MovieChat Forums > American Battleship (2012) Discussion > Navy uniforms were completely out of dat...

Navy uniforms were completely out of date!

posted 10 years ago by tbirdman-1
3 replies | jump to latest

I watched this movie last night on SyFy and the first thing I noticed
was how out of date the uniforms were. All of the enlisted crew
members were wearing the old school blue dungarees which was a light
blue shirt with short or long sleeves and dark blue denim fabric
trousers. And all of the chiefs and officers including the captain
wore the traditional "working khakis." Now the dungarees were worn
by pay grades E-1 thru E-6 from at least the 1940's thru 2009/2010
and were eventually phased out by the navy department in favor of
the new navy working uniform or NWU. And nowadays all ranks wear
the NWU including chiefs and officers. So I really don't see why
the production did not bother to obtain the proper uniform for
the actors to have worn though perhaps it was budgetary reasons.
This movie was on cable just two years ago when the new uniform
was already in place for all US Navy personnel both enlisted and
officers including admirals. Even the captain and vice admiral
should have worn the NWU in this movie. Of course its just a
movie so I will guess that the producers, writers and director
really did not see fit to have the cast costumed properly
which would have made the film seem much more up to date.
Btw I watched just the first half hour and gave up on the
very lame and ridiculous script! I am a navy veteran of surface
warfare and really did not see anything redeeming about this
film!

Lorenzo Sunny Arizona

Call me a sailor or a swabby just don't call me a squid!

[–] darkavenger77 10 years ago

I suspect the majority of the viewers would not know the details you did.

The only plausibility I could see would be if the crew were supposed to be wearing WW2 era uniforms due to the museum status. Would that have been a possibility?

And you gave her a land mine? Really?
Well, it seemed appropriate at the time.
- Ron Swanson

[–] tbirdman-1 10 years ago

You are right about my having seen certain details which most viewers
of the movie would not have noticed. Now your point about the crew
having worn WW II era uniforms is interesting though during the
1940's thru the 80's the white "Dixie cup" traditional sailor hat
was worn by all crew members of pay grades E-1 thru E-6 and during
my time we switched to the dark blue ball cap which did not get so
dirty and was much easier to keep clean. And today US Navy ball caps
are worn at sea on ships by chiefs and officers and on submarines
by all ranks. Good point you have made about the "traditional"
uniforms!

Lorenzo Sunny Arizona

Call me a sailor or a swabby just don't call me a squid!

[–] Mysteriously_Eerie 9 years ago

Was there a title giving the date as "present"? Given the I go on the title cards at the end, I got the sense that this film took place in 2005 or 2006.