Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: -ammo- on August 24, 2002, 06:16:08 PM
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Then you need to rent it. What a great movie! Had me all emotional, and that is fairlly hard to do.
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Just rented it this past week. I thought it was pretty good. There is some great music in there also.
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One of the best I've seen, had me all emotional aswell. Bought the soundtrack for it aswell, not a single bad song on the whole CD, SO BUY IT!
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It's also a great book.
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Haven't seen it. Are we baby murdering, psycho, rapist again?
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Originally posted by easymo
Haven't seen it. Are we baby murdering, psycho, rapist again?
LOL Nah Easymo, this time we're scared kids hoping to get home in one piece. We're the good guys this time.
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cool action scenes
never seen mel gibson cry bfore
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no easymo, this aint "platoon":) They actually portray the NVA as soldiers too, not some spooky ghosth w/ AK-47's. The movie is about the first battle that the Americans had with the NV in 65, that is the first where we deployed a large unit into battle. Based ona true story.
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Haven't seen Mel cry?
Review the first scene in the first lethal weapon...
The one where he tries to swallow his gun... pretty intense for a "buddy picture" comedy.
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Erhh..it's absolutly awful. It's Randalph Wallace who's directing it...the guy who wrote the screenplay for Pearl Harbour and it's n-times more slobby.
Stupid slo-mo all the time, awful soundtrack and Mel Gibson delivering a substandard performance running on autopilot.
Only good thing is the arial attacks, which are pretty nice.
Read the book instead..it's a million times better.
Don't make the same mistake I did and support that Wallace's work.
Daff
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I thought it was mediocre melodramatic crap like The Patriot, even edging on glorious propaganda. Mel Gibson will never make anything nearing braveheart. Kind of reminds me of the hour long, heroic movies made by the third reich for the NAZI youth. Really, if you seriously compare them, they are VERY similar.
If you really want good war movies get Blackhawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, and Full Metal Jacket.
There are no hokey scenes of Mel Gibson heroically turning around casually and nailing a NVA troop with his 1911, to the enjoyment of his hard-as-nails first sergeant :rolleyes:
Flame me. In five years this crap movie wont be remembered anyways.
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If you really want good war movies get Blackhawk Down
Charactors didn't stand out
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BHD kills We were soldiers. We were is a good movie but Melanie Gibson makes a poor American. It was the little things in BHD which wins it. Soldiers making mistakes in battle, tripping up and going back for their weapons. It was more beliveable. We were went over the top on Apple pie back home.
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Incredibly, Hollywood makes another movie that includes a “Can’t we all get along” scene(s) where blacks become hero’s not to be discounted in spite of what ‘whitey’ thinks.
Pearl Harbor did it, (hold the Captain of the ship and console him in his death before you shoot down planes with a gun you weren’t allowed to fire in practice) Patriot did it, (gosh, I was just ready to hug a black person in the final battle) Gladiator did it, We Were Soldiers even had the surely bias white women appalled that there was separate laundry mats! Men of Honor? Good grief... What cheesy crap.
Nazi Germany was way better at propaganda, but Hollywood is a laughable mimic.
I hope they don’t make a Thomas Jefferson big Hollywood blockbuster. While he is sleeping with slaves, their bed-talk will somehow be the inspiration for the Constitution?
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Originally posted by Animal
If you really want good war movies get ....... and Full Metal Jacket.
...Put the crack pipe down and come out with your hands up!
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just watched it last night.. thot it was pretty good. Some things in it... some elements... that hadn't been tried very often before that worked very well in this movie...
gibson never fired a .45 even once in the movie. He shot a man with his M16 who was charging him. His sargent used a .45 1911 and the slide worked very realistically.
sure.. it was kinda hokey but... it was our first big engagement and it was in 1965.... 1965 was pretty hokey... it was the fifties after all. "easyrider" didn't even come out till '68-69..
If you haven't seen it then you probly should rent it.. It is a pretty good movie to watch. Tried to watch the "lord of the rings" crap afterward and fell assleep. Kept praying it would end but couldn't see how... Found out... it didn't.
lazs
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The first 40 minutes is crap,but the battles are great!I like how it showed both sides of the conflict.
