As an aviation and naval minded kid, this was the first film I saw at the cinema here in the UK that was not a 'kids' film, and it remains a favourite now. You're comments about the professionalism and mature response from the characters in the film is very perceptive and goes against the tide for what Hollywood thinks how the military behave. I'm sure we all love Top Gun, but it's portrayal of military aviators as immature and childish kids in their 20's, not to mention cigar chomping gung ho senior officers is far off the mark. I actually like the mid section of the film where events gradually force the leadership on the Nimitz to accept their situation in a logical way, rather than how stupidly this would be portayed for a modern audience with no attention span if made today. Think Tora Tora Tora where a ominous gradual escalation of events unravels - and even that is massively simplified compared to real diplomacy between the two nations in the run upto 7th Decemember - and the film is better for it. Never be made today, instead you get 'Pearl Harbor'! A few pieces of background about this film that may be of interest. You touch on the fact that Peter Douglas, Kirk's son was producer and extra on the film, despite only being in his mid 20's at the time. At 24:07 on your video, that's him, facing the camera. You never see the USS Nimitz or Carrier Air Wing 8 aircraft closely at Pearl Harbour, that's because at the time both the carrier and air wing were Atlantic Fleet units - the flying sequences were filmed out of NAS Key West in Florida. The quick sequence where the SH-3 flies past the window of the Arizona memorial clearly shows the aircraft has been added in post production. You touch on the fact that many of the minor speaking roles were actually played by real USS Nimitiz crew, That includes the 'air boss' in Pri-fly, who was the real Nimitz air boss. Great care was clearly placed on editing and unlike most military films, there's very few mistake in Continuity, several VF-84 F-14s were marked up with the same modex numbers so that it was accurate throughout filming. The aircraft are even combat loaded correctly during the F-14/A6M dogfight sequence - drill rounds of course! The only major problem is the ending, although I appreciate that narratively they really didn't have any choice, but the manner in which the whole 'Nimitz is missing for a few days' is brushed off by the visiting admirals is absurd; nobody thought to wonder why several marines are dead and at least one wounded, a SH-3 and crew are missing, not too mention that one of your three most senior officers on the ship is also missing. If you want to get into details even the ordnance department is going to need to answer why a live AIM-9 and some 20mm rounds are missing! Still, it's a fantastic film, superby put together and a personal favourite, I have two DVD copies. Gary
I love this movie, not just because of the military aspect, but because its a sci-fi movie with ( at least for me ), very believable sci-fi aspect. I read many times that after the sightning of ball lightning, people found unusal items , which werent there before, so the ball lightning must have transported those. So i can easily imagine some yet unknown, extremely rare natural phenomenon, that can do this transporting...........but in time. We still dont know so many things about space , time, etc.........
I remember watching Waldo Pepper years ago when I was home sick from school - loved it. I need to rewatch it. Blue Max, I must admit, I've never watched. Need to remedy that.
japanese did a manga / anime (26 episodes) called Zipang about a modern japanese destroyer ending up in ww2 possibly they lifted the idea from this movie
This was one of my dads favorite movies. He read the novelization a bunch. Great video.
Thank you!
The Soviet trawler succesfully tested its experimental timewarpfield projector.
My God - it all makes sense now!
As an aviation and naval minded kid, this was the first film I saw at the cinema here in the UK that was not a 'kids' film, and it remains a favourite now. You're comments about the professionalism and mature response from the characters in the film is very perceptive and goes against the tide for what Hollywood thinks how the military behave. I'm sure we all love Top Gun, but it's portrayal of military aviators as immature and childish kids in their 20's, not to mention cigar chomping gung ho senior officers is far off the mark. I actually like the mid section of the film where events gradually force the leadership on the Nimitz to accept their situation in a logical way, rather than how stupidly this would be portayed for a modern audience with no attention span if made today. Think Tora Tora Tora where a ominous gradual escalation of events unravels - and even that is massively simplified compared to real diplomacy between the two nations in the run upto 7th Decemember - and the film is better for it. Never be made today, instead you get 'Pearl Harbor'!
A few pieces of background about this film that may be of interest. You touch on the fact that Peter Douglas, Kirk's son was producer and extra on the film, despite only being in his mid 20's at the time. At 24:07 on your video, that's him, facing the camera. You never see the USS Nimitz or Carrier Air Wing 8 aircraft closely at Pearl Harbour, that's because at the time both the carrier and air wing were Atlantic Fleet units - the flying sequences were filmed out of NAS Key West in Florida. The quick sequence where the SH-3 flies past the window of the Arizona memorial clearly shows the aircraft has been added in post production. You touch on the fact that many of the minor speaking roles were actually played by real USS Nimitiz crew, That includes the 'air boss' in Pri-fly, who was the real Nimitz air boss. Great care was clearly placed on editing and unlike most military films, there's very few mistake in Continuity, several VF-84 F-14s were marked up with the same modex numbers so that it was accurate throughout filming. The aircraft are even combat loaded correctly during the F-14/A6M dogfight sequence - drill rounds of course!
The only major problem is the ending, although I appreciate that narratively they really didn't have any choice, but the manner in which the whole 'Nimitz is missing for a few days' is brushed off by the visiting admirals is absurd; nobody thought to wonder why several marines are dead and at least one wounded, a SH-3 and crew are missing, not too mention that one of your three most senior officers on the ship is also missing. If you want to get into details even the ordnance department is going to need to answer why a live AIM-9 and some 20mm rounds are missing! Still, it's a fantastic film, superby put together and a personal favourite, I have two DVD copies.
Gary
Yeah, the aftermath of the incident would have made for an interesting movie in and of itself.
I've never been much of a military buff, but I always did love the premise of this movie. Nice break-down!
Thanks!
I love this movie, not just because of the military aspect, but because its a sci-fi movie with ( at least for me ), very believable sci-fi aspect. I read many times that after the sightning of ball lightning, people found unusal items , which werent there before, so the ball lightning must have transported those. So i can easily imagine some yet unknown, extremely rare natural phenomenon, that can do this transporting...........but in time. We still dont know so many things about space , time, etc.........
Yes - very interesting concepts. This film could make for an interesting mini-series, maybe 6 to 8 episodes, to drill into the details.
if you are interested in a very good but overlooked classic submarine movie, Run Silent Run Deep (1958) with Burt Lancaster and Clark Gable
That's a great flick
other good classic aviation themed movies with spectacular flight scenes
- The Blue Max (George Peppard)
- The Great Waldo Pepper ( Robert Redford)
I remember watching Waldo Pepper years ago when I was home sick from school - loved it. I need to rewatch it. Blue Max, I must admit, I've never watched. Need to remedy that.
CAG - Commander of Air Group.
Did not know that - thanks!
japanese did a manga / anime (26 episodes) called Zipang about a modern japanese destroyer ending up in ww2 possibly they lifted the idea from this movie
Interesting. I'll check it out.