Battle of britain, was apparently won by the americans

[may18]

Reposted from another forum, i know its the mail..and therefore to be taken with apinch of salt..but it wouldnt surprise me if its true


If there is one thing I despise - its movies re-writing history. I don't care who's re-writing it & for who's benefit.

To follow the liberties taken in U-571, Braveheart, The Patriot, Pearl Harbor & Saving Private Ryan (Amongst others) comes The Few...

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"September 17, 2003

Echoing the criticisms made of "U-571", some RAF veterans of World War 2 and the Battle of Britain in particular are criticizing Tom Cruise's latest announced project, "The Few":

Some members of the Royal Air Force are blasting Cruise, saying he is trying to hijack history and give Americans credit for winning the Battle of Britain. Fiske was killed when he crash-landed his plane, and he is not credited with downing any German planes, but according to reports, the film will turn him into a key figure in the battle.

"I'm appalled," Air Commodore Sir Archie Winskill, 86, told Londons Mail on Sunday. "We were alone and on the brink of disaster but we stopped the German air force and probably the invasion of Britain. There were no American squadrons and only the odd American pilot."

"Hollywood can go and take a dip in the drink," said 603 Squadron's Gerald Stapleton. It is an outrage."

"Guess Cruise won the War" read a headline in the London Daily Star.

The controversy echoes the outrage expressed by some Brits who felt that "Saving Private Ryan" downplayed their role in D-Day.

Cruise's rep says the actor's critics have it all wrong, but her explanation isn't likely to placate them -- and it will probably infuriate historical purists. Turns out that the screenwriters for "The Few" are creating a composite character for Cruise who combines the heroic actions of a number of people. "Tom Cruise is not planning to portray the character of Fiske in the film," the spokeswoman tells The Scoop. "He will portray a new character who will be an amalgam of several other characters." "

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Yesterday's Daily Mail also spends two pages on the proposed film.

It alarms me because, sadly, far more people 'learn' their 'history' from movies today than from reading books or watching documentaries.

Admittedly, the film isn't finished yet & could be an accurate portrayal of Billy Fiske's life & the American contribution to the Battle Of Britain.

But I think there's more chance of seeing German bombers being escorted by flying pigs.

Finally, this post is in no way meant to reflect badly upon Billy Fiske or his American colleagues who contributed to the Battle.

It is more a case of keeping things in perspective.

Nation Pilots/Killed

British + Unk 2,423/408
Australian 21/14
New Zealand 103/14
Canadian 90/20
South African 21/9
Sth Rhodesian 2/-
Jamaican 1/-
Irish 9/-
American 7/1
Polish 141/29
Czech 86/8
Belgian 29/6
Free French 13/-
Palestinian 1/-
Total 2945/507

[Jason The Argonaut]

May 18, I saw and read stuff about this last week, what can you say. I fill that most American directors are uneducated or don't care for world history. I know that they have to have American hero’s in their films, but they should just choose the right films for them.

Thats my penny's worth.

[Frank S.]

This reminds me of an article I read in a major newspaper here, some years back. The article denied that there ever was a French resistance movement during WWII, stating that this was government propaganda to alleviate French national shame, blah-blah-blah.
There was no retraction later as there were no letters of protest.
The vast majority of Americans learn about politics by watching late night comedy shows where the host (usually a stand up comic) opens with some jokes based on news headlines.
A news headline turned into another one-liner (drum roll, move on to the next).
Political candidates announce their candidacy on such shows: Schwarzenegger on Jay Leno's show, Bill Clinton played the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall show, etc, etc.

When the movie "platoon" came out in 1986, much of the (admittedly younger) crowds interviewed revealed they thought that Vietnam was a fictional war, seen only in the movies. Many (most?) didn't know it was part of modern history, much less that it lasted ten years.

The movie business is all about the 'suspension of disbelief', and at times even serves as historical exposes ('saving private Ryan', 'the patriot', 'Pearl Harbour', etc.) It's all a bunch of bollocks, but for the younger generations (majority of movie-going public), it becomes Gospel.
Consider that prior to Gulf War II, most of the Americans who supported the action were under 30. "Older" folks were more leery.

Seems to me this new Cruise project will serve to reinforce the notion people have here that we in America are out to save the world single-handedly from tyranny with examples of self-sacrifice.
Ironically, this also detracts from true American heroes who did just that in real life without fanfare or medals.


Just another example of Weapons of Mass Deception.

[Wholley]

Frank,
Jeez your good!
How's the injury?
Wholley.

[lew]

this really annoys me!!! One day when everyone who knows what happened is dead gone and forgotten young people will look to such films to write their history essays and learn about what happened. Then they will write tom cruise, Mel Gibson etc defeated the enemy single headedly and got the girl


One day I hope one of these so called actors will stand up for what’s true, but like that’s ever going to happen, so i personally will be boycotting the film as will all my friends and family, guys and girls on the forum, i call for you all to do the same!!!!


Same goes for the new Italian job film!!!! AHRRRR!!! Yanks...


lew

[Frank S.]

Wholley, thanks for asking: almost two weeks now and the bastard shoulder still hurts but is manageable. I think I'm now paying interest on old injuries, aging's a b#tch....

