Midway and Military Movie Inaccuracies

[ColonelDan]

I was reading a thread on a Cowboy Action Shooting forum where many were complaining about how inaccurate Midway was. It reminded me of the movie Top Gun so I posted this in response to their complaints and thought the TH crowd would get a kick out of it as well:

Re: Hollywood and military accuracy, I recall when Top Gun came out, I was one of the Army guys going through the Naval War College at the time and naturally among a number of Navy pilots. To the man, they complained about the inaccuracy of this and that. They finally got a chance to talk with the Captain, a Top Gun Graduate himself and the technical advisor for the movie. Well, he listened to all their complaints and had to agree that there were many inaccuracies but his final response was one for the books, "Men, I had a hard time keeping them from making it into a musical!!!" I thought that was great!

 

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[dirtlooter]

well done! and sounds about right. I remember going to see the movie "The Wind Talkers" which was supposed to be about the Indians in WWII that confounded the Japanese intelligence. Well, there was very little to do with them, just a little here and there, mainly it was about some guy that wasn't even one of them. go figure.

 

[galenrog]

Movies are entertainment. Anyone expecting historical accuracy is being a bit naive.

Time for more coffee.

 

[kingskid1611]

Movies are entertainment. Anyone expecting historical accuracy is being a bit naive.

Time for more coffee.

They may be made for entertainment but to these newer generations what they see in the movies is their fact. Its why they change our history books and cry when things don't go their way....

 

[HowMuchAreTheSparklers]

The biggest inaccuracy that I heard is that it was a "surprise attack on Hawaii" after the oil embargo on the Japanese and confiscation of their oil tankers it probably was inevitable, didn't the Navy sink a Japanese sub a few hours before Pearl? whatever

Probably the other thing ommited from all those movies is the sheer amount of White Phosphorous dropped on some of those Islands out in the Pacific.



Willie Pete, What Phor
https://youtu.be/5UysrKMlmIc?t=187

I remember when the sub was discovered off Hawaii, The mini sub was fully intacked with a hole through the periscope portion of the sub, with both torpedoes intacked, a few years later saw the sub, terrible condition, whole front portion of the sub was destroyed. Probably some lobster diver locals set off the torpedoes.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Sparklers, do those video's have anything at all to do with
the text of your post?

 

[Gold_FInger]

When the movie 300 came out,, there was a gentleman on a gun forum that was describing the inaccuracies in the color of their capes...(Maroon, darker red ect.) Another gentleman chimed in."Lighten up dude, the movie had monsters in it"...Was funny at the time.

 

[CreakyDigger]

One of the military inaccuracies that I see all the time in battle scenes of the past is that cannonballs always explode. They don't show a bouncing 6 pound iron ball that tears the limbs off of approaching soldiers.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

One of the military inaccuracies that I see all the time in battle scenes of the past is that cannonballs always explode. They don't show a bouncing 6 pound iron ball that tears the limbs off of approaching soldiers.

The movie the patriot shows the bouncing cannon balls as it took off legs and head.

Movies are Hollywood, not many people will pay to see documentary of real life war.

 

[RTR]

I catch these mistakes all the time to the point of pissing my wife off .
Last one a couple days ago, was a 1959 "Gunsmoke" episode.In a 2 man shootout on main-street one guys gun went off-and it was still in the holster,and the other guy dropped dead . LOL

 

[RTR]

Direct TV in freeze mode ,then forward(one frame at a time) is the best tool....A lot of times I can catch spent rounds being ejected...only to see they, in fact, were blanks

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I catch these mistakes all the time to the point of pissing my wife off .
Last one a couple days ago, was a 1959 "Gunsmoke" episode.In a 2 man shootout on main-street one guys gun went off-and it was still in the holster,and the other guy dropped dead . LOL

Was watching early episode of Gunsmoke and during a fight scene they bounce against a brick wall in alley and you could see the entire wall bend in as it was made out of paneling not brick.

 

[Mackaydon]

In the movie "Road House" the BLIND guitarist is wearing a wristwatch; go figure.
Don......

 

[RTR]

The movie"Airplane" is Full of them, intentionally .Like showing the jetliner flying with the sound of a Prop driven aircraft

 

[RTR]

How about war movies where they fire Endless amounts of rounds w/o Reloading

 

[RTR]

The technical advisors did a superb job on the war movie "Fury" ,all the way to the end
>>

Love movie Fury, seen it multiple times.

 

[HowMuchAreTheSparklers]

Yah, that sure was a heck of a lot of White Phosphorus laid down on those Islands in the Pacific. It's still on the beaches out there.

https://youtu.be/dVvEPTYrcXA?t=87

 

[DizzyDigger]

In the movie "Road House" the BLIND guitarist is wearing a wristwatch; go figure.
Don......

Yes he was...a wristwatch in Braille.

Jeff Healey has been blind since he was 1 year old.

Folks...they're movies..not the real thing. Expensive to make,
they have a budget to follow, and can only do so much to re-create
the real circumstances of a battle, or any scene.

Want a real looking battle? Check out RAMBO (the last one), as
he's blowing bodies to pieces with a 50 cal. Ma Deuce.