Full truck of heavily armed soldiers retreating after several rock hits and leaving behind two soldiers and three automatic rifles. This can be considered as realistic situation in Britain army? The fight with civilians was a mess, but it was not too hot and dangerous for such a hurry getaway.
shareIt was a one-off.
The British Army remains the most professional in the world. Never but never underestimate us. We Brits(more so the Scots) are militaristic by nature, and true grit is part of our dna.
Without detracting from this good little film at all, if you would like to see even more realistic Brits in action and under fire, seek an indie film entitled "Kajaki : The True Story". Unless you are totally prejudiced against the British Army (or UK generally)I feel there is a very good chance you will come away from it impressed.
To be honest the unrealistic aspect, is not the one of withdrawal from a volatile situation but that after getting back to base, when a check of the personnel would have almost certainly have taken place, that they would not have gone out in massive force with the RUC into the area to get them back. They would not just have sent one defender driving round the neighbourhood
shareIn response to ronfirv:
At one time, the British Army was the best trained, yet worst equipped of the leading armies of the world. At the start of the Great War, the Empire had a small but highly trained army. The Somme took care of that (poor blokes).
I myself throw my vote to the Rhodesian Army. But what do I know, I am just a United States citizen who digs British Film.
By the way, another good film of the British Army is the John Guillermin film, Guns At Batasi. Richard Attenborough is superb as the RSM. And like " '71 ", the commentary is worth viewing after the screening.
ronfirv, thanks for the tip on Kajaki, I will give it a look. Hopefully Tim has it at the Naro Expanded Video. He has a number of not-so-well-known films on DVD and VHS cassette.
cheers mate
- JKHolman
To be honest the unrealistic aspect, is not the one of withdrawal from a volatile situation but that after getting back to base, when a check of the personnel would have almost certainly have taken place, that they would not have gone out in massive force with the RUC into the area to get them back. They would not just have sent one defender driving round the neighbourhood
At one time, the British Army was the best trained, yet worst equipped of the leading armies of the world.
At last from yesterday's Budget seems again we will be meeting our 2% spending on defence commitments as required of all NATO members. About time and hope as a result, equipment is top notch and we look after our guys as they deserve to be.
shareMany still privately purchase their own kit.
Can't really do much about things like body armour through this route, but Gucci boots, webbing and the like are often the reason squaddies are poor!
was it joke? i just finished '71 (decent, thrilling despite dumb main character wandering always away from safety) and right after it I watched Kajaki which seemed like dark comedy with lemmings, oh one guy is injured in minefield, let's send there more to get injured, oh another are injured, let's send more to get injured - this kind of approach doesn't seem very professional and looks more like some Soviet/Chinese army just throwing amounts of soldiers instead of building skills and making them more efficient
The best - Fight Club, American Beauty & Falling Down.
@Markoff
The main character isn't "wandering" away from safety--hell, he's beat up by people who don't want him and his unit there in the first place, then he's chased by two guys trying to kill him, then the one place he finally feels safe....no spoilers, but the soldier was in dangerous, hostile territory from the moment he got separated from his unit, where he was never safe from one minute to the next. So he didn't put himself in those situations, he was basically forced to stay on his toes, no matter what. Pretty good, suspenseful and intense film, though.
When I was a student in Belfast in the mid-80s I remember the army going nuts over a magazine for an SLR that a squaddie dropped, never mind a whole rifle. Equipment was stolen and grabbed by opportunists, absolutely realistic.
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