Aviation/War Films: What made you laugh and cry…?

The Cry bit is easy…the end of Operation Daybreak.

Yes, very moving indeed.

Agreed TT, based on a true story as well, weren’t those 2 played by Anthony Andrews and Martin Shaw, it’s a while since I saw it, put it back on TV instead of showing endless repeats of Under Siege.

An amusing scene in the film, albeit a very black one, is Heydrichs corpse, inevitably played by Anton Differing, being prepared for the funeral, ie: Jack boots being screwed onto a body in rigor mortise, you may think I have a wierd sense of humour, but it’s nice to see such an evil Nazi piece of filth, one of the worst in fact, being treated so unceremoniously.

It’s not Martin Shaw but Timothy Bottoms in the crypt with Anthony Andrews. As you say though I haven’t seen it shown on TV for some years.

The end credits (if that is the right phrase) get to me every time; where the fate of all the patriots (and traitors) is revealed. The courage of these people who knew that they risked not only their own lives but those of their families is almost unbelievable. Tragically in this case (although it didn’t happen exactly as shown in the film) most of the family that hid the assassins (including their young children) died in concentration camps…..and of course the Nazis murdered the entire population of the village of Lidice.

It is possible to visit the actual crypt. One day I would very much like to do so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CyrilMethodious.JPG

No, it was a low budget European film…with cross-dressing Spitfires and Bfs. It’s been discussed here before with photos posted.

It’s From Hell To Victory.

And the most funny moment in cinema or TV heaven? Maybe it was that 1980s TV drama with Me109s painted up to look like Spitfires and a airworthy Spitfire painted up to look like an Me109. As for funny – funny. Not sure. Airplane, perhaps?

No, it was a low budget European film…with cross-dressing Spitfires and Bfs. It’s been discussed here before with photos posted.

BTW: There weren’t enough Bfs and Spits in the US to make such a film or TV appearance…

BTWII: Have you ever seen Airplane!? Aside from a 10 second clip from an old movie of a plane crashing into a mountain, it has nothing to do with warbirds.

are you having us on?

And the most funny moment in cinema or TV heaven? Maybe it was that 1980s TV drama with Me109s painted up to look like Spitfires and a airworthy Spitfire painted up to look like an Me109. As for funny – funny. Not sure. Airplane, perhaps?

what was this? seem to recall Airwolf or somesuch with a Spit in crosses, can’t recall – what was this can you recall ?

The Cry bit is easy…the end of Operation Daybreak.

Surrounded in a church crypt with water rising the two remaining SOE agents embrace each other and shoot themselves. Gets me every time.

For those who havent seen it its a superb film.

TT

Agreed TT, based on a true story as well, weren’t those 2 played by Anthony Andrews and Martin Shaw, it’s a while since I saw it, put it back on TV instead of showing endless repeats of Under Siege.

An amusing scene in the film, albeit a very black one, is Heydrichs corpse, inevitably played by Anton Differing, being prepared for the funeral, ie: Jack boots being screwed onto a body in rigor mortise, you may think I have a wierd sense of humour, but it’s nice to see such an evil Nazi piece of filth, one of the worst in fact, being treated so unceremoniously.

Talking of ‘Under Siege’, that is a laugh from beginning to end, I don’t dislike the film for some bizarre reason, but the main characters are so over the top that I can only assume they were doing the whole thing for laughs and winding up the director.

The bits in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ that are really tearful are when the medic is dying and starts calling for his mother, my old man reckoned that most of them did that.
Then of course we have the dying Hanks telling Ryan to lead a good life, followed by the aged Ryan at his graveside asking his wife if he’d been a good man.
Right tear jerkers.

Another piece of black humour from The Longest Day, the German Major Pluskat phoning his superior from his bunker to report his sighting of the invasion fleet:-
‘But Pluskat, the Allies don’t have 5000 ships’
‘Yes they do and they’re heading straight for me’.