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I liked the part where Burt Lancaster rolled in the surf with that blond babe :)
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Read the book, it's much better. It tells the true story of the battle without made-up things that never happened, and without omitting uncomfortable events like the ambush at LZ Albany.
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I am going to buy the book:)
The movie was good IMO. the point being driven home, the unselfish sacrifice the soldier (and his family) makes.
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Originally posted by SC-Sp00k
--snip--Melanie Gibson makes a poor American. --snip--
Even though he was born here?
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. the point being driven home, the unselfish sacrifice the soldier (and his family) makes.
Starring a guy, whos father moved his family to Aus. specifically to keep his sons out of Vietnam. :rolleyes:
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Originally posted by easymo
. the point being driven home, the unselfish sacrifice the soldier (and his family) makes.
Starring a guy, whos father moved his family to Aus. specifically to keep his sons out of Vietnam. :rolleyes:
sorry, wasnt thinking about any of that while I was watching the movie:) Maybe this one isnt for you easymo.
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Originally posted by easymo
. the point being driven home, the unselfish sacrifice the soldier (and his family) makes.
Starring a guy, whos father moved his family to Aus. specifically to keep his sons out of Vietnam. :rolleyes:
Mel's mother was australian, and australian national servicemen went to Vietnam anyhow, so I don't see how coming here could have made any difference.
On topic...I thought the film and book was ok. Prefered SPR, or BHD.
Tronsky
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Ya got me. I am just repeating what Mel said on Charlie Rose. Charlie ask him about his Vietnam vet roles;The leathel weapon movies, etc. Mel looked embarrassed and said what I posted above.
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Originally posted by easymo
Ya got me. I am just repeating what Mel said on Charlie Rose. Charlie ask him about his Vietnam vet roles;The leathel weapon movies, etc. Mel looked embarrassed and said what I posted above.
Ya, but what the hell does Mel Gibson know about Mel Gibson?
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Good point.
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Mel Gibson Dispels Vietnam Rumor
Mel Gibson is trying to dispel a rumor he started about himself.
When he was about 25 he says he blurted out in an interview that his father moved the whole family to Australia so that his sons wouldn't be drafted into the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, it stuck and he has been trying to clear it up ever since.
The truth of the matter is that his father had been injured at work and they had family in Australia.
"Even if you moved to Australia you could still be drafted," Gibson said. Fortunately, Vietnam finished by the time he was 16.
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The Rose interview was just a year or two ago. Pick out which ever lie you like best, and go with it.
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I respect your opinions but,
Imo, the movie was flat emotionally and the book was jingoistic to the max. Moore and Galloway are honoring each other, or the realitives of one of his men is honoring them on almost every page. So much posturing deflates the message; our men were sent into a bad situation by clueless brass, but sheer bravery allowed them to survive being overrun. I understand their desire to tell this tale, but think a good editor would have helped.
Ask yourself this. Have the big scenes in that movie been done before, in a more artistic way? Movies are moving pics afterall. Take the scene in the dark where our guys hear something and fire a flare to find the enemy yards away. Fun, but remember the same scene in Platoon? We wake up and stare at the misty forest. After a while, a tree moves and becomes a VC creeping up. Which scene has more impact? Suspense? Keeper images?
I honor these men for their sacrifice. But Mel's on my toejam list atm. He keeps trotting out sentimental overkill. I'd like to see 'em do an Altman style film, where he was part of an ensemble cast and had someone who could say no. :cool:
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Starring a guy, whos father moved his family to Aus. specifically to keep his sons out of Vietnam
Easymo, if you look into the background of every actor you'll be disapointed.
Kirk Douglass had to rescue his long haired son Michael from a hippy commune in 1970..
Robert DeNero leans politically to the left. His wife is black.
James Gabrifinni doesn't really act like Tony Soprano.
Martin Sheen who did a great job as Gen Robert E Lee leans waaay over to the left.
These folks are paid to play other people. We watch movies because it puts us in a place we could never live in real life.
