Most inaccurate war movies

[GaryChildress]

Just out of curiosity, what are your picks for the most innacurate war movies? By innacurate it could be innaccurate props, or innaccurate story lines (unless the movie is intentionally about a fictional battle).

Battle of the Bulge has always stuck out with me for some reason. I remember when I was fairly little, seeing The Battle of the Bulge for the first time, and even then knowing that the tanks used in the movie were not German tigers. I know a lot of movies have used innaccurate props but seeing those M47s in Battle of the Bulge sort of sticks out to me.

I would include a category of "Most accurate war movie", however, I can't realy think of many war movies that did a good job in accuracy. Almost all of them seem to have some compromises with props or story. If anyone can name a most accurate war movie I would find that interesting too. [:)]

[Krasny]

Accurate war movies are the exception rather than the rule, because of the twin pressures of saving money by cutting corners and appeasing the censors by minimising the gore.

The first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan, and Thin Red Line strike me as being accurate.

[PunkReaper]

Anything with Mel Gibson in it........ Braveheart aggghhhhh[:@][:@]

[SS Hauptsturmfuhrer]

Blackhawk Down is the most accurate war movie, even down to exact words said and gunbattle situations.  It is tied with Starship Troopers (1997) for the movie I've seen the most times.  Like 4 times each I think.  A Bridge Too Far was another very accurate movie.

Battle of the Bulge was pure cheese start to end like no snow, evil psychotic Germans, fake singing, fake tanks, fake situations etc.  The Longest Day before I stopped watching it was pretty random too showing German fighters strafing the allies on the beaches and the pilots were guffawing as they did it... uhhh hi Mr. Director... there were no German airplanes in Normandy.  Stalingrad (Enemy at the Gates) about the snipers was all dull fiction except for the fact there was a famous Russian sniper in Stalingrad.  The historical situation where an elite German sniper was taken out by the Russian sniper was a lot more interesting than the fictional way the movie did it.  In real life, the famous Russian sniper couldn't find the German so another Russian stuck his head up to provide a target, got shot dead, and so the famous sniper spotted the German and shot him.

[JudgeDredd]

Battle of Britain was done to the best of it's ability for it's day...accurate to boot as well, as far as I'm concerned.
 
As for innacurate, Braveheart!! OMG!

[Plodder]

The Longest Day before I stopped watching it was pretty random too showing German fighters strafing the allies on the beaches and the pilots were guffawing as they did it... uhhh hi Mr. Director... there were no German airplanes in Normandy.

Actually the movie is accurate there,Priller and his wingman in FW190s strafed Sword beach.which is what it shows.

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

Just out of curiosity, what are your picks for the most innacurate war movies? By innacurate it could be innaccurate props, or innaccurate story lines (unless the movie is intentionally about a fictional battle).

Battle of the Bulge ,
hands down the most inaccurate war film of all time that covered historical events.

Equipment, Personalities, Storyline, OOB , Events the list is endless in this train wreck not to mention the famous scene of the German armor advance was put to rest with a single barrel of burning fuel ..........[:D]

IIRC the 3rd Army (Patton) was entirely absent in the film ?

[GaryChildress]

Haven't seen Blackhawk Down. A Bridge Too Far is probably my favorite war movie of all time because they at least made the effort to use a lot of authentic props or else props doctored to look reasonably close to authentic. Battle of Britian I had forgot about, that was a good one too. Saving Private Ryan was good.

[Charles2222]

ORIGINAL: The Plodder

The Longest Day before I stopped watching it was pretty random too showing German fighters strafing the allies on the beaches and the pilots were guffawing as they did it... uhhh hi Mr. Director... there were no German airplanes in Normandy.

Actually the movie is accurate there,Priller and his wingman in FW190s strafed Sword beach.which is what it shows.

IIRC, they were in ME109's in the movie.

[Flying Tiger]

ORIGINAL: Charles_22

ORIGINAL: The Plodder

The Longest Day before I stopped watching it was pretty random too showing German fighters strafing the allies on the beaches and the pilots were guffawing as they did it... uhhh hi Mr. Director... there were no German airplanes in Normandy.

Actually the movie is accurate there,Priller and his wingman in FW190s strafed Sword beach.which is what it shows.

IIRC, they were in ME109's in the movie.

Yes, they were. Obviously a shortage of airworthy FW190's at time of production!!

As for least accurate movie.... i reckon the modern Pearl Harbour has to be close. The original 'Tora, Tora, Tora' was not so bad, but the romantic comedy thing with Ben Afleck was ........ what can i say!!

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: SS Hauptsturmfuhrer
  The Longest Day before I stopped watching it was pretty random too showing German fighters strafing the allies on the beaches and the pilots were guffawing as they did it... uhhh hi Mr. Director... there were no German airplanes in Normandy. 

JG 2 and JG 26 were both based in France along with the Reich defense gruppen flew over 100+ sorties on D-Day if I’m not mistaken.....[;)]

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Flying Tiger

ORIGINAL: Charles_22

ORIGINAL: The Plodder



Actually the movie is accurate there,Priller and his wingman in FW190s strafed Sword beach.which is what it shows.

IIRC, they were in ME109's in the movie.

Yes, they were. Obviously a shortage of airworthy FW190's at time of production!!

