Artistic License In Movies?

kustommodeler1 wrote:

Finally, one memorable slip in movie making wasnt intentional, but was an oversight, in "Patton" with George C. Scott, you can see a jet's vapor trail in a scene with Carl Malden.

You ever notice also, in the Ben Afleck Pearl Harbor, the Arizona litterally "jumps" out of the water when the magazine goes boom? Watch videos of the actual conflagration, and you can see the main hull of the ship doesn't noticably do that.

Also, in the heat of the attack, you see a scene where a battleship's tripod mast falls and lands on the ship next to it. That never happened either.

But seroiusly, before computer graphics, movie makers had to sometimes, regardless of budget, piece together actual footage and recorded audio with stage shots and do the best they could, and one of the best is the movie "Midway".

There were just not a whole heap of Yorktown class carriers around at the time, so the Lexington and other Essex class joined in to make American as well as Japanese carriers in some scenes, and in others, models were used. They did very well in one scene where they ran the fillm reversed so the island appeared on the port side of the ship like the Akagi and Kaga's, while modded AT6s took off as Japanese planes.

Finally, one memorable slip in movie making wasnt intentional, but was an oversight, in "Patton" with George C. Scott, you can see a jet's vapor trail in a scene with Carl Malden.

 Study any movie hard enough, and you can find innacurate, and sometimes hilarious stuff. I'll shut up now. 

CapnMac82 wrote:

m60a3 wrote: recent "Pearl Harbor" movie Well, it should have been titled either "PH, the Love Story" or "The Amazing Three Win WWII" They spent $$$$ animating the bomb that doomed Arizona, but could not be bothered to CGI WWII stems on ships in the harbor. But, then again, the plot hinged on how three people won the war, too, managing to be in all sorts of pivotal places and still having a romantic triangle.  Even back in the day when PH was considered a backwater that was not considered as glamorous a posting as Asia or the US west coast.  (The whole hawaii as resort/destination only occured after the rise of common commercial aviation.)

Similiar to Guam nowadays. If Guam was closer to the US, there would be a lot of tourists there. As of now, only the Japanese go there to vacation. It is a beautiful island and thanks to its remoteness, it will probably stay that way.

m60a3 wrote:

recent "Pearl Harbor" movie

Well, it should have been titled either "PH, the Love Story" or "The Amazing Three Win WWII"

They spent $$$$ animating the bomb that doomed Arizona, but could not be bothered to CGI WWII stems on ships in the harbor.

But, then again, the plot hinged on how three people won the war, too, managing to be in all sorts of pivotal places and still having a romantic triangle.  Even back in the day when PH was considered a backwater that was not considered as glamorous a posting as Asia or the US west coast.  (The whole hawaii as resort/destination only occured after the rise of common commercial aviation.)

m60a3 wrote:

Well... the most recent "Pearl Harbor" movie, with Josh Beckett, Ben Affleck etc. was a joke. The Japanese were bombing modern warships! ONE of those ships , operational, would have/could have destroyed the Japanese fleet that set attack upon Pearl.                          60     .

And well before they could get within range of Hawaii.

 Well... the most recent "Pearl Harbor" movie, with Josh Beckett, Ben Affleck etc. was a joke. The Japanese were bombing modern warships! ONE of those ships , operational, would have/could have destroyed the Japanese fleet that set attack upon Pearl.

                       60

  .

It's good to remember that water does not "scale" well, so, the larger a model you build, the more realistic the water will appear--which is critical for the effects.

The fact that you have to shoot all the ocean/model shots in only a few days on a water-filled stage that you have to have planned all the camera angles, back drops, and the like upon, then scheduled in both the "dry" and "wet" time for the stage.

Ever notice how all the underwater submarine shots look ever so similar?  Ever notice that it always seems to look like a rippled beach right under the sub?  One of the ways to add "depth" to a 6' deep stage is to rig the sub model to operate heeled over 45º, and rig the camera dolly to track that angle. 

My grand dad had some interesting stories from back when he was getting some grip work out in h'wood after the war.

Saw a couple of the model boats at the 'boneyard' display at Universal Studios, Orlando years ago.I was surprised howbig they were.

Sure, now it's disappointing to watch the effects in IHM compared to today's digital effects. IHM is still one of my favorite WWII period movies.

...and the ship is under sail with not a human being in sight.

One would think that the artists commissioned to do such paintings would have, if not a comprehensive knowledge of the subject matter, at least a little common sense.

That particular example really is a cryin' shame, because the kit inside the box is one of the best Revell has ever made.

