Ray’s good mate Keith Skilling carries on the tradition with his displays, in my opinion he has taken over the mantle from Ray as the greatest. You guys who miss that wonderful flying need to get down to NZ and see some of the flying here.

A wonderful thing about Ray Hanna is despite living on the other side of the world and only flying one or two shows here a year he actually became a household name here in his native country, NZ, and not just with the airshow goers. So many people who have never had an interest in Warbirds seemed to know who he was or at least had heard of him, maybe because of his film work. When he passed away he was featured on the evening news shows here, something I can’t recall ever happening for any other kiwi pilot unless they died in a crash! We miss him and Mark.

As far as the RAF are concerned, the early years of the war reflected the pre-war weekend fliers, many of whom were university students. They were just as dead when they were killed. As the airforce expanded, the catchment widened. In a large part, the war was directed and won by a bunch of people with, as you term them, ‘posh’, ‘..poncey, clipped’,…voices. Such perjorative terms are simply a display of ignorance. Sure, some spoke a little differently….and so..??? If that’s you’re criteria, then you are going to miss out on a lot of awfully good films. After all, cunning linguists made a huge contribution to winning the war.

You really need to read before you post. Why are you picking up on me as someone who won’t watch because the accents are wrong? It is others saying that, I’m saying I don’t give a hoot if they use more generally acceptable accents. I won’t be missing anything, unlike the accent snobs.

The real question has to be, how many remakes are better than the originals?

By far, Sir Peter’s version of King Kong was miles better than both previous big screen versions. Also another I feel is better as a remake is The Lady Vanishes. The original is still good but the remake was excellent. There are in fact many examples of better remakes. There are many that are rubbish too. You cannot sweepingly say they are all one or the other.

I think that because Gibson didn’t survive the war, or have any children (that I’m aware) there is a danger that the man can be portrayed any which way, as there is no one “looking out” for him.

Not true in this case. Les Munro is the technical consultant on the film. He knew Gibson well enough and when I talked with him about Gibson he felt that sure he could be a bit hot headed a lot of the reputation was not true. So i am sure that Les will be looking out for him, and I’m sure Sir peter and the team will not go out of their way to denegrate Gibson for the sake of it.

What’s this about Robert Morgan? :confused:

If you’re going to all get so uptight over accents in this film, surely that means most British period dramas are wrong too. Anything set in medieval or Roman times would be speaking completely different languages. You must be continually yelling at your TV sets in your clipped posh 1940’s voices!

Language and accents evolve through the ages as we know, but very few makers of drama and films recognise this becausae it is not the important thing in the message they are putting across. Even in the hallowed Battle of Britain film we see a squadron commander with a cockney accent!! I’m sure that would never have done in the 1940 RAF. He’d never have been commissioned. It just wouldn’t do to have a cockney in the Officer’s Mess! Does anyone actually care about that? Nope. Because he was a good actor and played the part well.

Frankly if the accents are not quite right in Dambusters I really won’t give a flying whatsit. I just want to see it made. And I think it would be better for a modern audience to not have the discomfort of listening to the poncey clipped voices of the RAF upper echelon in the 1940’s. This is not being made just for 90-100 year olds to get all nostalgic over the way they used to talk (or didn’t in most cases), it is for younger generations, the type who will be put right off by the kind of accents your are promoting because they are not used to hearing them. I’d prefer the film was appealling and popular to a very wide audience rather than just a few uptight linguists.

For whoever it was that asked as to why it has been delayed, it is down to the fact that The Hobbit which is being produced by Wingnut Studios has had major probalems in production. it was delayed a long time with various issues and then the director who was to make it left the project. At that time Sir Peter Jackson was planning to finish Tintin and make Dambusters, but he had to step into the breach to save the Hobbit films, which delayed Tintin and really delayed Dambusters. Then The Hobbit suffered industrial action too. Things are all sorted now, they are filming the Hobbit films right now, and Tintin is out. So hopefully it won’t be too long before this project is picked up again. And yes there are replicas, they exist.

I am wondering if anything might happen regarding filming in June if the Canadian Lancaster actually makes it to the UK for the unveiling of the Bomber Command memorial. There’s a campaign running right now to get the Lancaster there. I wouldn’t hold my breath though.

And, as I posted earlier, do remember that George Lucas has specifically said that he intends that “modern cinema-going audience” to consist largely of teenage boys, particularly African-American boys. That’s for whom the film was made, not us.

Last night I watched Captain America. Yes it’s pure fantasy escapism and nonsense (and a pretty crap film to boot), but it too is obviously aimed at that same US young teenaged boys audience and is also set in WWII. There needs to be a very distinct line between total jingoistic fantasy like Captain America and a true historical film, so those young, naive cinema goers are aware of what was real and what was not. However by the sounds of it this Red Tails film blurs the boundary and I think that’s simply the wrong approach to take.

When I was a young teenaged boy I was reading true stories of WWII men and campaigns and I was watching accurate films too. It never harmed me at all and it built up the great interest and respect I have now for the period and people involved. Why should the modern boys be fed nonsense in the films they get dished up and told it’s all based on fact? I think it is the sign of a poor film maker if he cannot tell an interesting factual story without beefing it up with fantasy, and also disrespectful to the people involved in the real story.

Here in NZ we have:

The 75th Anniversary celbrations of the Royal New Zealand Air Force

The return to flight of Spitfire XIVe NH799

The Mosquito

The Anson I

Who knows what will roll ot of The Vintage Aviator’s workshops

The Air Force Museum of New Zealand’s P-40E should likely be finished this year I’d think, and maybe their Oxford too?

I just hope it’s another safe year for the airshow circuit, we had enough tragedy yesterday with eleven dead to last us all year.

Very nice photo Mike. I’m looking forward to the DH Comet here in NZ taking flight.