Some of the best war movies are directed by war vets Battleground, The Story of GI Joe...Platoon. They add strong character development, tragedy, fear, and some light humor. Some of the humor is so subtle only a fellow veteran would understand it. There needs to be a love interest. If not a direct love interest maybe something like a letter from a sweetheart anything to pull the viewer back home. It’s to add contrast between the horror being depicted and what’s sane and normal. Mail call is always a centerpiece for real life and in the movies.. You know somebody’s going to get a dear John letter and that will effect them and the team later when there’s a task at hand. Another guy gets a tape of his baby son saying his first words. Only problem is he doesn’t have a tape recorder.
You being a Viet Nam Vet, I’m curious how you would direct a VN movie. Would it be pro war?... Bunch of Gung Ho guys waving that flag charging up the hill nobody complains.. A little odd.. nobody complains in the army? Or would there be a slightly anti war bent.. You want to show how diddlying insane war is in the first place? Try and remind the powers that be to not start these things.
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"His wife is black. "
And just what does that have to do with anything?
Daff
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Ammo, glad you are getting the book. Beware - if you thought the film was moving, the book is even more so.
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Get real Daff. Can you name one white right-wing republican who is married to a black woman? He doesn't even have to be in office, or ever held an office.
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I can barely name any republican politicians and are even less familiar with their wifes...but despite being considered by most here as a pinko-leftist-treehugging-terrorist-loving-freedom-hating-pc-communist (Did I leave anything out, Cabby?), I don't fully buy the right = racist connection. Far right yes, 'standard right', no.
Daff
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And just what does that have to do with anything?
Daff
Oh nothing Daff, I could care less, just saying many actors have very different lives when not playing a character er.. working..
Would Max Cady, Robert DeNero’s character in Cape Fear have an interracial marriage?
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Bobby Mugabe?
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Originally posted by Daff
"His wife is black. "
And just what does that have to do with anything?
Daff
Well, If he is white and she is black and they have 62 kids.
We have ourselves a game of Checkers :)
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screw all you armchair warriors. easy to sit back and sling toejam when you didn't have to do the job.
every vet from that miserable war had to face his own demons.. both there, and here afterwards. Training, discipline, determination, patriotism and devotion to the guys around you didn't have any more to do with who came home and who didn't than simple luck.
it sucked. it will always suck, and i'm glad it's over, no matter how it ended. same goes for every movie i ever saw on the subject. frankly, i'd rather be entertained at the movies, and vietnam movies are just not entertaining..
this one made my, 'no thanks, i'll pass' list.
but, thats just me; i guess.
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Oh just wanted to quickly add something, if you didn’t know about DeNero’s wife, it’s because he works very hard to keep his private life private. He has a very large conservative fan base and wants to keep it that way.
Charlton Heston, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Swarsnagger are all very conservative doesn’t stop me from enjoying their movies
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10bears. First of all. You have to admit, using this particular pretty boy, Hollywood, meat puppet, to play Vietnam vets, has some irony.
As far as making a movie. I wouldn't even try. As I have stated in the past. War is an experience. Like any human experience, if it is unique, you are not going to get it on film. If a guy has never eaten a banana. You can show him a thousand movies of people eating bananas, and he still wont know what one taste like.
If I were forced to make one. It would be very boring to people use to Hollywood drama queens. Basically, it would just show solider earning their pay. There would be no background music. Real life dosent have mood music. When someone got hurt, there would be screaming. There is something very disturbing about a grown man screaming. Also it would not be shut off, so as not to get on the audiences nerves. It would go on, and on, and on. Like real life.
I would include one standard, war movie, screen. When Officers, and senior NCOs stand around talking business, while bullets are flying by. I have seen them do this, and it really, was amazing.
There wouldn't be acts of great courage every two minutes. Exceptional acts of courage are as rare as acts of cowardice. Most guys just go along with the program. For most of us the things that we did that took guts. Had little to do with us personally. If you find yourself in a world of total chaos, and you have no idea of whats going on. (fear of the unknown can be a terrible thing). What you will do. Is what you are trained/conditioned to do. Its all you have. Its all you know. How do you show that on film?
Treatment of the enemy, in movies, always makes me scratch my head. Hollywood goes with the hero hating the bad guys for some reason; usually some trumped up revenge issue. Or they are the noble foe well met. Both are BS. To us they were just gooks. Killing them was not personal. It was just the business we where in.
