Your favorite aviation movie or T.V. series?

Hi all,

I feel like I'm in an alternatve universe after reading some of these posts. I thought Midway was okay, but the flying and battle scenes were aweful. There's a freaking F9F Panther crash featured as a plot point! I think I recall seeing carriers with angled flight decks too. The depiction of the events leading up to and during the battle were sometimes hard to follow, and I knew what I was looking for. Overall, I'd call Midway a somewhat entertaining, but inaccurate and flawed mess.

Tora Tora Tora, on the other hand, is a wonderful movie. I like how it portrays both the American and Japanese points of view (there were two directors -- one from each country). I think the flying scenes are fantastic. They are much better than anything computer generated could be. I know the Japanese planes are converted American trainers, but I still think they look great. The attack on the Harbor is gut wrenching. I realize that there is probably some spin on each side's part of the story, but even taking that into account, Tora Tora Tora provides a good, comprehensive view of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Regards,

-Drew

Wings and all of the Wings offshoots were good. I like Midway, but I have to turn off my mind to watch it. Too many times they used footage of different planes than the ones they were talking about flying. Airplane, 1941, keep threatening to watch Tora, Tora, Tora but I haven't yet. The planes in Indiana Jones movies, the flying wing scene was the best. Mostly I watch documentaries though.

Jerry

Anyone remember "The Blue Max" starring George Peppard?

DUH !

Thanks for jogging my memory guys ! How could I have forgotten "Spirit if St. Louis" and "The Right Stuff" ??

I also have to admit that I liked "FIghter Squadron" - only because of the real honest-to-God P-47's !

Jim

Yes, Fighter Squadron was great. But how about those black P51s pretending to be German ? Complete with a Swastika on the gunsight !

Unless I missed it, no one mentioned...

Thunderbirds


How can you forget a classic like that?!?!?

Eric

Most of the movies listed here I realy enjoy. As for some of the best war movies, Das Boot has to be one of my al time favorites. No, it's not aircraft, but it's just a great movie. Independence Day also had some great flight sequences, even if it all was CG. Also, Final Countdown was brilliant.

As for TV show, Black Sheep was pretty good, as was Blue Thunder and Airwolf.

demono69

My twopenneth worth,
A Gathering of Eagles, Rock Hudson playing with B-52's
Angels One Five, Jack Hawkins playing with Hurricane's
The Dambusters, nuff said,
S.A.C., Jimmy Stewart toying with B-36's
633 Squadron, aah Mossies
The Bridges at Toko-Ri, aah Panthers
The ~~~~~~s, Bob Mitchum splashing Casey Jones' Thunderstreak ! in his Sabre
Jet Pilot, John Wayne in the X-1
Toward the Unknown, William Holden and all those X-planes etc.
Oh well, can't think of any more at the moment,
Pete

My favourite movie is Reach For The Sky. It's the story of Sir Douglas Barder, who as a young man lost both his legs when his aircraft crashed during an aerobatics display. After a long recovery, and the addition of his "tin legs" he learnt to walk again and he returned to the RAF at the onset of WWll. He was told he would never fly again-he refused to accept this and proved his doubters wrong.
He went on to command squadrons of hurricanes and spitfires during the battle of Britain and even when captured by German forces, refused to give in or back down, having his replacement legs dropped to him by an RAF bomber whilst he was in captivity!
A great film about a great man. It always inspires me when I watch it.
Later,

Darren.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Pixilater Yes, Merlin V1650, there IS a good AVG movie : God is My Co-Pilot

Thanks, Pixilater

I've heard of the movie but never seen it. I guess I'm going to have to try to find it.
Come to think of it I believe I read the book when I was a kid.

Hey, gang. Check this site out. There are actually a few that I didn't know! :)

http://www.coastcomp.com/av/fltline2/avmovie.htm

My favorite TV shows were Whirleybirds, Sky King, and (just because it was so cheesy!) Tales of the Gold Monkey.
Movies: Twelve O'clock High, The Blue Max, 633 Squadron, Battle of Britain,and Flight of the Intruder. Flight of the Phoenix , Strageic Air Command, and Spirit of St. Louis are all favorites of mine. - Ed

Gulfstream, the Robert Mitchum film was "The Hunters" Had Robert Wagner and Richard Egan in it as well. Someone should rerelease that one again. The only availability is a cheesy copy some guy sells on eBay for an exhorbitant price.

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Lufbery,
I think that the very same F9 crashed in the hunt for red october after changing
from an F14.
Reach for the sky, Battle of Britain, Dambusters,633SQN,Flight of the Intruder,Blue thunder, remember the turkey ' wings of the Apache'.
Most of the black and white movies of the 40's,50's and 60's are shown on BBC2
and CH4 on weekdays, so I set the vcr when i'm at work and have a good movie at least once a week.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Keyworth Gulfstream, the Robert Mitchum film was "The Hunters" Had Robert Wagner and Richard Egan in it as well. Someone should rerelease that one again. The only availability is a cheesy copy some guy sells on eBay for an exhorbitant price.

The ~~~~~~s, Bob Mitchum splashing Casey Jones' Thunderstreak ! in his Sabre

Well! That didn't turn out the way I planned it! :)

I'd have to go with "The Final Countdown", starring Martin Sheen and Kirk Douglas. You get to see the airwing of the Nimitz in the late 70s with all the colorful markings.

DJ

DJ,

Don't you just love Tomcats splashing Zeros? Nice touch.
Forgot to add one of the greatest aerial combat sequences of recent history: Pearl Harbor. The bombing of the Arizona was classic.

demono69

Movie. The Final Countdown. I would have loved to see the USS Nimitz tackle the Japanise fleet. They came back to their own time too soon.