Hi All,

I was able to find a copy of 'In Harms' Way" tonight on Amazon.com  I did a related search on models and came across a link to Revells Viking model  WAIT TILL YOU SEE THIS ARTWORK!  Talk about artistist license! HA.  I love the ship being tied to the dock, with a following sea and the sail set, what a gas!  Do you think the dock is ahead of it's time or out of date?

http://www.amazon.com/Revell-Ag-Germany-5403-Viking/dp/B000N2F5G4/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1258076947&sr=8-19

Jake

RedCorvette wrote:

I remember an article in Life Magazine when the movie came out that showed the models - they were quite large and had one or two people inside to operate them.

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=e6b1cb440221082f&q=in%20harms%20way&prev=/images%3Fq%3Din%2Bharms%2Bway%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D60

One of my cherished treasures is my hard cover of James Bassett's Harm's Way

Info, for those keen:  1962, USA, The World Publishing Company, LOC 62-21442, Pub date 1962, hardcover ASIN: B000O2NP6A

Rock Torrey in the book is not John Wayne; but, JW plays him ever so well.

Worth the read. 

As they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

I think the most ridiculous case of "artistic license" (if we can call it that) that I've ever seen appeared in an ad for a model manufacturer.

In 1975 Revell issued a 1/125-scale model of a Type-VII U-boat.  It originally appeared as U-47, with interior detail; it later was reissued several times as a "conventional" kit, without the interior.  It wasn't one of Revell's best efforts - though I guess the basic shapes were right.  (Revell did get in some trouble later when it repackaged it under the name "U-505."  U-505, of course, is the Type IX that's preserved at the Chicago Museum of Science.  The complaints from the museum's gift shop were such that Revell took the kit off the market.)

Anyway, the kit included a stand that featured a nameplate shaped like a torpedo.  Revell of Great Britain ran an advertising campaign for it (how I wish I could lay hands on the copy of Scale Models where I saw the ad!), and apparently commissioned a painting for the specific purpose of illustrating the ad.  And apparently the artist was given nothing to work from except a photo of a finished model, mounted on the stand.

The painting shows the actual U-boat charging, submerged, through the Atlantic in pursuit of a convoy - with a gigantic torpedo suspended under its hull.

subfixer wrote:

Big Jake wrote: Eddington:  Lieutenant, I don't know the situation between you and your father, but let me tell you this: Bums like your friend Owynn are with us always, like bad weather. But sailors like your old man only happen once in a while. Jed: I'm afraid I cannot accept your evaluation of Commander Owynn. ED: Well , I'm afraid I cannot accept you as Rock Torrey's son. I think somebody got in there ahead of him. I've probaly watched it about 12 times. What a great line!

Back when this was made you had to be creative when you insulted somone in order to get it past the censors!

Big Jake wrote:

Eddington:  Lieutenant, I don't know the situation between you and your father, but let me tell you this: Bums like your friend Owynn are with us always, like bad weather. But sailors like your old man only happen once in a while. Jed: I'm afraid I cannot accept your evaluation of Commander Owynn. ED: Well , I'm afraid I cannot accept you as Rock Torrey's son. I think somebody got in there ahead of him. I've probaly watched it about 12 times.

What a great line!

I consider the acting and story line for IHW one of the best of the WWII movies.  This movie was one of the best to show the "grungy" self centered side of what some of the services had to put up with.  It had a little of everything from a gung-ho attitude, to pity, to hate, to love, to selfisness, to cowardness, and discuss.

And some of the best insulting lines I've ever seen put to a script.  I probaly have it slighty wrong but this exchange is still a classic.

Eddington:  Lieutenant, I don't know the situation between you and your father, but let me tell you this: Bums like your friend Owynn are with us always, like bad weather. But sailors like your old man only happen once in a while.

Jed: I'm afraid I cannot accept your evaluation of Commander Owynn.

ED: Well , I'm afraid I cannot accept you as Rock Torrey's son. I think somebody got in there ahead of him.

I've probaly watched it about 12 times.

In Enemy Hands with William H Macy is a WWII sub movie, but the poster shows Macy in front of a nuclear boomer. 

The thing that always ruined In Harm's Way for me were the awful models they used for the climatic battle scenes.  I remember an article in Life Magazine when the movie came out that showed the models - they were quite large and had one or two people inside to operate them.   

Mark

Hollywood usually puts out lots of publicity stills associated with major releases, especially on a big name film like that one. Whoever does the packaging would be far better served using those rather than the morons who appear to do a Google image earch and pick up soemthing that may be 6 times removed remotely related, but have nothing to do with the film itself. I always thought that Midway and  A Bridge Too Far had excellent original release poster art, yet neither had them shown on the DVD release packaging.

http://www.cinemasterpieces.com/midway1sh.jpg

http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/17/A70-8727