Re: Combat films

On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 11:18:59 -0500, "Thomas.Barclay"
<Thomas.Barclay@sofkin.ca> wrote:

>SPR the best combat film? It wasn't bad. It had some really good
points. 

I feel it was the best combat film I've seen, and I have seen some of
the
others. It's the first film that I've ever seen where cowardice was
shown not
so much as a personality flaw but as a defence mechanism. Sure, you can
get
mad at Upham (I know I was!) but on the other hand, part of me kept
saying,
"God, you really can't fault him for wanting to just dig a whole and
disappear...". 

I liked the fact that people didn't just die quietly or quickly. Death
was
usually a painful, lingering thing. 

It had its faults, but I think its faults were far less than other films
I've
seen. Do NOT get me started on "Thin Red Line"...

I've always enjoyed "Das Boot". "Stalingrad" is also good, if a bit
meandering
at the 2/3 mark. I got an eerie feeling of deja vu while watching
"Glory".
"Gettysburg" wasn't bad, but it wasn't about the battle, it was a
retelling of
Schaara's "The Killer Angels". Now, "The Killer Angels" is a fine book,
but
historically it perpetuates some aspects of the battle that have since
been
denounced. It doesn't talk much at ALL about the battle on the Union
right,
and when it does it blames Ewell (I've been on Culp's Hill... I don't
think
Ewell could have dislodged the 11th Corps after it dug in on the first
day).
It doesn't blame Longstreet enough, by any means. And it also misses the
whole
travesty that was Dan Sickles on the Union left.

Which is one of the problems with war movies. They hardly ever let silly
things like history get in the way of a good action sequence or some
interesting story telling. "The Longest Day" is a prime example (how
they
could ignore the Canadians on Juno beach, a beach only slightly less
nasty
than Omaha, is beyond me). 

>For Sci-Fi "combat" films/segments, I think Aliens was pretty good
(thought
>the Laser Disk version with the Sentry guns and some other scenes was
>better) though the sergeant who collected the ammo should have been
smacked
>and the Marines' tactics weren't bright (though that was the point). 

Those scenes are on the extended special edition video and the DVD
version,
too. I'm trying to think of other sci-fi movies and very few deal with
combat
in space in a reasonable way. "Enemy Mine" has a lovely opening shot
showing
the aftermath of a space battle. The Terminator movies you mentioned.
There is
a demand for a properly done sci-fi combat film, but it hasn't been made
yet.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@interlog.com
Goodall's Grotto: http://www.interlog.com/~agoodall/

"Surprisingly, when you throw two naked women with sex
toys into a living room full of drunken men, things 
always go bad." - Kyle Baker, "You Are Here"