Aviation Movies - your top 5?

"Tom Conner" wrote

I mentioned it in another thread. I rented it after watching The Aviator,
and it is a good movie. The DVD restoration has great quality, and it
even
has the 10 minute intermission on the DVD. I guess people couldn't sit
still for 2 hours back then.

They had to rewind and switch reels, back then. They did not have the
"platter reel" system, then.
--
Jim in NC

("Morgans" wrote)
The DVD restoration has great quality, and it even has the 10 minute
intermission on the DVD. I guess people couldn't sit still for 2 hours
back then.

They had to rewind and switch reels, back then. They did not have the
"platter reel" system, then.


The boost, during intermission, in the concession stand take was a nice
bonus.

http://www.filmack.com/qttrailers/newLArgeFilmack/4-Lobby_Darker.mov
"Let's Go Out To The Lobby, Let's Go Out To The Lobby, Let's Go Out To The
Lobby and Get Ourselves A Treat!"


Montblack :-)

news.ozemail.com.au wrote:
I want to stock up on some aviation themed videos. Would anyone want to
volunteer their top five aviation movies? Mine a

1. Top Gun.
2. Angels One 5.
3. Memphis Bell.
4. Air America.
5. The Blue Max.

Most aviation related movies have a war theme but there must be interesting
non military movies or documentaries with realistic flying action.

1. Dambusters.
2. Battle of Britain. Try watching the DVD with the original Walton
full score and it's just not the same!

3. Strategic Air Command. Just for the B-36s and B-47s and having lived
next to RAF Brize Norton, getting past the guards and playing there as a
kid in SAC days. I love the honest scripting about the crewman whining
about being called up and preferring to run his own business.

4. 1000 Plane Raid. Highlights are the B-17 buzzing the airfield, no
CGI in that clip and a wingtip not far from the runway. Funny bit is
the Spitfire pilot in the dodgy bubble canopy. Memories of watching it
in Brize base's cinema and a B-47 revving up its engines just outside
the place so everyone leaning forward to listen better!

5. For Those In Peril - and other smaller films with various aircraft
clips in, such as the Walrus in this film.


Richard.

--
Two updates tools for 3D Studio Max
http://www.kdbanglia.com/maxtools.html

In article ,
Richard Brooks wrote:

news.ozemail.com.au wrote:
I want to stock up on some aviation themed videos. Would anyone want to
volunteer their top five aviation movies? Mine a

1. Top Gun.
2. Angels One 5.
3. Memphis Bell.
4. Air America.
5. The Blue Max.

Most aviation related movies have a war theme but there must be interesting
non military movies or documentaries with realistic flying action.

1. Dambusters.
2. Battle of Britain. Try watching the DVD with the original Walton
full score and it's just not the same!

3. Strategic Air Command. Just for the B-36s and B-47s and having lived
next to RAF Brize Norton, getting past the guards and playing there as a
kid in SAC days. I love the honest scripting about the crewman whining
about being called up and preferring to run his own business.

4. 1000 Plane Raid. Highlights are the B-17 buzzing the airfield, no
CGI in that clip and a wingtip not far from the runway. Funny bit is
the Spitfire pilot in the dodgy bubble canopy. Memories of watching it
in Brize base's cinema and a B-47 revving up its engines just outside
the place so everyone leaning forward to listen better!

5. For Those In Peril - and other smaller films with various aircraft
clips in, such as the Walrus in this film.


Richard.

The above, plus:

12 O'Clock High

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Wings

The Great Waldo Pepper

("GB" wrote)
http://www.filmack.com/qttrailers/newLArgeFilmack/4-Lobby_Darker.mov
"Let's Go Out To The Lobby, Let's Go Out To The Lobby, Let's Go Out To
The Lobby and Get Ourselves A Treat!"

"Oh Saa-aaan-deee, kan't you see, I'm a misery..."


