It's called the Battle of Britain for a reason, Hollywood!

[lyore]

From Variety magazine, about the new Tom Cruise movie The Few -

"In 1940, expert German fighters had decimated the Royal Air Force to the point that there weren't enough pilots left to fly the Spitfire planes sitting idly in hangars," it said. "Unable to rouse the US into action, a desperate Winston Churchill hatched a covert effort to recruit civilian American pilots to join the RAF. Risking prison sentences in the then-neutral US, a ragtag bunch of pilots answered the call." The magazine also looked forward to "ferocious dogfights between the overmatched American pilots and the German ace fliers"

Wow. Isn't it lucky for the Brits that Tom Cruise came to save the day *gag*

For the record - according to the official records, there were 2986 guys who served in the RAF during the period known as the Battle of Britian. 9 were American. Which, if my calculations are correct, is about 0.003065% of the 'good guys'. Those American aces must have been really great - except for the minor detail that the real-life version of the Billy Fiske (TC's character) didn't shoot down a single plane. For that matter, they didn't even get the type of plane right.

I guess Winston Churchill really meant it when he said "Never was so much owed by so many to so few."

For a UK perspective of the new movie, try this article - http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/news/article55566.ece

My favourite bit - Hollywood's version of the Second World War has already shown Americans capturing the Enigma code machine in U571 (they didn't) and leading The Great Escape from a German prisoner of war camp (also not true). Pearl Harbor even suggested that the RAF only thwarted the Luftwaffe in the summer of 1940 because US pilots popped across the Atlantic to help out. Now Mr Cruise looks set to expand on that with his own version of what Churchill called our "finest hour"

That sound? Is me banging my head against the wall.

Comments

[ashavah]

But doncha know no war story's worth telling if the Americans weren't the stars and didn't Save the World? And if the story's not worth telling by that criterion, then darnit, Hollywood won't let truth get in the way of a good story, what?

Pchah. (That's me making a dismissive noise.) Hollywood, plz to keep out of my area of interest. You've already messed up my major. *coughGladiatorcough*

[lyore.livejournal.com]

Hollywood won't let truth get in the way of a good story

Which reminds me of my favourite line from.. well, somewhere, I don't remember "Never let the truth get in the way of a good opinion." Or, in this case, never let Historical Accuracy get in the way of a good movie. With the value of 'good' being debatable, in this case.

And you should see my reactions to some of the scientific bullshit people come out with in movies. Not a pretty sight :)

But I liked Gladiator, dammit!

[ashavah]

So did I, to an extent. But historically accurate it ain't.