With all the crap Hollywood is remaking these days, why don't they remake a film like 30SOT? Not to say there's anything wrong with the original but it's about time WWII air war films made more use of CGI for greater impact as well as sparking interest in aviation history instead of all this Harry Potteresque junk that Crappywood keeps shoving down our throats.
shareI'd like to see a remake of this film. I think it would be an excellent idea.
Learn a new language, explore a new world.
Didn't Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor" cover the raid and its aftermath?
sharenot very well
shareI think Michael Bay needs to stick to anything original, he shouldn't be allowed to touch anything that is a remake or a re-telling as he totally messes it up. I think he would be the perfect director for any new story to tell.
share
CGI ruins air war films. Aviation fans just can't stand to see CGI planes in movies, no computer rendering can compete with real footage of a real B-25 landing.
Real planes with *wisely used* CGI for some effects would be ok, but when you go for full CGI scenes (as it is always the case), you only get trash. Look at the air scenes of Band of Brothers, one of the best WWII works you can watch, spoiled by those crappy videogame-like airplanes.
"more use of CGI for greater impact" sounds to me like you want to turn serious war films into "Crappywood" movies full of explosions and stupid action scenes, a la John Woo. This will not spark interest in aviation history, it will just give more hollywood movies to people who only want to see planes as long as they blow up in big, spectacular CGI explosions.
It can look proper if it's done right and I'm not talking about "Looney Tunes" hyperactive CGI. Band of Brothers was made for TV, of course that CGI looked like garbage, TV CGI always does. Now of course CGI doesn't compete with the real deal but you try and find large surviving numbers of A6Ms, Ki-61s or B-25s for filming. Honestly, looking at a single aircraft filmed at different angles in order to replicate a squadron full of that aircraft is just as lame as bad CGI.
shareModern CGI can do aircraft extremely well.
Check out this scene from the new "Captain Scarlet" remake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxIr-sBrIgs
Actually I think that clip shows exactly what is wrong with using CGI.
Have you considered how many `G`s those aircraft would be pulling in reality, just about believable for some sort of futurisic craft but not for something real.
In most recent films which used CGI to depict period air combat we frequently see planes performing maneuvers which in reality they could never do without ripping the wings off or squashing the pilot flat.
If its used sparingly, incorporating real world flying footage then it can look reasonably good but if the director gets a bit carried away then it just `looks wrong`.
One of the better uses of CGI can be seen in `Dark Blue world` where they mix CGI with real flying footage;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkHTQKWrdj0&feature=related
Then compare it with a similar scene in `Pearl Harbor` where the CGI just takes over despite there being some very good real footage in the sequence;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-eK9XXB3ro
Those planes are just too d***** close and too low to be believable!
"Any plan that involves loosing your hat is a BAD plan."
Why do a remake of a classic, besides few remakes are better than the original. This classic film was made only two years or less after the events depicted in the film took place & the original captures the attitudes & values of the time, something a version made now could never do. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
shareSouthwestern, well spoken. I would be afraid that the studio, in its quest for foriegn box office, would tone down the Japanese response to the raid as well as many other things that occurred in the immediate aftermath of the bombing. Movies such as these, while not a a true historical record, do just as Southwestern said; they convey the times and the attitudes that surrounded the war. One only has to look at the absymal Pearl Harbor to understand that.
shareI agree with Southwestern and Homer. This picture could not be improved upon, so why try.
TOWER, ALERT AIR TRAFFIC, ROMEO, TANGO, ZULU IS NOW AIR FORCE ONE.
I would be all in favor of a remake, if it is done RIGHT. If re-done in color it would draw more of the younger generation to see it. I think kids today look at black and white movies as something out of the stone age and don't bother to watch. Add the current movie stars and you would have something even the youth would be interested in watching. This would have great educational value for the youngsters who don't fully appreciate the bravery and courage an earlier generation put forth for their nation. That is not to detract from our brave military people fighting terrorism in Iraq today. Their full story cannot be told until after the war there is finished.
I would only pray that Hollywood would minimize any attempts at some sappy love sub-plot vis-a-vis MIDWAY. I would rather they emphasize the technical difficulties and raw courage required to take a B-25 Bomber off the pitching and rolling deck of an aircraft carrier. I am a retired professional pilot and have the advantage of understanding the technical aspects of such an endeavor. That feat alone makes my blood run cold. Now add to the story they had to fly off to bomb Japan, try to make it to China, then find some strange and very questionable landing strips while being low on fuel. I can tell you, without hesitation, what those brave men did took gut wrenching courage.
If a re-make were done accurately portraying what these courageous heroes did, then I would be more than willing to overlook any minor CGI unrealism.
I saw this movie for the first time in 2008. I understand why it is a classic. I am not the "Romantic movie" type and I am not used to that part of the movie. I am happy that Ted and Ellen had such a wonderful love affair, however, I would have loved to have seen more time in the air and over the actual target like was done in "Memphis Belle".I love when movies teach you something that you don't know.
shareMemphis Belle wasn't a particularly good film. It seemed to simply drag up every war movie cliche there was just to put it in the film.
I think if this film was remade it might be good to make Ted and Ellen seem more realistic and less sappy (The real Ellen Lawson has even said she found the scenes in the movie syruppy and joked that her grandchildren would groan in watching them). A more talented actor than Van Johnson in the lead would also be good. Not to mention, making the dialogue more realistic and less wooden and cliched.
The effects were very good for the time though and the parts where the crew is on the run from the enemy were quite good.
A remake would be good to show all aspects of the raid -from the inception and planning to the aftermath (i.e. How it prompted the Japanese to instigate the Battle of Midway, which turned the tide of the war against them. The fate of the two crews that were captured by the Japanese, etc.).
When this film was made, a lot couldn't be shown due to wartime secrecy or simply because nobody knew any of the facts. For example, the fate of the Raiders who had become POW's. Nobody knew for certain at the time what had happened to them.
A colorized version is probably a better choice than a remake. A couple special features that put the film and the actual mission in a greater historical context would help in presentation.
But between the thought of CGI effects and the likely intrusion of political correctness out of deference to the Japanese who were then our arch enemies but now our pals makes me dread the possibility of an unnecessary remake of a classic film. It's a movie that has a unique place in film history and WW2 history.
has anyone read "The First Heroes" by craig nelson? there is certainly enough there to re-make the movie.
pearl harbor was of course dismal,and enemy at the gates should have been better.
fer example,after Gen. Chuikov returned to his HQ,after many vodka toasts on the east side of the river,he falls thru the ice and almost drowns,then nearly succumbs to hypothermia after thsy fish him out.
that type of detail is lacking.