Bad War Movies

Humey said:

not a comment on your movie selection but rather on John Wayne (who i always loved) and his fellow actors. When those guys turned 50/60, they looked terrible, fat, and old. Look at Clark Cable; he died at 59 and honestly, while i am currently a year older, I look at least 10 years younger than he did when he made his last movies. I guess between the booze, smoking, unhealthy eating, and the women, they burned out quickly. Of course there were guys who didn't look like crap when they got that old, Cary Grant being one of them. Compare that to male actors today who have to hit 70 plus before they look start looking bad.

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The wonders of plastic surgery?

And less hard living - Duke Wayne lost a lung to cancer & STILL couldn't put down the coffin nails.

Aside from the choppy story-line of multiple characters in different units, The Pacific also reflected the misery and brutality of that campaign. It was simply a darker, less pleasant story being told. I think people didn't enjoy it as much because the material was downright unpleasant (just like reality...)

raimius said:

Aside from the choppy story-line of multiple characters in different units, The Pacific also reflected the misery and brutality of that campaign. It was simply a darker, less pleasant story being told. I think people didn't enjoy it as much because the material was downright unpleasant (just like reality...)

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This isn't just the movie. Other than "Black Sheep Squadron" there hasn't been much from that war that wasn't a hard grind. The books are dark, the movies are dark, you don't hear light stories of Yanks living with English families and marrying the daughter, singing Christmas carols across the lines, tra la tra la. It could have been that a lot of the action was at sea or on uninhabited islands away from civilization. Maybe there was more comfort or familiarity with the people living in the European theater compared with the Asian people from around the Pacific, and that lack of comfort could have affected both our military and the writers describing the action. But the result is a lot of distance from the enemy, from the people, a sense of being far from home in a very foreign place, and fewer relatable moments of shared humanity.

raimius said:

Aside from the choppy story-line of multiple characters in different units, The Pacific also reflected the misery and brutality of that campaign. It was simply a darker, less pleasant story being told. I think people didn't enjoy it as much because the material was downright unpleasant (just like reality...)

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At first I thought this a decision made by those that made the series.

I never saw the clip as far as I know none of us have. But one of the Easy Company vets who played a major role in BoB was interviewed for one of those segments shown on the pacific. Never used though.

Allegedly he talked about how bad it was in europe but how much worse it was in the pacific.

It’s hard to picture one of Winters guys prying the teeth out of a nearly dead German troop or beating to death a member of Easy Co because he had nightmares and was giving away their position.

It’s also hard to picture German troops hanging up castrated US troops for all to see as a warning,

But those behind BoB did say they left out some stuff because so many of the Easy guys were still alive. Just as the same folks behind the Pacific said they also left certain far to brutal to show stuff.

But a more civilized war for sure compared to what the Japanese and the Marines were doing to each other