I wonder if the German Goverment might contribute to the fundrasing, considering it is their heritage being revived?

Sky high, if you’re standing a round, make mine a pint.

Lots of WWII veterans I’ve talked with called it the ‘drome by the way.

If he’d have done a fictional account a la Memphis Belle, fine. As it claims to represent the actions of a real unit, sorry, I don’t agree a lazy or expotaitive script that short changes the audience and the real subject is excused. We are allowed to differ.

Wasn’t Memphis Belle depicting a real unit, and alledged to be depicting a real event (even though the entire crew names and personalities were different, as was the target and the mission, and as Robert Morgan said, if he’d had a single mission with that much trouble in it, he’d have probably died of a heart attack).

Interesting point. Richard III was a piece of pure Lancastrian propaganda

Yes, we now know he never murdered his nephews as the old story went. One grew up to become King Richard IV, and he had two sons, Harry and Edmund…. 😉

Fair comment on the workload of CGI, and I was careful to acknowledge that good CGI can be a great, accurate enhancement of a film, but too often the ‘overcrank’ expectation spoils that work.

I read last night that a lot of the amazing Mustang strafing scene in Empire of the Sun was done with CGI and models. I never realised that till now. I knew the B-29 was a model and the Zero that exploded, but they had six Mustang models and six Zero models.

As to ‘bad’ model work, a palm to 633 Squadron‘s right-hand turns in a fjord

Personally I find the script, acting and dialogue rubbish too on that film. It’s the Mosquitos alone that convinced me to purchase the DVD.

The most dreadful aspect of that film Pearl Harbor in my opinion is that before the release the makers did some publicity that talked it up as being such an important film as they were finally telling the story of what really happened (as if they’d never heard of the far better Tora, Tora, Tora and several other films on the event). And it mentioned how many of the top actors and crew had waivered their fees or taken massive pay cuts so that the money could be put into ensuring accuracy, as it was so important to them that they got it right for the veterans who were eager to see it. I think All involved should have been ‘struck off’ for gross misconduct.

I have noted a few people here and on Wix who seem to think it’s a wonderful film with great flying scenes and story. I really pity their lack of worldly experience and knowledge of history.

The B-17 fuselage, that was only going to be a cockpit to start with, was built and fitted out with as much equipment as I could get my hands on.

I was wondering this the other day and this seems like as good a time as any to ask – does the replica B-17 fuselage that was used for filming Memphis Belle still exist? Some years ago it was an attraction at Movieworld in Australia but a mate went there a few weeks back and when I asked about it he said he never saw it. He’s a big aviation fan too so would have noticed it.

James, you mention that Australia has never had colonies. Do you realise that originally when British settlement was established in New Zealand it was run as a colony of New South Wales, with all orders and administration coming from there? That is before the Treaty of Waitangi saw NZ set up as an independent Dominion of Great Britain. Also, this I don’t know the exact terminology for, but were Papua New Guinea, New Britain, Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Island all under Australian administration in a colonial fashion? Whilst looking for something else entirely on papers past last night I spotted a 1930’s headline on Norfolk Island. As I am interested in the history of that place I took a look and found that the place was struggling so badly the population was dropping dramatically, and the people of the island were asking for admisitration to be taken away from Australia and passed to New Zealand. It somewhat surprised me, I never realised the depression hit them so hard, nor that they had tried to break ties with their Australian masters. It obviously never happened, and luckily for them the war came along, an airfield was put in by the kiwis, and they never looked back.

Something that may or may not be relevant to this rather argumentative thread. This afternoon on Radio New Zealand National the film reviewer was talking about the new Planet of the Apes film. He stated he’d seen the trailer a while back and thought the CGI looked appaulling, but now that he’s seen the film itself he said they had rendered the CGI much more and he reckoned it was astoundingingly good, which surprised him. So, those who are saying that what you see in a trailer is what you’ll get may not be correct.