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Post by martini on Apr 2, 2020 10:38:21 GMT
Just watched this programme and enjoyed it. I think it was on History Channel. It is about how the feature film Fury was made and includes several frank comments from US Sherman tank crew and armoured infantry. I was particularly impressed by the way they re-created tank interiors.
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Post by stevie on Apr 2, 2020 17:25:30 GMT
I too thought it was a very good documentary...but unfortunately I hated the film.
The director seemed to think that the best way to make all the characters appear as
bad-ass battle-hardened veterans was to make them all thoroughly nasty and unlikeable.
By the end of the film I felt no empathy whatsoever for the tank crew, and didn’t care
what happened to them.
I much prefer films where the characters are likeable so that I can empathize with them...
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Post by Cromwell on Apr 3, 2020 8:58:40 GMT
I too thought it was a very good documentary...but unfortunately I hated the film. The director seemed to think that the best way to make all the characters appear as bad-ass battle-hardened veterans was to make them all thoroughly nasty and unlikeable. By the end of the film I felt no empathy whatsoever for the tank crew, and didn’t care what happened to them. I much prefer films where the characters are likeable so that I can empathize with them... Agree with you about "Fury". There is a tendency today to overdo the bad boy image. I think it is an attempt to portray how war changes and hardens people. Unfortunately the nearest thing to combat that many of the directors doing this have come is when someone rudely pushed in front of them at the canteen queue whilst at University doing their Media Studies course. One shove and "Oh you bitch" does not a veteran make. Also why are American troops always shown as argumentative and lacking any form of discipline. Enlisted shouting and answering back at NCO's, NCO's Shouting and answering back to Officers and Officers who appear so incompetent and lack any form of control. Is it or was it really like that in the American services? I served as a Commissioned Officer in the Royal Air Force and acted for a short time as a sort of liaison Officer at an American Air Base here in the UK. And I have to admit I never saw any ill discipline, but I have to say that at times it appeared everyone wandered around wearing what ever piece of kit they fancied, Base ball caps, some on back to front and T shirts, one of which I remember was emblazoned with a logo that proudly announced that the wearer had visited "Saigon Sal's Whorehouse" At times you couldn't tell who was who or who if anyone was in charge. Everyone seemed to use first or nicknames when addressing each other. Every task however was efficiently dealt with, and the jobs got done but at times I could't see how! Admittedly that was over 20 years ago so I do not know what it's like now in the USAF or the RAF. |
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Post by stevie on Apr 3, 2020 10:48:22 GMT
And I agree with you Cromwell.
Just about every Hollywood policeman, from Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry onwards,
has to to argue with their chief and break all the rules, ‘just to get the job done’.
As for American servicemen, I think “Band of Brothers” got it right.
Viewers became interested in the characters, and wanted to see how they got on.
“Fury”, by making all the characters obnoxious dislikeable bullies, got it entirely wrong.
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