Famous Lines:Stephen Crane: You're wounded, sir.
Craig Wadsworth: A red badge of courage... it's not like your book, old man.
Teddy Roosevelt to Henry Nash: Don't touch him, I need the Hun!

Kane to Indian Bob (after teddy is done with the Hun): Indian Bob...KILL THE HUN!

Henry Bardshar (to 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldier): You boys of the 10th sure can fight. You can drink out of my canteen anytime.

Also watch:

Gettysburg

Gods and Generals

I Give This:

SitRep

Sitrep in military terminology is Situation Report. I will be updating this forum over the holiday weekend and it will include the new SitRep section to let you know news and other goings on in the world of war movies. So, when I give a sitrep the header will be "SITREP-Title". Thanks for watching and if you have a movie you would like reviewed let me know and I will do my best to watch it...if I haven't already!

Dave

Head Shots

Hans Christian Blech

Obtained the famous scars on his face from wounds received while serving as a German Soldier on the Russian Front during WW2.

Most Notable Films:
The Longest Day (1962)
Battle of the Bulge (1965)

Head Shots


Karl-Otto Alberty

Berlin born Alberty is the great bad guy. He has made 41 films and his first English language film was The Great Escape in 1963.


Most Notable Films:
Raid on Rommel (1971)
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Battle of Britain (1969)
The Battle of the Bulge (1965)
The Great Escape (1963)

Filmed at Bavaria Film studios outside of Munich Germany, The Great Escape is the true retelling of the greatest prisoner escape of WWII from Stalag Luft III. Filmed on a forested 400 acre lot to the almost exact specs as the original camp, The Great Escape pulls together the most talented actors of the time to make this a very exciting, sometimes funny, and very tense story.

With the use of German, British, and US actors, John Sturges, using the Paul Brickhill book by the same name, began filming without a script. Using the exact means of escape that the real men did Sturges made composite characters to represent the real men and stayed as true to the real escape as he possibly could while filming. He also hired Wally Floody, the real tunnel king, who was portrayed by Charles Bronson as the technical adviser.

The Great Escape follows the men of Stalag Luft III who find ways to tunnel under the camp and to the surrounding pine forest of Zagan, Poland. Big X, played by Richard Attenborough, plans to move 200 prisoners out of the camp and into the surrounding country side to disrupt the German war machine. Thrilling, funny, and suspense filled it is a great movie from start to finish. It is truly and epic war movie and should be part of every DVD library.

Stars
Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, and David McCallum.

Attention to Detail
Donald Pleasence noted that the camp built for the movie was the exact replica of Stalag Luft I which he was a resident of during the war.

Uniforms were made to the exact specifications as the originals. Vehicles were period vehicles scrounged up from around the area, the studio, or collectors.

Sturges incorporated details from the book, personal accounts from the veterans on set including accounts from the actors, set dressers, and other people associated with the movie for realism.

Famous Lines
Von Luger: Are all American officers so ill-mannered?
Hilts: Yeah, about 99 percent.
Von Luger: Then perhaps while you are with us you will have a chance to learn some. Ten days isolation, Hilts.
Hilts: CAPTAIN Hilts.
Von Luger: Twenty days.
Hilts: Right. Oh, uh, you'll still be here when I get out?
Von Luger: [visibly annoyed] Cooler!

Also Watch
Battle of the Bulge
Battle of Britain

I Give This....

One of the first war movies I had seen as a young boy To Hell and Back was the story of Texan Audie Murphy who at the age of 17 and standing only 5' 5" tall joined the US Army during WWII. Murphy was sent to N. Africa where he joined the 3rd Infantry Division and trained for the invasion of Sicily.

The movie is an abridged version of his book of the same title and outlines his major campaigns and battles. Based on his book Murphy had to "Hollywood" some parts of the movie due to the fact that some of his operations were still considered secret or confidential.

Starting from when he was a boy on his Texas farm to the day he got his Congressional Medal of Honor, To Hell and Back is a WWII action roller coaster from the 50's in the tradition of Battleground, Go for Broke, and other biographical movies of its type To Hell and back is a good war movie to share with friends and family.

Audie Murphy, 19, Life Magazine

Attention to Detail
Audie Murphy worked his magic in getting tanks, infantry equipment, uniforms, and actual footage from the Army war footage archives of the Italian campaign, and Fort Lewis Washington for its European looks.

Interesting feature was in fact the M4A3 Sherman tanks used in the movie. Made in 1954-55 the A3 Shermans was all but fazed out our turned into A3E8s. These particular Shermans were probably National Guard equipment. This reasoning comes from the fact that Audie was a National Guard Officer until his death in 71.

Stars
Audie Murphy, Marshall Thompson, Jack Kelly, Charles Drake, Bruce Cowling, David Janssen

Famous lines
Johnson - Where does he think he's going?
Brandon - I'm supposed to take care of him?
Murphy pulls grenades from his gear and crawls forward
Brandon - Hey, you think you got a private war?
Murphy - No...I think there's enough to go around

Also watch...
Tobruk
They Were Expendable

I give this….

