MovieChat Forums > Force 10 from Navarone (1978) Discussion > The damn in German hands(premise flaw)

The damn in German hands(premise flaw)

posted 17 years ago by bloodglutton
5 replies | jump to latest

Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed this movie since I was approx 7 years old, but the whole premise of the movie was based on the strategic position of the one army on one side of the bridge and the Germans on the other side of the bridge, and once the Germans could mass in force then they would flood over the bridge and destroy the defending army, yet 2 miles upriver the Germans hold the damn that spans the same river, DOH! even if they can't get tanks and heavy armor across the damn, they can still move men and supplies, right?

I still enjoyed the movie, but as a child and young adult I never noticed this, but yesterday as I watched, this fact was all but screaming at me.

[–] todd-175 17 years ago

That's a funny observation, but it's a "dam" not "damn". That damn dam!

[–] mikestemple 17 years ago

That's an interesting point.

I could be an apologist for the movie and say that the damn was in a mountainous area at a higher elevation with windy roads with cliffs and drop's and heavy forest perfect for ambushes by the enemy.

But it's still a good point. I'm sure the Germans would have wanted to use a two point approach to spread out the outnumbered resistance forces.

The Dam could certainly handle vehicles altho The engineers would probably want to keep heavy tanks off of it without first coating the road with a vibration absorbing surface. Cars and troup transports and 6 wheel trucks should have no problem with slight modifications.

Databyter

[–] barburso 16 years ago

And, where there is a dam, there is a lake, pontoon bridges?

[–] JohnnyDukes 15 years ago

The Dam was not the problem, surely if the engineers had realized that the bridge was not capable of being blown they may have considered that option but they were focused on the bridge alone. Dams were relatively easy targets by mid-1943 thanks to Operation Chastise.

[–] josborn828 14 years ago

Wondered the same thing for years. The only plausible reason I could think of was, it was the 70's (if you can remember the 70's, you didn't live in the 70's). However, this theory was shot to hell with the Hadies bomb from Iron Eagle. Does the "wall of fire" extend around the globe, making it impossible to drive around? Evidently, the "Just Say No" message never made it to Hollywood.