Musing on Movies and Other Things

On Saturday night I was watching a Sci-Fi Channel movie titled SS Doomtrooper. This was The Dirty Dozen meet The Hulk with a team of Americans having to stop the German’s “atomic” experiment in creating the super soldier. What was really amusing was when the SS officer sent out a “Panther” to stop the monster they had created. Here we had a green T-34 rolling around the landscape with German markings. And that brings us to one of modelers’ favorite pastimes: talking about the aircraft and tanks used in movies to represent some other aircraft or tank.

I always liked in the movie The Longest Day the two Fw 190s that strafed the beachhead were Bf 108s. In The Battle of the Bulge we have M24 Chaffees being the American tanks (which is okay since the M24 is an American tank) and the M48 Pattons being the German tanks. In the famous From Here to Eternity we watch as AT-6G Texans attack Schofield Barracks. The list goes on and on.

We all know why Hollywood does it. Real Panthers and Focke-Wulf Fw 190s are not easily obtainable. Plus how many people really know (or even care) what these old weapons look like? Just the chosen few who have spent many an hour pouring over reference books. And that is a small percentage of the movie watching population.

A variation on this game is to look for the authentic footage spliced into the movie to save on special effects cost. The problem with this is aircraft types will change in mid scene. This brings to mind a movie (which one escapes me at the moment) of a F-14 with a problem attempting to make a carrier landing. As the F-14 touches down it turns into a F9F Panther and hits the island. I love it.

Now with computer assisted animation the state of vehicles and aircraft in the movies is much better. Although I did not care for Pearl Harbor I did love the battle scenes. And even though I have heard a lot of complaints, I liked the German AFVs in Saving Private Ryan.