MovieChat Forums > The Dam Busters (1955) Discussion > Rule Britannia

Rule Britannia

posted 17 years ago by Blythcansee
23 replies | jump to latest

Looking forward to the remake actually but it should keep the actors mostly Britsh and Commenwealth. Joe Macarthy I think may have been a yank so we could let one of them into the mix. Someone like Barry Pepper would be a good candidate?

What about remakes also for the following

1. Cockleshell heroes
2. Dunkirk (my all time fave - not the BBC recent production but the one with Millsy playing Tubby Bins)
3. 633 Squadron
4. The Great Escape

All makes you proud to be British...............THE SUN NEVER SETS

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Blythcansee 17 years ago

Not all, but you are clearly jealous!

[–] tgoc 17 years ago

Joe McCarthy was certainly an American, one of those who took the trouble to join up before their country felt obliged to go to war. But if Hollywood had the casting of it, they would probably in their perverse wisdom give the role to Russell Crowe, who would, of course, do a brilliant job of playing it.

I must say that I am not familiar with all that the films you mention – although “Cockleshell Heroes” with Jose Ferrer pretending to be a Canadian was a classic. “The Great Escape” was a travesty, in my humble opinion.

The thing that makes me most proud to be of, marginal, British descent is the fact that apart from such classics as “Sink the Bismark” “The Battle of the River Plate” and “The Dam Busters” no self-satisfied horn is blown, as a rule. Not all nations can say as much.

Did you ever see a film, the title of which escapes me, in which Gregory Peck played an RAF squadron leader in Burma, in about 1944? It, too, made one proud to be British. There are, of course, films like “A Bridge Too Far”, but, accurate as they may be, as far as they go, they don’t tell the whole story.

Would be happy to discuss this further.

TGOC.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] KarlMaldensNose 16 years ago

That film with Gregory Peck set in Burma is "The Purple Plain".
Other British war movies that are exceptionally good are"The Cruel Sea", "Yesterday's Enemy" and "The Long and the Short and the tall". "Tumbledown" was good too,

Ah!...Now we see the violence inherent in the system!

[–] tgoc 16 years ago

Dear KarlMaldensNose,

Thank you very much for sharing with me the title of Peck’s Burma film. I hope that you admire that great actor as much as I do. “The Purple Plain” seemed to me to be a very good and unjustly neglected film.

I am familiar with “The Cruel Sea” of course, but do not know “Yesterday’s Enemy.” Is “The Long and the Short and the Tall” the film in which Peter O’Toole made his name?

Do not let us forget “Sink the Bismark” and all the films that the British should have made about how they, under General Sir William Slim, defeated the Japanese in Burma.

Still, we always have that epic, “The Dam Busters.”

Yours ever,

TGOC

[–] KarlMaldensNose 16 years ago

Hi tgoc,

Re "The Long and the short etc", yes, O'Toole made his name in the stage play, but Laurence Harvey played his part (Bamforth) in the film.
Yesterday's Enemy was one of the first films to show a certain realism in war films. The "good guy" British use (not explicit) torture and murder to achieve their aims. Very gritty and honest for the '50s.
Just about my most fav war film is "For King and Country". Just about perfect.

And yes, The dambusters is great........just the sound of the merlin engines is worth watching it for.

Ah!...Now we see the violence inherent in the system!

[–] tgoc 15 years ago

Dear KMN:

It was many years ago, but I think I saw " For King and Country". Did it star Dirk Bogarde?
TGOC

[–] tgoc 15 years ago

Yes and Yes,

Do you remember the moment in the Dam Busters when "M-Mother" crashes over the dam and Gibson says: " M-Mother, are you OK?" And a voice replies," I think so leader, stand by..." And then we see the explosion of M-Mother.

