Why do movie makers do not even bother with correct props?

Anyone see "Cross of Iron", the Peckinpah movie? Real Russian tanks (T-34/85s), uniforms, small arms, the water dripping off of the Russian Maxim MG. One of the better proped war flicks. A godawful movie was Force 10 From Naverone. German tanks were T-34s.
Another smaller flick, about 20 years old, is The Odd Angry Shot, an Aussie film, tells the story of the Aussie experience in Vietnam through the eyes of an SAS unit. Weapons down to the SLR and 203, an RPD even made it into the movie. But the 203s were never fired, my only complaint.
Anyone ever notice the "Uzis" in The Dogs of War? They are Ingrams dressed up to look like Uzis. Rumour mill has it Uzis were difficult to get around that time, so the Ingram was dressed in that fashion to fool everyone (except those that nitpick).
 
fed168,

Where did you find Aussie SAS film? I've been looking for a while with no luck.

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So many pistols, so little money.
 
In Top Gun the MiGs were F-5's. In Iron Eagle 2 the MiGs were F-4's. I remember seeing the F-5's with the red star on the vertical stablizer parked outside the MAG-46 hangar when I was stationed at El Toro MCAS in 1990.
 
Milius' T-72's in Red Dawn were accurate enough that a couple of dudes in Wayfarers and suits from Christians In Action followed the flatbed transporting one to the set to inquire as to its origins. Ooops!

Let's all take a moment to remember the deadliest aircraft in the world:

The T-6 Texan.

This piston powered North American trainer shot down German bombers in Patton, strafed Allied commandoes in The Guns of Navarrone, attacked Pearl Harbor in too many movies to count, the list goes on...

PS: The giveaway on the Kelly's Heroes tank for me was the forward location of the turret. At least SPR added bogus interleaved road wheels. The He-111's in Patton are license-built Merlin-engined copies built in Spain in the 40s & 50s. The Spanish army also provided the tanks and the extras.

Oh yeah. Watching a war movie with me just sucks...

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!
 
Anyone here ever see "Stargate"? Weapons- not too bad. Weapons USE- ridiculous!First combat scene inside an alien pyramid- about 8 g.i.types, and in the semi-darkness you hear weapons being racked about 20 times!
crankshaft
 
One movie that was pretty accurate:
THE BEAST
A story of a russian tank crew getting lost in Afganistan and a group of local boys that hunt the tank down.
Intesting scene is the opening - not only do they have REAL T-72s - but they have a bunch of them and show them shooting on the move in formation - very cool.

T-72's or dressed 62's? I dont remember...
Either way - cool stuff and worth watching.
 
fed168:

"The Odd Angry Shot" is one of my favourite movies. They spent a lot of time getting details right -- even down to having beer cans made without pop-tops (sorry, don't know what you call them).

Much of it was shot at the Australian Army's Jungle Warfare centre/training grounds in Canungra, Qld.

The army assisted with the weaponry, so it should be fairly accurate (since they were still using SLRs as issue rifles then).

You can apparently buy it online:

see http://eonline.com/Facts/Movies/0,60,12574,00.html

Cheers

B
 
One of my favorites is "The Battle Of Britain."

Okay, so the HE-111's were CASA 2.111's, the Me 109's were HA.1112's and the Ju 52's were CASA 252's all provided and flown by the Spanish air force, they were as close as they could possibly get, at the time of filming there were no flying 109's or 111's. The proliferation of Hurricanes and Spitfires (even if they were MK IX's, a variant introduced after TBOB) made up for the Merlin engined Luftwaffe Aircraft!


Trivia tidbit: the Spanish airforce transitioned from HA.1112's (top speed 375mph) directly to F-104 Starfighters (top speed Mach 2.2)

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Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.
 
The F-104 is my all-time favorite fighter. Absolutely the MEANEST looking (IMO) piece of hardware ever to grace the sky. A missile with a pilot. The wings had to have covers on the leading edges when parked, so you wouldn't cut yourself on them.

Yes, I know other planes were/are more competent. But for ME, the '104 will ALWAYS be "the fighter".
 
