Best Training Movie for "Saturday Night at Sea"

Here are a few more choices, courtesy of John Wayne:

In Harm's Way - my choice for the greatest Navy movie ever, even if the minis used for the battle of Pala Passage were kind of cheesy.
Operation Pacific - John Wayne as submarine commander.
The Fighting Seabees - who doesn't enjoy bulldozers and cranes vs. crappy Japanese tanks?
And for the Marines among us - Sands of Iwo Jima.
 
actually I picked up that name long before...I was playing a simple galaxy-conquest type game on a BBS back in the late 80's, and you had tons of planets to claim and govern, mine, etc...I wasn't doing much more than running around naming planets and couldn't come up with a decent theme so I dug out an old world atlas and started naming my planets after all the little russian towns I could find. Anyway, a couple months later...Chernobyl happened. So it stuck.
 
Adastra said:
Here are a few more choices, courtesy of John Wayne:

In Harm's Way - my choice for the greatest Navy movie ever, even if the minis used for the battle of Pala Passage were kind of cheesy.
Operation Pacific - John Wayne as submarine commander.
The Fighting Seabees - who doesn't enjoy bulldozers and cranes vs. crappy Japanese tanks?
And for the Marines among us - Sands of Iwo Jima.

Oh, my. Yes! In Harm's Way directed by Otto Preminger. One of my all time favs. I'd like to see it redone, like so many old movies that have had a complete redo (Ocean's 11, etc. ). The battles are a mixed bag of various sea battles around Guadalcanal and Leyte, without managing to actually follow history at all. This amazingly doesn't matter, as Otto took a generic approach, not naming any crucial battles at all (other than Pearl Harbor, heh, which starts the movie). There is a very loose comparison with the Japanese Center Force trying to punch through to Leyte Gulf with the Yamato (which does make an appearance as the very nasty ship she was). The movie is very watchable, and you'll be surprised how fast the 165 minutes goes by. It has a long list of well known actors, with many sometimes hard to place, as they were not the bigger stars then that we knew them to be. I think George Kennedy is there, etc. Patricia Neal's acting is strong and well done, as is Paula Prentis and of course John Wayne puts in a very well done job. Review over, go and watch this classic. Even the cheesy ship battles are still fun to watch. Sands of Iwo Jima is another classsic, but not really a "war at sea" type of flick. Sand in the boots? Yup. Lots of it. Oh, back to In Harm's Way for a sec. The last battle is really the historical Battle off Samar, but Otto gave the USN much bigger ships to fight the Yamato with than what they really had, and still in the movie they were hoplessly outnumbered (they said so). They would have been more accurate to give the US side nothing bigger than destroyers instead of heavy cruisers to charge the Center Force with :roll: .
 
Yes! Great Comedy! Having Lauren Holly (currently The Director on NCIS)
to look at is a real perk too.

I would also like to recommend The Sand Pebbles. It's not a large battle, Big Ship film but does give you kind of a look at 1920's China and the beginnings of her awakening as a modern nation. Stars Steve McQueen and Candace Bergen are really good in this movie. Maybe someone can adapt this period for BF:Evo. There are plenty of figures out there

(EDIT)

And who can forget Horatio Hornblower with Gregory Peck or the new series with Ioan Gryffud! (Hope that's not mis-spelled) Modern? No, but what fun to watch!

Final Countdown
Mr. Roberts
Heaven Knows Mr. Allison
The Wackiest Ship in the Army
The Wackiest Ship in the Navy
1941 (Toshiro Mifune blowing up a ferris wheel Hahrriwut!! LOL)
I'll think of more later
 
johng859 said:
Stars Steve McQueen and Candace Bergen are really good in this movie. Maybe someone can adapt this period for BF:Evo. There are plenty of figures out there

Yes, I especially liked young Candice Bergen's figure, to be sure! :lol: She just glowed in that movie. I can't blame Steve McQueen's character trying to rescue her (no leaks beyond that, if you haven't seen it).
 
Hey everyone have you forgotten before 'Pearl Harbor' there was 'Tora-Tora-Tora'? And for all you submariners 'Run Silent,Run Deep'. Another couple of older ones that are worth a watch are 'Crash Dive' and 'Wing and a Prayer'. '30 Seconds Over Tokyo' is another goodie. Hope you like them.
 
Yep, some of us new guys would love the interaction and gossip shared over the rules that I see happened before I found the place.
 
Stand by for Action (unfortunately not in print)
Away all Boats
In Harms Way
Sink the Bismark
Attack on the Iron Coast
Battle of the River Plate
They Were Expendable
Tora, Tora, Tora
Midway
PT 109
Flight of the Intruder

Would love to see the following books made into movies: Silent Ship, Silent Sea; The Good Shepperd; would love to have Spielberg & Hanks do a Pacific Naval WWII mini-series following a ships crew through the war.

By the way, it doesn't matter who won the war, it only matters who lost. Be glad things worked out the way they did. I don't think most American's believe the war was won single handedly by them, the UK valiantly fought alone and then partnered splendidly with both the USSR and the US (and lets not forget all of our other allies). If a film is made by a given countries film industry, the assumption is the primary audience will be in that country's theaters, and therefore is made for their entertainment. Please do not interpret this as glory hogging. As an American, I enjoy many war movies that portray the armed forces of our allies in a positive light. And although you may engage in the occasional Patton versus Montgomery debate, keep in mind that over here, we also like to engage in the Patton versus MacArthur debate. So, other movies that are very good movies but not neccessarily navy:

Enemy at the Gates
The Iron Cross
Merrill's Marauders
Kelly's Heros
The Red Ball Express
The Longest Day (Great International Cast)
Saving Private Ryan
The Long Red Line
Charge of the Light Brigade (60's version)
Twelve O'clock High
Command Decision
The War Lover
633 Squadron
The Dam Busters
Mosquito Squadron
To Hell and Back (Audy Murphy playing Audy Murphy)
Gettysberg
Waterloo
The Entire Sharpes Series (Love the whole Napoleonic Pennisular Campaign setting)
The Wild Geese
The Final Option (Great movie about the SAS fighting a terrorist group)
A Bridge Too Far
Stalag 17
Battleground (the finest American war movie ever made)
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
Patton
Battle of the Bulge

Okay so I got a little carried away, I love war movies, and the olders ones tend to be the better ones!
 
"The Sea Chase" - John Wayne captains a freighter sailing back to its home port in WW2. Try to imagine John Wayne doing a German accent - then forget about it, he didn't. :)

"Under Ten Flags" - based loosely on the activities of the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis.

"Above Us The Waves" - based on the attack by X craft (midget submarines) against the Tirpitz.

"We Dive At Dawn" - not based on anything factual but worth seeing anyway.
 
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