As for least accurate movie.... i reckon the modern Pearl Harbour has to be close. The original 'Tora, Tora, Tora' was not so bad, but the romantic comedy thing with Ben Afleck was ........ what can i say!!

I would have said PH myself but I have a hard time classifying Pearl Harbor as a "war movie". More like sappy romance movie. It's like classifying Gone With the Wind as a "war movie" based upon the Civil War back drop. [:D]

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Charles_22

ORIGINAL: The Plodder

The Longest Day before I stopped watching it was pretty random too showing German fighters strafing the allies on the beaches and the pilots were guffawing as they did it... uhhh hi Mr. Director... there were no German airplanes in Normandy.

Actually the movie is accurate there,Priller and his wingman in FW190s strafed Sword beach.which is what it shows.

IIRC, they were in ME109's in the movie.

Actually I think they showed BF108 “Taifun‘s” in the film .......[&:]

[Gil R.]

300.

[Perturabo]

ORIGINAL: Sarge

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

Just out of curiosity, what are your picks for the most innacurate war movies? By innacurate it could be innaccurate props, or innaccurate story lines (unless the movie is intentionally about a fictional battle).

Battle of the Bulge ,
hands down the most inaccurate war film of all time that covered historical events.

Equipment, Personalities, Storyline, OOB , Events the list is endless in this train wreck not to mention the famous scene of the German armor advance was put to rest with a single barrel of burning fuel ..........[:D]

IIRC the 3rd Army (Patton) was entirely absent in the film ?

God, that film was horrible.

[06 Maestro]

Too many lame movies to keep track of. There was one doozy-perhaps a British film-I can't recall the name.
It was set in North Africa in the underdog struggle against Rommel. At one point the British generals were talking about their new found intelligence that the secrete German fuel stockpiles were at the Y of Egypt. They could not figure out where there might be a "Y" in Egypt until they realized-it's part of the name!-printed on the map-Shazam! The gist was that while Germany was talking of peace they were secretly stockpiling fuel and ammo in the Egyptian desert-right under the Y on the map.

It has been at least 30 years since I saw that movie-and it was an old one then. Funny how some lone, strange tidbit of a movie can get stuck in the skull. I just might watch that again just for fun-if I could remember what it was called.

[andym]

Accurate id say,Cross of Iron and Das Boot.
 
 
While a Bridge too far was good,the LAnd rover apc's and Leopards were still too recogniseable.

[06 Maestro]

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress
Battle of the Bulge has always stuck out with me for some reason.

Yep-a total farce. I have not been able to sit through more than a few minutes of that since I was a kid. I would rather watch a 1/2 dozen episodes of Dr. Phill and Opra than to endure watching that film. I don't have that big a problem with the incorrect equipment-understandable-but the rest of it is inexcusable.

Not certain if it was the worst, but its gotta be close.

[Obsolete]

Blackhawk Down is the most accurate war movie, even down to exact words said and gunbattle situations.

There were a lot of inaccurate problems I had with this "Hollywood" movie, but it would take threads full to get into them all.  I'll just point out one typical issue then right at the start..

The part where super-duper smart helicopter pilot is able to spot an RPG, and in lightning speed, jerks back the vehicle, and perfectly times the rpg to shoot right threw the open space in the heli, JUST LIKE THAT!

Ummmmmm...... O_o..  ?  Is that Rambo again?



This is Holywood's explanation as to why an American soldier fell off the heli and basically crippled himself.  The fact is, the heli in real-life was in no such situation, and the soldier simply stepped out to grab onto the rope and instead mis-stepped and fell.  There was no action during that time, just a simple standard procedure.  Not even a simple bullet had flown yet, and no one was even expecting one to yet at that point.

Yes, it was a simple accident, but definitely was embarrasing for the forces, so Holywood decided to TWIST the story once again to make it more heroic.

I refuse to get into any more issues on BlackHawkD... let's just say that movie was a let-down for me since I had did some study on the scenario long before HOLLYWOOD decided to bring this to the silver screen for a fast buck.

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Obsolete

Blackhawk Down is the most accurate war movie, even down to exact words said and gunbattle situations.

There were a lot of inaccurate problems I had with this "Hollywood" movie, but it would take threads full to get into them all.  I'll just point out one typical issue then right at the start..

The part where super-duper smart helicopter pilot is able to spot an RPG, and in lightning speed, jerks back the vehicle, and perfectly times the rpg to shoot right threw the open space in the heli, JUST LIKE THAT!

Ummmmmm...... O_o..  ?  Is that Rambo again?



This is Holywood's explanation as to why an American soldier fell off the heli and basically crippled himself.  The fact is, the heli in real-life was in no such situation, and the soldier simply stepped out to grab onto the rope and instead mis-stepped and fell.  There was no action during that time, just a simple standard procedure.  Not even a simple bullet had flown yet, and no one was even expecting one to yet at that point.

Yes, it was a simple accident, but definitely was embarrasing for the forces, so Holywood decided to TWIST the story once again to make it more heroic.

I refuse to get into any more issues on BlackHawkD... let's just say that movie was a let-down for me since I had did some study on the scenario long before HOLLYWOOD decided to bring this to the silver screen for a fast buck.

LOL,

I hardly think they changed the story line simply to cover-up what you perceive as an embarrassment ……[8|]

I seen four individuals get medicals in jump school alone, can’t image how you would think during such a operation a misstep would cause Delta and the Rangers embarrassments .