Lew, I think there's some light at the end of that tunnel. We are on the tail end of the blockbuster phenomenon. If you look at the numbers, lately most so-called blockbusters open strong (though not as strong as studios hope) only to be unseated the following weekend by the next big movie, and on and on it goes. The problem is content: blockbusters are visually exciting but the public seems to want a longer 'high' from the experience.

If you listen relatively closely to movie trailers, you will hear recycled music (I don't know just how many times I've heard the score for "gladiator" or "saving private Ryan" used, or the occasional top 40 tune, which is used for public recognition only in the trailer, but is not part of the movie score). In other words, there really isn't anything new on the Western front of movies. Same goes for story-lines.

Take a fairly 'hot' director/producer like Steven Soderbergh (sp?), all his flicks are 'remakes' and sometimes inferior to the original:
Solaris, Traffic (from a two part British TV movie), etc.

One (slim) hope I have is that some filmmakers will emerge from the US military personnel currently deployed. Sam Fuller was a WWII vet and made "the big red one", and there are other examples. Hollywood needs a serious infusion of real people instead of the current crop of Boy-Toys and Toys-for-Boys. Real people with things to say.

Tom Cruise is a good actor, actually, and a shrewd businessman, but what the hell does he know really?

[Wholley]

Lew,
Mel Gibson is'nt a YANK(there you go again)He's from down under just pretending to be a YANK cause he can make more money here.Stop heaping us all together,or I'll be calling you all Limey's.
Get my drift?
Wholley.

[Frank S.]

Actually, Mel Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York on 3 January 1956. His family moved to Australia, but he is American.

[JR]

There is a saying amongst the 'Old and Bold'.There are lies,dammed lies,and US War Movies.Aye JR

[lew]

wholley I remember you saying a while ago that you were born in Britain, so like it or not American citizen ship or not your British, call me a limey if you like, I don’t really care, what annoys me is that the American movie business changes history to suit America, (good timing to isn’t it, whilst America is slowly being dragged into a long haul in Iraq a new film comes out that will boost the American public support of the military)… And sod the people that actually took part init.

Limey or not wholley I’m bred from a country of island going warriors, and it pisses me off to see our history be discarded in a 3hr movie


Frank s I know there has been allot of angst between France and America but saying the French resistance was just proper gander is in excusable...


lew

[Wholley]

I just LOVE a good conspiracy.
Don't Y'all
Wholley.

[Frank S.]

Lew, there are many such examples of 'revisionist' history such as the one I mentioned. That one was witten about ten years ago.
I don't feel particularly 'outraged' by it, mostly because I expect it, kind of like I expect death and taxes as unpleasant certainties.

One of my uncles (an a-hole, actually) was with the French communist resistance and later went into local politics on that platform. Funny thing about him, he was as communist as George Bush is. In other words, just an opportunist. And my mother was deported to a work camp in Germany under suspiscion of supporting the resistance near Paris in the last year of the war (she was 16 or 17). She assembled Telefunken radio sets with other prisoners...

[Frank S.]

Movies and war... I like to think of it in terms of propaganda more than anything else.
Wholley, do you remember back in 99, I think it was, just before Clinton announced we were sending our military to Kosovo, NBC changed its Saturday night line up for a special presentation.

Drum roll, please...

"Saving Private Ryan", uncut without commercial breaks, introduced by Steven Spielberg. That was pretty much unheard of.
As well, when we look at the cost of war, we should take into account the millions spent on consultations with public relations firms and think tank PhDs which in turn lead to commercials, TV series, etc.
Remember the girl who testified to witnessing Iraqi soldiers removing premature babies from hospital incubators in Kuwait, prior to the first Gulf War?
Made up.
There are other good reasons to justify war, but when you have to convince a public with a shorter attention span, it helps greatly to 'sex things up'.
In his speech aboard the aircraft carrier last March (?), Bush declared we had removed an ally of Al Qaeda. Today he and Rumsfeld and Rice state that there's no evidence of Iraqi involvement in 9/11. I wonder where did 70% of the American public get the idea that Iraq and Hussein had been involved?
I'm willing to bet that when they make a movie about Gulf War II, Hussein will be played by a French guy.

[voodoo sprout]

I agree with most of what has been said, but what exactly is to be done? The problem is that hollywood will make anything that sells, and Americans at the moment want to see America saving the world so that's what Hollywood makes. Perhap one possibility would be to bolt on a short documentary on the back (or beginning?) of these things, showing the viewers what really happened, maybe giving both entertainment and balanced education, without even geting off your seat .

[Frank S.]

Interesting tidbit for conspiracy theorists:
Q: who is the FCC chairman? (the FCC is the Federal Communication Commission, the agency which regulates television, emergency telecommunications and other media outlets, controlling what we see and hear and how)
A: Michael Powell.
Q: who is Michael Powell's father?
A: secretary of state Colin Powell.

Nice democracy we've got...



Voodoo, the only solution I see is to play the 'game' and make enough money to retire to some God-forsaken island far from the nutbags, with a margarita in one hand and a senorita in the other....