U. S. Marines portrayal - Second in Command (2006) Discussion

[–] Dreamcast2001 18 years ago

That's not Jean Claude's fault, that's up to the production company to bring all those specialists in...military movies have a habit of not being accurate, and thats something that can be easily fixed.

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[–] Bifferd67 18 years ago

jean clude damn gives good round house kicks tot he face

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[–] firemacher11 18 years ago

the sic crew had the military adviser from jarhead, windtalkers and we were soldiers in.

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[–] furiousneon 18 years ago

good joke..people working on big budget flicks like that wouldnt waste a second of their time on a direct to video movie.

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[–] ecjohnson84 18 years ago

It was one long joke. I dont think these people had ever even SEEN an actual Marine, much less spent any time learning about how they act, uniforms, weapons, slang, and so forth. And what was up with the Seal with the foreign accent?!

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[–] northzen 18 years ago

I agree that the portrayal of U.S. Marines was an embarrassment. Not up to the standards of my Old Corps of the Vietnam era, and I know that standards have not dropped in recent times.

Yet I enjoyed the movie. It was a low budget production, so we cannot expect them to bring in the great movie military advisors like Capt. Dale Dye. Check out his record.

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[–] johanvanroekel 17 years ago

I understand that in a low budget movie you can't hire an old war horse like Capt. Dye. But I don't think that it would be a serious problem to get at least someone out of the marine corps to make sure that the soldiers are portrayed accuratly. I'm with the dutch marines and I am sure that we would be happy to "loan" hollywood someone to make sure we were portrayed correctly.

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[–] kites0852 17 years ago

There is low budget film, obviously. They should never have attempted to pass this crap off as U.S. Military forces. Van Damme does not wear a U.S. Naval Officer's uniform in this movie. It is a very poor recreation.

Lapels are not that large, this looks like a dinner jacket. Lapels allow the Seal insignia to show CLEARLY, here it was hidden shamefully so.

The officer's jacket rank (three stripes indicate a CDR or Commander). The three stripes should go completely around the bottom of the sleeves near the cuffs to indicate rank. The uniform he is wearing the stripes appear to be service stripes, which officers do not wear and only go 1/4 the way around the sleeve.

For being shot overseas, it should have used overseas forces instead of U.S. Military forces to be portrayed. A junior enlisted Sailor could have pointed out these glaring errors.

The piss poor appearance of the Marines in wrinkled, ill-fitting uniforms also was in poor taste. Marines take pride in their appearance and these guys wore the uniform like they didn't give a hoot about it. NOT a U.S. Marine!!!!

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[–] rob-donovan 17 years ago

I was a sergeant in the Corps, and I saw my fair share of *beep* Unshined boots, wrinkled cammies, hair not up to regs and the list goes on. I found in the Corps you have all walks of life, and as such some take pride in themselves and the organization he/she represents, while others do not give a *&%@ what they look like. It bothers me that some build up the Corps to be a bunch of automatons without personality, styles and standards.

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[–] pmiano100 16 years ago

The Navy and Marine Corps use "corpsmen," not "medics." Also, marines assigned to embassies would probably be held to higher hygiene and dress code standards, wouldn't they?

Let's get this straight: Elizabeth Barondes was the only American actor in the entire cast. Van Damme is a Belgian and everyone else was British, Australian, or Romanian. You expect accuracy?

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[–] tbirdman-1 16 years ago

Hear, hear ecjohnson84 and I could not agree with you more.
The actors portraying US Marines were totally miscast and
very unconvincing. And that US Navy Seal with the foreign
accent, what a bunch of bull! I tried to identify it and
came away thinking it was possibly Australian, Kiwi, or
maybe South African. Wherever this actor came from he
was also miscast and the producers could have cast an
American, Canadian or Brit in the role. Good british
actors are trained and could convincingly speak with
a non-regional flat american accent. Just look at all
of the actors from the UK currently working in Hollywood
movies and tv who often play american roles. I spent
some time in the US Navy and served with real Marines
and always took notice as to how proud these guys were
in uniform and personal appearance. This is one of
Van Damme's worst movies and no wonder it went direct
to dvd and cable!

LorenzoSunnyFlorida

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[–] AxeMarc 18 years ago

That explains it... :)

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[–] their_3 18 years ago

I realise marines they use camo instead of what the Marines wear today

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[–] basskat76 18 years ago

I knew it was going to suck as soon as I saw the Corporal put on his cover like a baseball cap in the beginning of the movie, and my suspicions were continually confirmed by things like the Marines wearing ARMY covers with their cammies, and the Gunny saluting inside while he has his cover on for some reason, the Marine calling the Gunny SIR! Despite the technical errors, the way the Marines acted was pretty for from the truth too. Like leaving Marines behind outside of the safe zone during a fire fight. Give me a break.

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[–] filmreaver 18 years ago

Not only did the corporal put on his cover like a baseball cap, he flashed a novelty SEAL Team ID card to the guard at the airport, didn't have his belt brass on brass and somehow produced a sidearm at the hotel without a duty belt. I was so disgusted with this film that I had to turn it off at the street hostage scene. Any attempt at realism went out the window when JCVD showed up, in uniform, trying to be a SEAL and not having the trident on his uniform, being in uniform in a country that had civil unrest and turmoil, seeing his Marine 'back-up' team wearing the Army issue BDU cover and using the tac light in broad daylight, and later JCVD wearing a SBU/SBT tac vest that is really a floatation vest designed to be used by SWCC but here trying to be body armor, the Marines wearing knock off BDUs like the film producers couldn't have just raided a surplus store and at least tried to get the right pattern BDU not some imported imitation crap. I couldn't bear to watch any more and shut this s h i t off. There are for better films out there that make an attempt to be realistic than this one. Even the student film, The Paraclete was way more realistic then this and it was worth seeing.