As Daniel Watters pointed out "Its not always easy to get the right equipment at the right time at the right place"
The think that REALLY bothers me are the UNIFORMS.
1. Brass not shined (Class A's)
2. Incorrect branch insigna.
3. Incorrect ribbons/awards for the time period portrayed.
4. Boots/shoes not shined (In an Airborne Unit?)Not very damn likely.
5. Incorrect unit patch.
6. Hair over collar (Airborne again)Never!
7. Uniform not pressed (looks like it was slept in)

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"Lead, follow or get the HELL out of the way."
 
they got all the weapons & uniforms right in Star wars
:)

Think about it,
With the advances in CGI we are gonna see
computer generated tanks, planes & the look will be perfect.

dZ
 
Well, I forgave 'em the Merlin-engined thing cause at least the airframe was right. Y'all ever tried to find an inverted-vee Jumo213 or DB603 these days? I hear that there is an Me-109 out there somewhere with the correct engine, but I've never seen it. A second nomination for BoB as the coolest flick. I drool when I hear the sound of a Merlin anyway, and here's this movie full of 'em! Oh, there was also a cool docu-miniseries on a few years ago from the BBC called, I think, "Piece of Cake." Filled with cool flying Spits and such. Pretty historically accurate, I think, down to the early Mark I Spits having wooden props. Funny how the Brits went from the few that Churchill spoke of to the many sheep they are today. Tony Blair should fill Chamberlain's post, not Churchill's...

This thread's question begs another: who's the worst one here to watch a historical/warfare movie with?

I nominate myself, because if you can hear even the machine-gun fire over the snorts of derision, yer doin' real good...
 
Gopher-

Last I knew there were 4 109's that have been brought back to flying status: 1 completely authentic Bf 109G-2trop "Yellow 14", I think it's at Duxford, and 3 Spanish HA.1112's retrofitted with DB 605's, although the airframes were built after the war, they were rebuilt with authentic German parts and newly manufactured parts to original German specs. In every way they are identical to wartime Bf 109's.

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Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.
 
Oh yeah! I remember that one now. Overall tan with a white nose and spinner along with the trop air filter. Sweeeeeeet! :) Wonder what a DB 605 sounds like? Anyone got a .wav file handy? ;)
 
IIRC, the stash of DB605's that has turned up recently was found, of all places, when they tore out the wall of an Italian underwear manufacturer to add a wing and discovered a cache of crated DaimlerBenzes that had been stashed back during the Big One and forgotten.

PS Anyone heard about that old German dude in, I believe, Texas doing handbuilt reproductions? Started with Curtiss P-6E Hawks (my personal all-time fave! Go Snow Owls!) was supposedly in the process of doing either Dora-9's or Ta-152's (can't remember which) and was doing up prints to manufacture a run of the world's first flyable replica 262's. Is this cat still in business, does anyone know, and has he been both knighted and canonized yet?

Underwear manufacturer... Truth is most always stranger than fiction.

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!

[This message has been edited by Tamara (edited May 28, 2000).]
 
Tamara-

I saw a newly built P-6E at Oshkosh about 3 years ago, can't remember who the builder was but he was the owner/pilot as well. I don't recall a German surname though.

I've heard rumors in the warbird community about a man in Texas gearing up to produce 262's for the last 6 or 8 years, as far as I know, nothing has come of it yet.

I saw another man, at a Texas air museum, on the Wings channel, who was bringing 3 original 190A's back to flight status, and another that built his own 3/4 scale 190A, but no D-9's or Ta 152's. :(

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Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.

[This message has been edited by Rex Feral (edited May 28, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Rex Feral (edited May 28, 2000).]
 
Whoa...... I've been out of the warbird loop too long, I can't believe the 262 project is this far along! I gotta go talk to my bank, see if I can get a loan for one of these puppies! :) :) :)

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Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.
 
Checked the link.

1000lbs more thrust than the original...

I think I just wet myself.

BTW, the B-17 Aluminum Overcast was at our field all weekend two weeks ago. I got zippo work done that Friday, as I had a choice view from my office window. Maybe 100yds away... And I was on the clock! Life is sweet, sometimes...

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"..but never ever Fear. Fear is for the enemy. Fear and Bullets."
10mm: It's not the size of the Dawg in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!
 
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