TGOC

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] TopGunSGA 16 years ago

There were at least 2 other Yanks in the squadron

-- COOOBRAAAA! --

[–] Blythcansee 16 years ago

I just hope they get it right. The actors have to be pretty young to be authentic. I think they got it right on the Memphis Belle actually - all the crew were pretty young and that stuck out as being hostorically correct. I heard that James Mcavoy is being casted for Gibson which i think is a good move (he looks young anyhow).

Does anybody know any more about who is being casted and release dates?

I just hope that Bomber Harris gives his line about "being sold a pink elephant" by Wallis.

Bring it on!!!!

[–] tgoc 15 years ago

Re Bomber Harris:

He used to drive home, after a night at Bomber Command, in his sports car. One night a bobby -- constable -- pulled him over for speeding. "Sir, you could have killed someone."
"Young man," replied Bomber," I kill thousands of people every night."

[–] nevkid12 16 years ago

"All makes you proud to be British."

Indeed, which is why it is so painful, even though I have no British blood in me, to see the UK's Politically Correct current state, when they could field such men as in this movie, "Cockleshell Heroes', etc.

[–] jamesbloke 16 years ago

You are all insane. Why would you want to remake absolute classics?!?! This fashion for remakes is so depressing. Uninspired and lazy.
Regards,
James

[–] sportin_jenny 16 years ago

Cheshire, who was one of the Dam Busters was an observer on the plane that bombed Hiroshima, later he opened cancer wards and helped people.

[–] lucmann-1 16 years ago

A remake would just be a lot of crap CGI. I love this and 633 Squadron just to see the beautiful shots of these planes flying. They won't be for much longer I'm afraid.

I did get to see the Lanc at Duxford one year in the 80s...stunning!

[–] LeParas-1 16 years ago

There wasn´t a member Named Cheshire on the "Enola Gay" which bombed Hiroshima.
On his 101st mission, he was official British observer of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki from The Great Artiste, an event which profoundly changed him. On his return from the mission he left the RAF and went home to his house, Le Court in Hampshire.

Group Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire,VC,OM,DSO and 2 Bars,DFC (Born:7 September 1917,Died:31 July 1992) was a British RAF pilot during the Second World War who received the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. After the war he became a charity worker, setting up "Cheshire Homes" for the disabled. His final battle was his courageous struggle with the debilitating effects of Motor Neurone Disease.

[–] sportin_jenny 16 years ago

You are a smarty pants, but thanks for the info...Cheshire was a good man

[–] caesarves (7) a year ago

LOL Nothing the UK did contributed to winning the war, even the Battle of Britain was only won by Hitler invading Russia. The damn burster mission was a costly venture with net effect zero except for all the innocent civilians and POWs they killed . It was only by America that the war was won in every theater. UK lost the war badly, and were a drag on the US war effort. Even Germany and Japan came out better as winners after the war than Britain did. This this dumb boring movie with laughably British 'special effects' and the word "ni***r" all over the place is all they have. When PJ remakes it, it will be an all-woke cast with every character played by a negro actor, and the dog is white and named "Limey"! LOL The sun set a long time ago, and now the USA is the greatest and most powerful country in the history of the world, sucks to be British#LOL

[–] fawltybasil (249) a year ago

The same America that actually helped the Nazis by selling them weapons and oil before and during world war two? PSML.

I knew the education system was bad in America but I didn't think it was that bad.

[–] caesarves (7) a year ago

LOL Yes America gave Germany weapons and resources before the war to make it a fair fight, and still managed to beat Germany, inspite of being hampered by the incompetent British. America has the best education system, that's why we put a man on the moon twelve times while you still struggle to put a man on Princess Beatrice. Your education system has you hialriously believing you had something to do with winning WW1 an WW2, Britain was more like the female damsel that needed saving by the heroic male USA, only for USA to find that you were not so much rated snog or marry, as you were avoid #LOL

[–] fawltybasil (249) a year ago

Best education system but you still can't spell hilarious.

I forgot to mention because I was spilling my guts laughing at the bollocks in your previous post. The Russians killed more Germans than the British and the Americans.