War Movies have lost some of their appeal recently...

Watching Crimson Tide the other day I realized how many holes in the understanding of military procedure and process filmmakers are required to have in order to make an entertaining film.

Films like Top Gun, Behind Enemy Lines, Crimson Tide, and Enemy of the State (while almost exclusively directed by Tony Scott or starring Gene Hackman) were huge blockbuster hits in their day on the big screen, and enjoy an avid following amongst film fans.

However, they all lack a decidedly fundamental element of military protocol: military discipline.
Having a taste of the training and expectations that soldiers and seamen will undergo before being placed in a live combat situation makes these films seem ludicrous.
Soldiers, acting under the stress of combat, get into fistfights in the chow hall, cowboy pilots launch footballs off of the carrier deck and buzz the control tower at the air field.

Such behavior is beyond comprehension in a live combat situation. To have troops that would so willingly abandon all discipline and bearing "because they are stressed" would mean a comical and disastrous wartime scenario anytime our soldiers were deployed overseas.

So while these films are fun to watch, if I have to watch one more sonar operator screaming into his headset to "dive! dive!" I might have to pitch the TV out of the window.


On another note:

Filmmaker James Cameron (most famous for his Titanic debacle) may take a place of honor as one of the worst dialogue writers of the last 25 years. George Lucas remains the king of this mountain, but Cameron's insipid scenes in films like Aliens and the Abyss make you wonder what cave Cameron was living in to think that these were normal human interactions.

(Aside: Cameron's marines in the film Aliens are another perfect example of the ridiculous over-ripe commando-type character that lampoons the warrior type. It wouldn't be quite so bad if it weren't for Bill Paxton's character, who has an IQ just above wet lettuce.)

So James Cameron and Tony Scott: I salute you and laugh at you simultaneously. You have made some great blockbuster films which are fun to watch, and help us to believe that Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are founding fathers of America's cinematic vision of heroism.

T.