Anyway, film is a lousy medium, for trying to understand this stuff. Books give you a much better way to look inside a guys head. That is where wars are really fought. I recommend Red Badge of Courage. It is an old book, but the guy got it mostly, right.
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I thought "Red Badge of Courage" was written by a girl?
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EasyMo the producers would freak out on your script. No theme music?.. No 60s style tunes to capture the era?.. Not even in the opening scenes in Saigon or Cam Ran Bay with the little motor bikes everywhere the those three wheeled taxi things?.. How bout a little Smoky Robinson or the Temptations at least. This is to bring the viewer into a world of complete chaos. Even the safe areas are teaming with danger or the unknown.
Your right about the taste of a banana but it would be the same as describing grasshoppers dipped in molasses. They say it tastes sweet and crunchy. Using that description from a trusted source you might want to try it.
The Hollywood drama queens really turned me off to Black hawk down. Except they lacked the drama.. When one got shot I didn’t really have a chance to know him. It was lack of drama that hurt that film. Remember these are mostly working men’s sons and it being a war movie the audience doesn’t mind if the characters have an odd shaped face or big nose. Do you remember Kip from Bill Willman’s Battleground?.. the one with the GI issue false teeth? He didn’t do a lot of drama or get too emotional but those chattering teeth made his character memorial. You remembered him and would feel bad if he got shot.
You scene where the kid gets shot and doesn’t stop screaming. The scene needs to stop at some point the dust off medivac finally arrives or something. Your producer is going to think your writing an anti war film. The audience can only take that for maybe four minutes or so then the scene needs to fade out with maybe an echo.
If you find yourself in a world of total chaos, and you have no idea of whats going on. (fear of the unknown can be a terrible thing). What you will do. Is what you are trained/conditioned to do. Its all you have. Its all you know. How do you show that on film?
I’d say SPR does a good job with this. There’s a lot of stuff they do with cameras now days to show complete insanity. The green tracers appear to come straight toward you the viewer. A camera mounted on a helmet looks at an explosion to the right then looks at another to the left.. The cameraman doesn’t know where the charges have been planted so when they go off it’s as much a surprise to him. There’s all kinds of ways to create stark fear.
For a war film to make money there needs to be an anchor if not a love interest some sort of reminder of home. In SPR the love interest was Mrs Ryan. Yeah that’s right. Her collapsing on the porch of the Ryan home pulled the emotional heart strings enough for the wives to go to the movie.. Without the wives going to watch the film, that means you can’t go. Another emotional heart string was Capt. Miller going off from his men to do a little release. He keep looking around to make sure his men didn’t see him. He tried hard NOT to cry.. The harder he tried the more powerful the scene became.
Sigh---
Yes your right Red Badge of Courage is an excellent book I would like to read the book the film Gettysburg is based.
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Another emotional heart string was Capt. Miller going off from his men to do a little release. He keep looking around to make sure his men didn’t see him. He tried hard NOT to cry.. The harder he tried the more powerful the scene became.
Probably one of the most powerful scenes in any war movie, or any movie at all. At least for me.
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I found all the brits in blackhawk down pretending to have southern accents was pretty lame but the movie was great... It was Riddley Scot after all. (yes I know he's a brit)
lazs
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Originally posted by Hangtime
sling toejam
What the hell did I do?!? :confused:
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Originally posted by 10Bears
I would like to read the book the film Gettysburg is based. [/B]
Killer Angels
The best novel i ever read. Riveting. Huge, but you'll pour through it.
Then when you see Gettysburg, you'll just dig all 4 hours.
Buy it, i ain't toejamtin.
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Hi Fatty you studmuffin, FSU sucks Yak balls
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First of all. You have to admit, using this particular pretty boy, Hollywood, meat puppet, to play Vietnam vets, has some irony.
While I respect anyone who served, I have no idea why Mel Gibson would carry any irony at all portraying a VN era vet. He was too young to serve in the war anyway. (DOB 1956)
Do we really need to find old snaggle toothed sob's like yourself easymo to play a VN vet? ;)
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"No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic." [President Richard M. Nixon