Movie Previews an Others

[Helen]

Hi folks,

I found a number of movies on U-Tube that maybe worth viewing. I apoligise in advance if you have seen some of these clips:













Please checkout other related video clips on the side.

Chow,

Helen

[Bako]

Hey for once something allies-related that isn't all about Americans .

[Will Bailie]

I'm looking forward to seeing Passchendaele - due for release on Oct 15!

[Hammers]

Hi folks,

I found a number of movies on U-Tube that maybe worth viewing. I apoligise in advance if you have seen some of these clips:













Please checkout other related video clips on the side.

Chow,

Helen

Looks very interesting, but the shiny white smile on that guy really ruins a lot. You cannot, of course, go and ruin a guys dentures for a role in a film (or can you? With a spanner? ) but, as they did in Saving Private Ryan, you can ask the actors to tone down their daytime television grins.

[Regulator]

The 4nd one reminds me of the end of Gallipoli

[Calimero]

I'm looking forward to seeing Passchendaele - due for release on Oct 15!

Yep! me too!

[commissarmoody]

Damn  that Passchendaele film looks like it would be great. I cant wait

[Regulator]

By the way, is the passchendaele movie by the same director as BoB?

[Calimero]

By the way, is the passchendaele movie by the same director as BoB?

It's directed by Paul Gross (the guy with the white smile in the trailer  )

[xeoran]

I'd be really up for Gross's film but it seems to fall into the nationalism trap that Australian and Canadian ones usually do (you know, where "X,Y,Z failed but because of our truly awesome geographical location we will succeed!"). Its never the poor old Kiwis succeeding is it. 

That said it is Paul "Due South and all of Canada's TV industry" Gross so hey, it might just be the trailer.

[Will Bailie]

I'd be really up for Gross's film but it seems to fall into the nationalism trap that Australian and Canadian ones usually do

Having seen some of the press junket for this one, I'm afraid that you might be correct.  On the other hand, I'm encouraged by the historians that they have working on the film, so most of what you see on the screen should be pretty darn accurate.

W

[Calimero]

I'd be really up for Gross's film but it seems to fall into the nationalism trap that Australian and Canadian ones usually do (you know, where "X,Y,Z failed but because of our truly awesome geographical location we will succeed!"). Its never the poor old Kiwis succeeding is it. 

That said it is Paul "Due South and all of Canada's TV industry" Gross so hey, it might just be the trailer.

What? The Kiwis fought during the two world wars? I've never heard of it!  

Seriously, if we take the example of WWII, most documentaries only spoke of the "exploits" of the American and British forces and very few of the accomplishment of other allied troops. After Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brother, I am sure that many young Americans are convinced that the United States have win the war against German forces on their own...

Sad to say but if you are a citizen of one of these minor allied forces and you want to talk about your "exploits" in WWI or WWII you have to do it yourself ... and that’s what Gross did…

[Bako]

Indeed, how many Americans know of Arthur Currie, or Russ Bannock. Few I'm sure. Even though the trailer did the whole x, y, z thing as you said, I really can't be bothered by it, for almost every movie and video game based in WWII is centered around American forces. Sure there's a decent few if you look that aren't, but there's too many as it is. Hello, America didn't even join in until after they lost their precious harbor. Which if I remember correctly, the Japanese only attacked because America finally clued in and decided to stop selling them oil and whatnot, which as you can imagine angered the hornets' nest. The only massive over-the-top thing that separated America from the rest of the allies was nuking the crap out of innocents to get the Emperor's full undivided attention.

This also has more or less shaped Japanese culture into what it is now(anime and whatnot , Akira being a good example).

[Will Bailie]

I don't expect Americans to know about Arthur Currie.  I expect CANADIANS to know about him.  It is up to us to demand that our own stories are told, and not to depend on foreigners to tell them (for one thing, why should they?).

I've seen some excellent Australian war films (including Gallipoli, Lighthorsemen, Breaker Morant and Kokoda).  There is a very nice Czech film called Dark Blue World that tells the story of the Czech pilots in the RAF.  Hopefully Peter Jackson will make his Crossing the Line movie and bring us a story about Kiwis in the Great War.

There are some great Canadian stories out there.  The trick is not to get Hollywood to tell the stories, but to get funding for Canadians to tell them.  And that's about as far as I'm going to go since that is one of the issues in the current election...

[xeoran]

Ah, funding, that old killjoy. War movies are a pain to get funding from because a) Most war films require a LOT of money and b) They have VERY limited audience appeal. Most war films are about Americans because they have the money (Hollywood) and appeal (they speak English, are easily understood by (American) audiences used to films with Americans in them and cover well publicised battles).

@Calimero- I'm totally for the smaller nations to make movies. In fact I'm 100% behind it. I'm still waiting to see a meaty Charles Upham film made. All credit to Paul Gross- from the interviews it seems he created the project for very good reasons and I support the film. My problem is just the rather provincial (and possibly artificial- this is only a trailer voiceover) desire to try and prove the superiority of Canada to other WW1 combatant nations.

TV is almost dead as far as War drama goes. Nearly got a Henry Tull one but BBC4 pipped me and are going to make an atrocious load of garbage instead:

The BBC4 controller, Janice Hadlow, has given the green light to a film based on the life of the first black officer to lead British troops during the first world war.

Written by actor and award-winning playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah, Walter's War will form the centrepiece of a series of programming based around this year's 90th anniversary of the end of the first world war.

It will air on Remembrance Day in November.

OT Fagbenle, who has appeared in Doctor Who and the Anthony Minghella feature film Breaking And Entering, will star as Walter Tull who led troops as an officer in the face of both the horrors of the conflict and prejudice in some quarters about his skin colour.

The film, based on an "imagined period" of Tull's life, will focus on his experiences at the front and the time he spent recuperating from trench fever before he underwent officer training.

Tull - who was also one of the first black footballers to play professional football, turning out for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton between 1909 and 1914 - was killed at the second battle of the Somme in 1918 at the age of 29.

The rest of the cast includes Ewan Stewart as Sergeant Fuller and Dugald Bruce-Lockhart as fellow soldier Captain Coombe.

"I wanted to give a voice to a forgotten hero," said Kwei-Armah. "To help present the achievements of this great man to a new generation makes this project one of the most important I have worked on to date."

The drama will be produced by Ruth Caleb, whose credits include Last Resort, Bullet Boy, Learners and Red Dust, and executive produced by BBC drama's head of series and serials Kate Harwood.

The director is Alrick Riley, who has also overseen episodes of BBC1 dramas Spooks, Hustle and Hotel Babylon and the BBC2 series Babyfather.

"Kwame Kwei-Armah has written a powerful drama based on an imagined period of Walter Tull's life," said Harwood. "Walter's War is a bold and moving piece of storytelling."

The film will be shown on BBC4 as part of the pan-BBC Learning campaign to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Armistice, 1918-2008: Ninety Years of Remembrance, which will run in the days leading up to November 11.

My bold. Seriously, that's going to stink on an epic scale, which is a pity because its an amazing story. If anyone does have a totally smashing WW1 battle or figure (preferably British and ethnic- that's how you sell TV ) that really needs a TV drama making PM me.  I can't promise money or credits or anything in fact but there's the vaguest of vaguest chances someone will make it. Someday.