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[–] usmcdiorio 18 years ago

And did you see the Cpl's belt hanging all nasty when he stepped into the car? To put the icing on the cake, the Capt called all the Marines soldiers at the end of the movie. It had potential as a good action flick, but it's just too much of an unrealistic depiction of Marines to actually be an enjoyable movie. Especially with movies that actually do a decent job of portraying Marines, and the Marine Corps that have recently come out, such as Jarhead, this movie is a huge disappointment.

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[–] Sabre_sqdn 18 years ago

you cant forget the Marine Expiditionary unit announcing they were the US Army to the malitia and a Colonel calling a Commander sir??

the sun never sets on the British empire because God doesn't trust the British in the dark.

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[–] akronactor 14 years ago

The part of with the Colonel calling a Commander sir isn't completely inaccurate- while obviously not required to do so by regulation, some officers will address subordinate officers as sir in order to show respect. They do it so as to show the same respect that they want to recieve.

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[–] SuperSanity 18 years ago

It's a god damn movie. I went into this movie with certain expectations. And one of those was NOT a realistic portrayal of the military.

P.S. It was perfectly plausible that they would leave the RECON Marines in the field. 1) It would be a dumb tactical move to send out soldiers to try and get them back. 2) It was beneficial to have trained RECON Marines to report on enemy movement.

"In this business you can laugh or you can cry. I plan to laugh 'till the bitter end."-Beast Boy.

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[–] necrid420 18 years ago

almost all BDUs are the same except for insignia

only the knew BDUs (which arent coming out for another year or 2) are different

RECON MARINES are the elite why wouldnt they be in the field

oh and does it matter if the commander refered to the marines as soldiers?it happens sometimes.Even inside you usually call a commanding officer sir. so the marine calling the Gunny sir isnt farfetched and alot of the time a higher rank will say it back because its courteous.

Ive seen airmen put on their covers(BDU not dress blues) and they dont put them on like baseball caps. They also take them off indoors (even in cars) and put them on outside no matter what.

oh and btw JARHEAD SUCKED! It was dumb.

And no branch of the military is lax nowadays the USAF is about to up to 8weeks of BMT. And yes IT IS as hard as the marines and they have the same (if not higher) physical qualifications. BMT is the same for every branch with minor differences like what they call the training groups

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[–] kilcam16 18 years ago

And no branch of the military is lax nowadays the USAF is about to up to 8weeks of BMT. And yes IT IS as hard as the marines and they have the same (if not higher) physical qualifications. BMT is the same for every branch with minor differences like what they call the training groups .....

This quote is proof that the poster has absolutely NO idea what Basic is like, no offense sir, but research before you "teach". Go to boot, and then talk, not visa versa.....Sempi Fi, Take it back to The Old Corps

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[–] levoices 17 years ago

Ha the USAF has higher physical standards than Corps? No, you are very mistaken. Marines run 3 miles, have to do crunches in 2 minutes and pull ups or flexed arm hang. Our boot camp is an entirely different format/mind set than Airforce. This doesn't mean I don't respect the other branches. I do but when it comes to physical things in general a Marine would win.

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[–] r2626 15 years ago

What the hell is Sempi Fi? The Old Corps would never say that. It is Semper Fi. Call to duty. You should be right yourself before correcting someone else.

Help stamp out and do away with redundancy

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[–] EXPLICITSOUL5 16 years ago

RECON MARINES are the elite why wouldnt they be in the field

Good point!

oh and does it matter if the commander refered to the marines as soldiers

Lol! Bad point!! NEVER call a MARINE a "soldier" (nothing against the A(in't) R(eady) for the M (arines) Y (et) JK! Lol!

calling the Gunny sir isnt farfetched and alot of the time a higher rank will say it back because its courteous.

Well, I don't know what branch you're (were) in but Gunnys aren't sirs.

USAF is about to up to 8weeks of BMT. And yes IT IS as hard as the marines

No offense is intended, but that's kind of hard to believe. But then again, I could be wrong. :) Peace!

http://http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/reason.html

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[–] hgarmorer 15 years ago

Some are saying the production crew should have hired a Marine to be the advisor...well do your own research and you will know that the advisor retired as a Sergeant Major after 25 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Probably more time spent in the Corps than a couple of people combined on this board.

LLLETS GO--CAPT Tenneal MXC

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[–] hardcorps-1 15 years ago

But he was never on the set in Romania. He was only an advisor to the original screenwriters. I'm sure he found the end result as wildly inaccurate as anyone else who's ever been in the U.S.M.C.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] salimy3k 13 years ago

The only thing more ridiculous than a bunch of soldiers whining about 'inaccuracies' in a movie is them wasting an entire board to do so! You Americans managed to display an Eastern European Nation's flag UPSIDE DOWN in a B grade action flick I watched recently, so you think they're going for historical accuracy on such a small budget? Very amusing seeing that whenever a Hollywood movie gets foreign films customs wrong, people are encouraged to ignore it with the 'It's a Movie' refrain - but when your useless marines are displayed in anything other than reverence, you get antsy! Considering the fact that your marines get shot to hell in every movie I see despite their 'elite' training, perhaps they should dress up in clown outfits with shiny red noses!

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