Friends, the WaddyIsRight movie club lives on! Yesterday I watched "Play Dirty", a WWII adventure film starring Michael Caine. You can't go wrong with Michael Caine, am I right? The movie is about an operation behind enemy lines in the North African theater. Caine and his compadres spend most of it dressed in either Italian or German uniforms, which is all to the good, because those fascists had style! Here's what I took away from the film:
1. Wind is almost as unpleasant in the desert heat as it is in the dead of winter.
2. When you're surrendering, hold that white flag extra high. It's no time to slouch.
3. German nurses are not to trifled with.
4. An army may march on its stomach, but it moves, in this day and age, via petroleum. Good luck winning WWIII with windmills and solar panels!
5. On the battlefield, the chain of command is more of a suggestion than a hard and fast rule.
6. Whoever puts on the uniform of the enemy instantaneously has twice as many enemies!
7. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
8. Don't forget your goggles.
And, finally...
9. Heroism and survival are rarely compatible.
I look forward to following up on more of your cinematic suggestions. Keep them coming!
Glad you enjoyed the movie Dr. Nick! The film is more or less based on a real British behind the lines outfit in World War II. However, the most famous British unit operating behind the lines in the same theater of war was THE LONG RANGE DESERT GROUP. Rommel said that group inflicted more damage on his Afrika Korps than any other unit of comparable strength. The definitive work on the LRDG is "Providence Their Guide...." by David Lloyd Owen who was a member of the LRDG.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, at least the enemy the "conservatives" were fighting back then (at least in North Africa) were smart and honorable. Now in 2020 the enemy we see is dumb but dangerous, fat slobs in some cases, with tattoos, undereducated, and no doubt smelly by preference. Now, we "deplorables" have to deal with a bunch of deadbeats who can't even navigate their own butt holes, much less the Sahara Desert at night.
Sorry for the crude comparisons, but a lot of the finest men and women on all sides, all over the world, died in World War II fighting each other for ideas, and their lives mattered indeed. Today, we get to face a bunch of criminals and drug addicts (in some cases) that think tearing down statues of real heroes passes for combat. All I can say is P*** on all of them, and may the statues they are pulling down, fall on them, and kill as many of them as possible.
Just a word for the "politically correct" left wing thought police from wherever, who might be monitoring this site. I make no apologies for my previous remarks regarding this article. I meant every world of what I said.
ReplyDeleteCORRECTION I meant every WORD of what I said, but you a. holes can broadcast that to the WORLD if you want. Ha!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of movies, one of the best that was every made is "The Bridge on The River Kwai" based on real events and the experiences of POWs working as prisoners of the Japanese in Burma and Thailand in World War II. One of my favorite scenes is where the medical officer begs the British Colonel to make some compromises with the Japanese Camp Commander Colonel Saito regarding violations of the Geneva Convention. He won't do it, and would rather die than compromise.
ReplyDeleteNow today, we have a bunch of American RINO Senators who think making compromises with a bunch of thugs is the right thing (no pun intended) to do. May the gonads of these fools shrivel up permanently along with permanent erectile dysfunction for having a lack of balls!
You might consider "633 Squadron" (great theme music) about some Royal Air Force Mosquito Fighter-Bomber pilots who get the mission of bombing heavy water sites in Norway during WW II, so the Nazis can't make an atomic bomb. At least the Germans could make one, unlike the S***heads in the American Students for A Democratic Society who had bombs blow up on them in basements. They have now gone to join their comrades in a Marxist Heaven. F All of them, forever, and evermore!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of war movies, a film worth finding and watching is the 1968 movie "Warkill" about fighting the Japanese in World War II in The Philippines. Somewhat of an anti-war movie for sure.
ReplyDeleteI hate to say this, but one of my favorite movies (in various versions) is "Apocalypse Now". It's a real classic, and I bet a lot of people who watched it thought it was made up and fantasy and all that. But the movie is a composite roundup of a lot of whacky things that really happened in Vietnam during that war, seriously. I have a very good friend who was a Green Beret in Vietnam (two tours) and this is his favorite movie.
Another classic is "Guns of Navarone". It should be interesting to know that one of the actors in the movie (British) ANTHONY QUAYLE actually participated in similar missions like the one depicted in the movie during World War II. Nowadays if they remade this movie (God Forbid!) some egotistical star like Brad Pitt or Tom Hanks would demand the role. Better yet, Al Sharpton would probably be awarded the key role. Ha!
If you are ever able to find this movie, watch it immediately, before it disappears. It is one of the best anti-war movies ever made! It is "The Victors" (1963) directed by Carl Foreman. Whenever I have ever watched this movie (a very very long time ago) I always felt that this was more like what World War II was like for Americans, instead of the stuff depicted in "Saving Private Ryan" which made Tom Hanks a lot of money which I helped to provide by buying a ticket to watch the damn thing.
ReplyDeleteFinally (for now at least) I think Joe Biden needs to get a role in a war movie, say as an incompetent General who gets a lot of people killed with his blunders, but a General nonetheless. Maybe if I saw Joe in a role like this I could vote for him as an admirable anti-hero. Nancy Pelosi could be in it too, as an aging, horny "Doughnut Dolly" who is constantly trying to seduce Joe.
ReplyDeletePut "The Train" on your list. This is in black and white (like "The Victors") but worth the watch. Really convincing characters, and especially the Germans. It's a French Resistance movie, but with a different twist.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't mind reading subtitles, "A French Village" the recent TV series is EXCELLENT. The French have a lot of style and class, and I wonder what Americans would do and how they would act if they were occupied by the soldiers of another country. Frankly, I don't think we would do all that well.
Just one more suggestion and I will shut up for the day, but a really fun war movie, and with Clint Eastwood at that, is "Where Eagles Dare". It has to be a classic now, with the late Richard Burton in it too. Really holds your attention, and you don't have to listen to F**k in every other sentence like you do now, or so it seems these days. It actually has a plot, like a lot of older movies tend to have, and some of the characters in it are really well played. A favorite is the SS Major always strutting around and checking everyone out with a jaundiced eye. Never a dull moment, and the movie starts out with impressive scenes and music. Filmed in Austria as I recall. Worth watching.
ReplyDeleteRay, I've heard of the Long Range Desert Group. I've read quite a bit about the fighting in North Africa, and, as you say, it was honorable combat between adversaries who respected one another and the rules of war. Not like the fight-to-the-finish on the Eastern Front at all. And I take your point that our modern enemies, who like to pick on statues (and occasionally each other, it must be said), are a far cry from the Germans of WWII.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised to hear that you like "Apocalypse Now". Why is that, I wonder? I suppose you're not the biggest defender of our involvement in Vietnam...
I've heard about "A French Village". You're the second person to recommend it to me. I might have to give it a try. I'm not crazy about subtitles, though...since they distract me from snacking!
Dr. Waddy and Ray: I'd recommend a film I had never heard of before I saw it a few weeks ago: Its called The Hill and it depicts a British Army disciplinary compound in, I think, WW2 N. Africa. I can't remember the names of the actors but there were several recognizable and as always superlative Brits in the cast. Fascinating Brit militaria (the British army and its sociology intrigue me no end).
ReplyDeleteAnd it stars Sean Connery! My my.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and some other nifty Brits too.
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