Go For Broke!! (1951)

Written and directed by Battleground's Robert Pirosh, Go For Broke is the "based on" account of the US Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team and its fight in Army training camps in the US south and the fight against Germany in Italy and France in 1943 and 1944. Many of the Japanese actors in the movie are actual veterans of the 442nd and played a fictional character in the movie. Van Johnson plays Lt. Grayson, a Texan, who is not fond of his new found command and still has serious issues with Japanese Americans being soldiers. Eventually Grayson warms up to and emmerses himself in the Nisei.


Lane Nakano - Sam (1925 - 2005)



Van Johnson & Henry Nakamura

Attention to Detail
One of the greatest details in this movie is that they took guys that fought in Italy and France, asked them to portray other men in the 442nd and set them lose on a backlot battlefield.

One of the other details I was looking at was the field gear. To me it looked like these guys still had all their gear and uniforms from when they served.


Stars
Van Johnson, Pat Morita, Lane Nakano, Don Haggerty, Dan Riss, Henry Nakamura


Famous Line
Lt. Michael Grayson: I'll be seeing you.
Tommy: Aloha, partner.



Also Watch
Hell is for Heroes
To Hell and Back



I give this...

Battleground! (1949)

Arguably one of the best war movies to come out of Hollywood. It is the story of the 101st Airborne's 327th Glider Infantry Regiment fighting in Belgium during the German push at the Battle of the Bulge. Item Co. is in France waiting on their ride to Paris when Kinney enters and tells them they are on their way to the front. They are unknowingly sent to Bastogne or as Abner Spudler calls it Bas-stog-nee. Many people think this is William Wellman's war story but the fact is it belongs to writer Robert Pirosh and is the partial history of the 320th Infantry Regiment of the 35th Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne Division units he supported when he went into Bastogne.



Ian MacDonald - The Colonel


Leon Ames (L) - Chaplain & Brett King (R) - Lt. Teiss

Attention to Detail
One thing about this movie is that it was filmed in Hollywood and at Fort Lewis Washington. Many of the character actors were trained by the paratroopers from the 101st and other army units. An interesting note is that the M4A3E8 Shermans used in the ending sequence were late model heavy Shermans with the upgraded armor package.

In the early 40's star Van Johnson was in a car accident that almost took his life. One of his surgeories required a steel plate be placed in his forehead. In almost all of his movies the scar is covered by makeup BUT in making harsher more violent films his scar is not covered and in several sequences in Battleground his scar is very prominent.

Stars
Van Johnson, James Whitmore, Marshall Thompson, John Hodiak, Richard Jaeckel, Herbert Anderson, Ricardo Montalban, and Denise Darcel

Famous Line
Holley: Yeah, they really shoulda sent out a bigger patrol.
PFC. Johnny Rodriguez: Do you want to goof off?
Holley: Who said anything about goofing off?
PFC. Johnny Rodriguez: Nobody. I'm just saying, the best way is to tell them you heard voices talking in German.
PFC. Donald Jarvess: Let's say we heard voices talking in Japanese and let G-2 figure that out.

Also Watch
The Longest Day
Band of Brothers - Rated R for extreme war violence

I give this movie....

PVT Holley! Fall In!!

The incredible Van Johnson passed away today. At 92, he was living in an assisted living center in Nyack, NY. At 24 he starred in his first movie, Too Many Girls, as a choir boy and at 76 he starred in Clowning Around his last film. His noted film appearences are 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Battleground, Go For Broke, The Caine Mutiny, and Brigadoon and his noted TV appearences in Quincy, The Love Boat, and McMillian and Wife to name a few.

Turner Classic Movies

Johnson's air of sympathetic concern, still boyish energy and sometimes larger-than-life acting style marked him as a welcome reminder of old Hollywood on TV, too, from his guest villain spot as the Minstrel on the campy 60s "Batman" to his Emmy-nominated supporting role on "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976). Other TV work included "Superdome" (1978), "Glitter" (1984) and "Clowning Around" (1992), and he also made regular appearances as a most genial interview subject on his lengthy showbiz career and the Hollywood of yore.

----------------------------------------------
At 45 many of the actors I watch in movies that I like have long since parted the earth. Men like Bogey, Widmark, Albert, Fonda, Wayne, Murphy, Thompson and others instilled in me the pride of a country. Many of these men are one of the reasons why I joined the military though the men in my family are the main reason.


But, still, there was something about Van Johnson that makes me sit and watch any of his movies. I'm not sure if its the Pvt. Holly, Jeff Douglas, or The Minstrel in him but there is something that just drags me to the TV to watch him.

Funny, Van is one of a handful of Rhode Islanders I DON'T know ;)

He will be missed....God Speed Van!