On the flipside...Best flicks for accuracy?

[Steve T]

Hi all--

As promised...what think we? I'll offer a few to start...

Battle Of Britain
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Strategic Air Command (B-36s/B-47s, and the Stewart influence again)
The Big Lift
The Great Waldo Pepper (OK, so it was partly about the 20s movie biz, so the WWI stuff they used was TOO authentic...and the Chipmunk was maybe a tad much...but it caught the spirit of the time very well)

Over to the WIXers!

S.

[hairy]

How could you forget TORA TORA TORA
The Dam Busters
The original Memphis Belle movie

[Steve T]

Hi again Hairy--

I didn't forget Tora...wanted to see if someone would cite that one despite the absence of any actual Japanese types in the film. It would certainly be on my list too, for inventive pre-CGI replication of extinct (or nearly so) airplane types among other things. The fact that the Japanese characters in the film actually spoke Japanese is a huge plus too IMO.

William Wyler's "Memphis Belle" is in a different league, of course...for that film they had the real thing, at the real time! (Wish the 1990 remake had stuck closer to the original.)

Cheers

S.

[Jack Cook]

Pearl Harbor!!! (just kidding)

How about 12 o'clock high hands down!

[DaveM2]

'Hells Angels', the Hughes flic and 'Dive Bomber'

Dave

[Dan Johnson II]

Angels One Five, with the Hurricanes wasn't too bad for the time it was made.

While i'ts purely propoganda, "Air Force" with John Garfield and company is a favorite for all the shark fin B17C/Ds and the P39s in flight.

Bridges at Toko Ri with William Holden and all those F9Fs was a good one too.

Dan

[Oscar Duck]

The Hunters/Jet Pilot/Fighter Pilot/Apocolipse Now/Air America/Conair/

[RyanShort1]

Objective Burma.

Ryan

[SaxMan]

How about "Helldivers"? a 1932 film featuring Clark Gable. It was the first time that the U.S. Navy allowed an outside film crew to film their flight operations. Many scenes were shot on the U.S.S. Saratoga, which was only 5 years old at the time of the film.

The actual flight scenes where they used real airplanes (and not the scenes with model planes) are quite spectacular, especially considering the times in which the film was shot.

[JBoyle]

For pure airplane fun...not necessarily script or acting...
"X-15"...shot at edwards AFFTC.

and a lesser known film...look for it on ebay because "Science Mystery Theater 3000" rewrote it.....
"Starfighters"...a seldom seen film about a F-104 squadron...great aerail shots...no plot at all, but fun if you like early 1960's USAF.

One more film I'd love to see again..."Battle Taxi" about USAF Rescue pilots in Korea...lots of authentic H-19 stuff.

[Chris Brame]

Accuracy is a relative term with movies (you can nitpick anything, including documentaries!), but I've always liked "Wake Island" (I can ignore the Ryan SCWs; the story stuck close to the then-known facts), "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, "I Wanted Wings", "Catch-22" for the war-weary look of the B-25s, and "Task Force" for the sheer variety of aircraft. Over to you...

[Don Martin]

Add Air Cadet, Battle Hymn, The McConnel Story, Bombadier, Toward the Unknown, Flight From Ashya, Bombers B-52, A Gathering of Eagles and there was one about a group of guys buying WWII surplus aircraft after the war and refurbishing them and selling them overseas. Another Jimmy Stewart movie; Spirit of St. Louis. Also, The Great Santini had some good footage.

[Dave Homewood]

A more recent one with some aviation, 13 Days. That film is apparently very accurate, the script is mostly transcripts of taped conversations amde on both sides, and some of the jet footage is genuine stuff, colourised and restored.

Dive Bomber is a fantastic film, I agree DaveM2. But I wonder, were all those aviation medicine breakthoughs discovered by one small team in the US Navy as the film suggests? They do have a disclaimer saying the film is a tribute to aviation medicine researchers. Not nitpicking, just wondering. Some awesome footage of massed formations in colour - pre-America going to war. Great film.

How about Command Decision - I think it is almost as good as Twelve O'Clock High.

[Ollie]

"Final Countdown" for the USN carrier scenes.

"Behind Enemy Lines" to see a Hornet being shot at!