The Cry bit is easy…the end of Operation Daybreak.

Surrounded in a church crypt with water rising the two remaining SOE agents embrace each other and shoot themselves. Gets me every time.

For those who havent seen it its a superb film.

TT

But the Most Laughable is the “Helicopter” in “Where eagles dare” , they go to all the trouble of finding a Ju52, only to put a chopper in the castle, LOL:D
I could go on, 633sqn Me108???, etc etc ,

That stuff isn’t any worse than the Merlin-powered Nazis in Battle of Britain…
or the post-war planes in the background of Dambusters or the
Widgeon in Eye of the Needle.
At least in Where Eagles Dare, the Bell 47 (ff. December 1945) is closer to WWII than the Westland product (ff. 1955 …albeit based on wartime American design, the Sikorsky H-5).

You’ve got to cut film makers some slack.

Though I’ve got to admit the yellow Cessna T-50s (Crane, UC-78) as Japanese bombers in
PT-109 is a bit fun.:D

“…as for tears, schindlers list did my head in. Raph Finnes is utterly beyond redemption, pure evil, that red dress at the camp. Ghastly business, leaves me cold and exhausted.

You beat me to it BSG-75. Powerful stuff.

Sad – As the U-boat finally slips under the water following the air raid in Das Boot.

Funny – almost everything in Memphis Belle (IMHO)

Kellys heros i cry every time at oddball, woof woof woof.

“Hey listen Babe, I’m gonna hung up and I need fifty feet of bridge”

I know its a comedy but its gets me every time…… as for tears, schindlers list did my head in. Raph Finnes is utterly beyond redemption, pure evil, that red dress at the camp. Ghastly business, leaves me cold and exhausted.

battle of britain with “come in blue 2″…… goose bumps

Both from the Battle of Britain for me:

Funny: “Bump-see-daisy! It’s enough to make you weep!”

Sad: The bit after Squadron Leader Canfield is shot down. They show his dog all sad. 🙁

Paul

I think it’s ‘Where Eagles Dare’ that made me smile….. The Nazis fly a Bell 47 helicopter ! (‘Might have been a Schweizer, but still rather modern)

‘The Way to the Stars’. Cry – that John Pudney poem always gets me. Also laugh -John Mills in the funniest proposal ever ‘what I mean to say is… do you think you could take on 45 shillings?’ 😀

I always think the penultimate scene in The Dambusters is very poignant, when you see the alarm clock quietly ticking on the shelf, sports memorabilia, and other bits of personal stuff in the quiet, empty rooms of the crew who aren’t coming back. Understated, but cleverly done and says it all.

B of B,

I laugh and cry at what a mess they made of those……………

BUTT Ugly Buchon 109’s!!!:D:D:D

:p Daz

I cannot agree more moggy!

WF

Most moving for me was a TV programme that Alec Guinness caused to be made called ‘Foreign Field’

It was launched around the 50th anniversary of D-Day and recounts the story of two veterans (One Brit, one American) going back to Normandy to seek out a girl they met in 1944.

Very funny all the way through until the real tear-jerker scene with Lauren Bacall at the very end.

Gets me every time, and I must have watched it on or around D-Day every year for the past 15 years.

Absolute funniest though – ‘Over Here’

Moggy

The Malta Story gets me every time when the almost afloat Ohio is dragged into Grand Harbour lashed between two destroyers, especially as I believe it’s film of the actual event and not a re-creation. Without that tanker Malta was lost.

Funniest is difficult but probably any where a Wellington takes off, a Stirling carries out the bombing raid and a Halifax lands back at base. Adjust aeroplanes to match the particular film.

Saving private ryan makes me cry at least three times.Funniest has to be Airplane! …not strictly a war film other than some flashbacks but all in all the second funniest film ever made.

[and the first is…..of course Life of Brian]

Kellys heros i cry every time at oddball, woof woof woof.