TV series. JAG. There is some flying in it. If Catherne Bell had been on recruting posters when I was young, I would have joined the Marines and not the Air Force. I have always been told that 95% of the women in the Air Force are beautiful. I was always stationed with the other 5%.

Maybe you guys can help me out here with a movie I have been trying to find. I rented it a few years back from a small video store that is now closed. It was set sometime after the Battle of Britain...and depicted London under attack from Hitler's Vengeance Weapons. In the beginning, you'd hear and see the V-1s buzzing and exploding in the city....and later in the movie-- they did a great job of showing the V-2s in action-- you'd see this HUGE explosion, and then shortly after hear the rocket engine noise.

I have no idea of the cast or anything like that-- it reminds me a lot of the Battle of Britain film, but is later in the war. I know it isn't "Operation Crossbow" as someone on another forum suggested as that was sort of a strange George Peppard flick ;) Thanks in advance....and I'll add my favorite--- 633 Squadron.

Was it the one with the children ? Their house was bombed and his toy soldiers melted ? The sister was dating a Yank ? I can't remember the title, but if it was this one, someone else may recognize it. Hope you find out which one it is !

I wonder why only atomr mention 'The Blue Max'. It was a great movie. The fighting scene was great. It must took them a lot of effort to preserve and use those precious WWI planes. They seems to be authentic to me. '633 Squadron' was also great, who can forget the climax part when the whole squad of mosquitos attacked the German base between two cliffs. Of course how can I forget 'Bridge of ToKo-Ri', great F-9F attack. BTW has anyone once watch a British TV series called "Piece of Cake'. It was shown in A&E Channel in North American 2-3 years ago. It was a war-drama about a squardron of British Spritfires pilots fighting the Germans from the begining of WWII to Battle of Britain. Some great fighting scenes and lots of Spirtfires in action, although some Spitfires Mk1 were subsituded by Mk5. The Me-109s were Spanish post WWII Me-109 I think.

Hmmm... I kinda like the movie "Those great men and their flying machines" I know it sounds funny and childish but the aircraft were really nice!! Simple yet enetertaining... In singapore we recieved a programme called Wings.. it was about many WW2 and post war aircraft incl F15's and other modern jets... Some footage was fantastic... Top Gun had nice shots of the F14 but their enemy aircraft tended to be F5 tigers if I aint wrong so realism was lacking(MiG 28s?????)!!!!

Cheers,

Nandakumar

Here's an old TV show for you folks - 'Tales of the Gold Monkey'! Thank you Donald Bellisario!

Anyone remember that one? It wasn't exactly my favorite, but it was unique to say the least. Island hopping in the South Seas in a Grumman G-21A Goose with an ex-pat AVG pilot. Kind of a tongue-in-cheek Indiana Jones/ Alan Quartermain meets Magnum P.I. storyline - pretty corny but then weren't most of the TV shows in the early 80's?

I'm going to have to pick up the 1/72 kit from Sword now that I Googled for info on the show and build 'Cutter's Goose'!

....Another just popped into mind - 'Always' ! Great flick for anyone who:

a) has a thing for the A-26 Invader or the PBY-5A Catalina
b) likes to see old warbirds still getting a workout in the modern world
c) wants to trick their wife or girlfriend into watching an aviation movie

'Always' was based on the old movie called 'A Guy Named Joe', which was also a good aviation film and featured P-38 Lightnings.

Movie has to be "Flight of the Intruder". Can't figure why it only gets one star in reviews?
T.V. Sky King he he, That's the Old Chief...

Has anyone see "Command Decision" with Clark Gable ? An actual veteran of the ETO in the 8th A.F., he also made recruitment films. I have to laugh when they show a model of the Me 262 and call it the "Lance Wolf One !" Where did they come up with a moniker like that ?

QUOTE: Originally posted by Pixilater Was it the one with the children ? Their house was bombed and his toy soldiers melted ? The sister was dating a Yank ? I can't remember the title, but if it was this one, someone else may recognize it. Hope you find out which one it is !

Hope and Glory. It's a great film, but there's not much flying in it.

Regards,

-Drew

QUOTE: Originally posted by Jeeves Maybe you guys can help me out here with a movie I have been trying to find. I rented it a few years back from a small video store that is now closed. It was set sometime after the Battle of Britain...and depicted London under attack from Hitler's Vengeance Weapons. In the beginning, you'd hear and see the V-1s buzzing and exploding in the city....and later in the movie-- they did a great job of showing the V-2s in action-- you'd see this HUGE explosion, and then shortly after hear the rocket engine noise. I have no idea of the cast or anything like that-- it reminds me a lot of the Battle of Britain film, but is later in the war. I know it isn't "Operation Crossbow"

It DOES sound very much like Operation Crossbow , with George Peppard, Tom Courtney, Jeremy Kemp, anthony Quayle and Sophia Loren.
The only other film about the V weapons that I can think of is 'Battle of the V1', starring Michael Rennie, in Black and White

Hey All!

My fav movies for accuracy would have to be Dambusters and Battle of Britian. Pearl Harbor is one of the worst I've seen in a long, long time. For starters, when Rafe's flying his spit over dover in the only decent combat scene in the movie, you'll notice two 20mm cannons on the wings. they weren't introduced until 1942 in North Africa!!! Also the J model B-25's on the Hornet too, another terrible inaccuracy! I had to watch the movie three times in three days at my cottage, and I almost coughed up a lung due to inaccuracy...............

The 12 O'Clock High series was and is a great series. They still have it on the History Television up here in Canada(eh!) just great.

Lancaster_lover

Bandit's!!! 12 O'Clock High!!!