The Battle of Britain, er, "remake"

Nooooooo, it can't be so! When I heard that they were going to do a remake of the classic Battle of Britain I couldn't hide my excitement! I thought to myself, with the fantastic CGI they can do these days they should be able to make one stonker of an update. Although the original cast was top notch, I find the battle sequences to be badly dated. Not only that, but they couldn't include a lot of the German models of aircraft that took part through lack of availability. Now though, with the help of CGI they could finally show the BOB as it really was! But no, I was shocked to hear the other day that it wont be a remake of the original all encompassing Brits/Allies vs Nazi Germany flick, but rather another Hollywood "Ben Affleck/Americans win the battle for those poor dumb Brits" propaganda movie based on just 7 US pilots who took part in the BOB!

Nothing against those seven pilots, but they were a mere pin prick on the events of the battle, and represented almost the lowest statistics of international pilots on our side, with the RAF and Polish making up the bulk. So why, for once, doesn't Hollywood tell it as it was and give credit where credit's due in their "history lessons", by telling people who were responsible for keeping the Nazi's at bay long enough for the US to decide to come into the war? Remember all, if Hitler had taken over Britain, then the US would have eventually lost the war too.

So, to those who believe this is not just another film like U-571 that attempts to rewrite Americans as the saviours of the day, this battle was called The Battle of Britain for a reason, and I'm sure most Americans will agree with this....I hope.

And if American audiences want to always see an American big name in the cast, why not have at least one or two playing Brits, like Gregory Peck played Brits in some of his films?

On finishing, what do you all think is wrong with Hollywood, where they even feel the need to make Americans the big heroes of a battle that Americans had practically NOTHING to do with? As things are looking, I can see this film turning out to be a right stinker rather than a right stonker!

 

Hollywood has a long tradition of this. I believe that Errol Flynn won the Burma campaign despite no American troops taking part in it in reality.

 

Don't forget that WWI movie that just came out, which was apparently about the only Americans in that entire war.

 

If you're refereing to Flyboys, that movie is at least semi-accurate in the sense that there actually was a fighter squadron in the French Air Force called the Lafyette Escadrille that was composed of mainly American pilots.

 

Which is made even more ironic as he is Tasmanian, who usually puts on a British accent, who in that particular film, it playing an American.


But yes, X-Wing-Ace, I couldn't agree more. I hadn't heard of this 'remake', but oh my god does it sound terrible. I *love* the original - great cast, great execution, although the story meanders somewhat - and I would absolutely, ABSOLUTELY hate to see it be ruined by an awful Americanised remake.

I remember at the end of the original they have a list of all pilots who helped defend Britain by nationality. Those seven US pilots were really the only seven US pilots in the entire campaign, as compared to 80 Canadians, 87 Czechoslavakians, 145 Poles, 98 New Zealanders, and 21 Australians. Not to mention the 2440 British who took part.


EDIT: I just did a google search and I couldn't find any information about this remake. Not on IMDB, or Wikipedia. Care for a link?

 

I'm sorry I can't do better, but it's getting very late here and the monitor's going all big and small on me. I have however found this LINK on Wiki with a tiny bit of info about it. It's called "The Few" and stars that loon Tom Cruise. It seems he wants to trade in his Tomcat for a Spitfire or Hurricane!

 

It may be a remake of "The First of the Few", then.

 

Cruise? Ugh.

I assume the title is a play on the Churchill speech, then? Which is even more ironic, as he was talking about the British Empire...

 

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. But then, in his early career he did have the "best of the best BIG headed lttle ponce" act down pretty much perfect, what with his best Tomcat pilot, best pool player, best US football player, best stockcar driver, best lawyer, best secret agent etc. Now he'll get to show all us poor useless Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians and Euros how to really win WWII! Duh, duh...DUH, it's Captain Cruise to save the day!!! Then again, it could have been worse, that travesty to history one Jerry Bruckheimer could have made the movie! I wonder if Cruise will get to do one of his infamous paddies in the film, throwing things all over the place, jumping up and down and screaming like a big girl?

Yes, I'd say it is a play on his famous BOB speech. Although, Hollywood should be reminded that Churchill was talking about ALL the pilots in the BOB, and not just 7 Americans.

 

There were more Australians. Cast Russell Crowe.

 

That would be interesting, actually. Crowe doing his Master-and-Commander act would make the film very decent, I think.

 

You forget we can't remember our own history, and Hollywood needs to tell us again how we came to the rescue and killed Hitler all by ourselves. Telling us how both the US and Britain waited years before landing at Normandy so the Russians to take on Hitler for a few years so we could march across Europe doesn't quite pack the hero worship we crave. If you think the latest American movies about WWII in Europe were bad, you should just be thankful you didn't fight as much in the Pacific. In the war we did win, we make horrible movies like Pearl Harbor with stupid love stories and modern battleships being blown up. You can't forget "Windtalkers" where we rounded up all the Indians we didn't kill in the past 2 centuries and force them to be bad actors with already bad special effects and stupid John Travolta.

 

It's simply a matter of mistrusting the audience. The suits think that Americans wouldn't be interested in movies not about Americans, which is both stupid and not true.