Film Danger Close

[JohnFoA]

So watched this on Netflix and thought it was pretty good.

About 1:17:02 there is a frame of VC troops firing side on. The chap nearest the camera appears to be firing a non-standard weapon. Honestly it looked like a Sturmgewehr  44, but is almost certainly something else. I would be interested if anyone else noticed this and if so what did they think it is?

Cheers

John

[carlos marighela]

At least one Stg44 was captured and photographed by the Americans in Vietnam, so it wouldn’t necessarily be out of place, if that’s what it was in the film. A lot of ex-Wehrmacht stuff was donated from captured Russian stocks including the Stg 44 and they have turned up in some fairly exotic locales. They’ve even been spotted in Syria in recent years.

So many things about that film grated with me that I can’t share your enthusiasm. Odd because the doco the same production company made about Long Tan is excellent.

[FramFramson]

I keep reading that title as a description of a fan community of a beloved book hearing some Hollywood blob or other has just bought the movie rights to it.

[JohnFoA]

Thanks Carlos, I did not know that.

Yeah I enjoyed the film, even though it has a number of holes and does seem to adhere to the action film tropes a little too much. Not as bad as Braveheart, which could be re-titled 'William Wallace and Gromit'!

Cheers John

[commissarmoody]

which could be re-titled 'William Wallace and Gromit'!

That probably would have been a better film. 

[carlos marighela]

Well given that it’s at least implied that Mel’s character, William Wallace sleeps with Isabella of France sometime after the Battle of Stirling, it’s questionable as to whether Mel doesn’t have another unpleasant string to his bow, alongside racism, anti-semitism, homophobia and being a wife beater. I mean the historical Isabella would have not been ten years old at the time of Wallace's execution in 1305.  I’m not sure that’s kosher, even in Arkansas.

[bluewillow]

The STG44 was quite common early in the war, a few captured examples are in the Australian War Memorial and the Infantry Museum at Singleton. 
An article here

https://www.google.com/amp/s/wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/wwii-german-weapons-during-the-vietnam-war/amp/

Cheers
Matt

[trev]

Looks like there is a STG44 in the film.



http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Danger_Close:_The_Battle_of_Long_Tan

[JohnFoA]

Thanks for responses guys. Yes Braveheart has more historical holes than Swiss cheese.

Anyway I for one, will check out the alternate documentary as recommended.

Have a safe new year.

John

[Shahbahraz]

Bob Buick spent a few hours at our place in Canberra chatting to the missus and she interviewed Roberts, Saban and others for a magazine supplement on the 40th anniversary.

When we attended the dedication of the Long Tan memorial in Canberra, it was dawn, and as the sun rose it reflected low off the memorial behind Harry Smith who was speaking, prompting an audible whisper from one old digger...  'well Harry always thought the sun shone out of his arse'.