MovieChat Forums > Battle Cry (1955) Discussion > NZ goofs

NZ goofs

posted 16 years ago by Shuggy
4 replies | jump to latest

It looks as though Uris came to NZ but none of the dialogue coaches, set decorators etc. took any trouble at all.

Pat's accent is pure US. The NZers (?) in the canteen speak variants of UK, mainly Cockney, as does Pat's father. Her mother sounds like Mrs Marple (upper-middle UK).

Nobody said "cab" (taxi) or "Mama" (Mum). It's Wellington Harbour, not "Bay" and it is a harbour, almost entirely surrounded by hills. Hills in Masterton, not high enough, hills at Paekakariki (McKay's Crossing) far too high. There are no hills at all near Foxton, it's at the mouth of a river with a big alluvial plain. No white lines on the roads in 1942.

I had to laugh when Andy said he had a place in "Nadgio". Had to run the subtitles to see he meant Ngaio (which Maori pronounce with a full ng as in sing, but non-Maori say as Nigh-oh) - although that would be how Yanks said it because a Brit friend referred to the crime writer as Nadgio Marsh. Likewise McKay's Crossing, we say Mac-kye. How come they were talking in kilometres on the march back?

The odd eucalypts grow here, but they had so many it looked like Australia. No sign of any real NZ vegetation. The Wellington vegetation was much too tropical - more like Auckland.

Pat's flat (apartment) in Wellington was all-American, even for a rich farmer's daughter on a widow's pension. Doors were smaller and not so elaborately panelled, her furniture was all US colonial. Far too many lamps for NZ in 1942. Her parents' big fireplace was unlikely, especially in that farmhouse.

Interestingly when the boastful one described his imaginary adventures on Guadalcanal, he got all his names right. The Guadalcanal landscape was passably accurate.

Keanu should play Gort
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[–] mnoe 13 years ago

The odd eucalypts grow here, but they had so many it looked like Australia.

First of all, your post is interesting and informative.

Second, you may or may not be pleased to know that we really do have that many eucalyptus growing in California, where the movie was shot.

Third, you're expecting an awful lot of authenticity from Hollywood, mate (or pal, or bud, or whatever you chaps or blokes or dudes say where you're from).

How do you expect them to pass off the lighting for widescreen technicolor movie stock from the '50s with the "correct" amount of lamps for 1942 NZ? Make an apartment darker and less "pretty" to be more "authentic"? That ain't the '50s way, the Hollywood way, or the American way.

I'm afraid you'll have to wait until the '70s for "Hollywood" to start making a serious stab at "period" lighting. Read about how much tinkering with cameras Kubrick had to do to shoot Barry Lyndon the way he wanted, and how much subterfuge and scheming Altman and his d.p. Vilmos Zsigmond used to get the grimy dark look of McCabe and Mrs. Miller past the studio.

As for the rest of it -- geography, accents, decor, authentic casting -- get in line. There's a lot of Brits, French, Germans, Mexicans (and so forth, including Americans) who could sing the same sad song about Hollywood portraying their home towns.

Again, I appreciate the interesting details you provide. I just think expecting to see them on a 1950's movie screen with this kind of big-budget production is a little wishful.

last 2 dvds: La mujer del puerto (1934) & Battleground (1949)

[–] Shuggy 13 years ago

...mate (or pal, or bud, or whatever you chaps or blokes or dudes say where you're from).

Formerly, mate. Nowadays, probably bro.

How do you expect them to pass off the lighting for widescreen technicolor movie stock from the '50s with the "correct" amount of lamps for 1942 NZ? Make an apartment darker and less "pretty" to be more "authentic"? That ain't the '50s way, the Hollywood way, or the American way.

I'm afraid you'll have to wait until the '70s for "Hollywood" to start making a serious stab at "period" lighting.

I'm distinguishing between lighting and lamps. Period films have always had scenes much brighter than they would have been. Someone lights a candle, and thousands of watts go on. My point is that a room in NZ in the 1940s would have had one pendant light in the ceiling and perhaps one table lamp as well.

There's a lot of Brits, French, Germans, Mexicans (and so forth, including Americans) who could sing the same sad song about Hollywood portraying their home towns.

It's curious isn't it? Other countries revel in the differences that distinguish us. The US isn't happy with them and wants to erase them.

"You touch my JUNK, I'm gonna have you ARRESTED" http://www.cafepress.com/ahua/7505507

[–] mnoe 13 years ago

It's curious isn't it? Other countries revel in the differences that distinguish us. The US isn't happy with them and wants to erase them.

Someone could probably write a doctoral thesis about how Hollywood homogeneity simultaneously contributed to and reflected notions about "assimilation" and "the melting pot" in America. After all, we are a nation almost entirely made up of immigrants from those "other countries."

last 2 dvds: The Big Trail (1930) & Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

[–] Nikon11 9 years ago

No one's after erasing them. It's just economics and sometimes it's whatever is easiest. Also, you have to consider who they're playing to. If the movie is made by Americans for Americans, then their target audience won't really know the difference.