Hey, it bought him a jet! :-)

http://www.destinationhollywood.com/movies/grease/quickclip_03.shtml
"Oh Saa-aaan-deee, kan't you see, I'm [in] misery..."

http://www.destinationhollywood.com/movies/grease/quickclip_02.shtml
ONJ. Mmm.....!!!!

http://www.destinationhollywood.com/movies/grease/quickclip_10.shtml
What the heck. More ONJ.
Until I saw the movie, I thought it was HER singing the entire song - I
didn't know it was a duet. Oops, sorry John.

JT's first plane was a 1946 Ercoupe. He owned it for 5 years.


Montblack
http://www.aviation-antiques.com/jon-bio.html
"He later sold the Ercoupe to a kid who had just moved to Los Angeles. The
kid was a low time pilot and would only buy the plane on the condition that
dad checked him out and gave him some lessons. The kid was John Travolta,
well before he became famous!"

http://home.flash.net/~dmprosvc/dave/west.htm
"I traded a nice '65 Mustang convertible for N-87112 in 1993. The Mustang
was in much better shape than the airplane. Restoration of the 'Coupe was
finished in 1996. Along the way, I learned through a title search that
N-87112 was previously owned by actor/dancer/pilot, John Travolta. He had
the plane for almost five years and it was his first. The Ercoupe is
mentioned in his biography entitled, "Travolta!". I was also able to obtain
several pictures of Mr. Travolta with the plane circa 1973. This is a sweet
airplane. It really is a delight to fly, especially here in Arizona with the
canopy down."

http://www.ercoupe.net/PhotoAlbum.html (N87112)
1946 Ercoupe Model 415C/D, serial no. 285, C-85, manufactured, January 17,
1946

"As a side, my Ercoupe was John Travolta's first airplane. He owned it for
almost five years. I have 10 pics of him with the plane back in the
early/mid 70's."

Orval Fairbairn wrote:
In article ,
Richard Brooks wrote:


news.ozemail.com.au wrote:

I want to stock up on some aviation themed videos. Would anyone want to
volunteer their top five aviation movies? Mine a

1. Top Gun.
2. Angels One 5.
3. Memphis Bell.
4. Air America.
5. The Blue Max.

Most aviation related movies have a war theme but there must be interesting
non military movies or documentaries with realistic flying action.

1. Dambusters.
2. Battle of Britain. Try watching the DVD with the original Walton
full score and it's just not the same!

3. Strategic Air Command. Just for the B-36s and B-47s and having lived
next to RAF Brize Norton, getting past the guards and playing there as a
kid in SAC days. I love the honest scripting about the crewman whining
about being called up and preferring to run his own business.

4. 1000 Plane Raid. Highlights are the B-17 buzzing the airfield, no
CGI in that clip and a wingtip not far from the runway. Funny bit is
the Spitfire pilot in the dodgy bubble canopy. Memories of watching it
in Brize base's cinema and a B-47 revving up its engines just outside
the place so everyone leaning forward to listen better!

5. For Those In Peril - and other smaller films with various aircraft
clips in, such as the Walrus in this film.


Richard.


The above, plus:

12 O'Clock High

Tora! Tora! Tora!

I'd bought both of those on DVD because they are special and Tora! Tora!
Tora! amazed me because of the half-point screen blackout for me to go
to the foyer and buy stuff - in my own home.


Wings

Wings I don't know but I will search that one out.

The Great Waldo Pepper

For me that's on par with The Blue Max and damn, we've taken it over the
five mark! ;-)

There are loads that are special in one way but maybe not worth the DVD
effort.

There's the film where a B-17 crew try to make it back to mainland I
think, after having to evacuate Pearl Harbor and hopping from island to
island looking for spare parts.

The Way To The Stars, The one I've seen a few times with John Wayne
(Late 1930s) and some Navy flyers meeting with officers at a party and
one of their planes crash lands on the grounds. There are a few like
that usually with two guys who can't stand each other and some gal comes
along and makes up the triangle.

Old age kills the brain cells!


Richard.


--
Two updates tools for 3D Studio Max
http://www.kdbanglia.com/maxtools.html

Richard Brooks wrote:
Orval Fairbairn wrote:

In article ,
Richard Brooks wrote:


news.ozemail.com.au wrote:

I want to stock up on some aviation themed videos. Would anyone
want to volunteer their top five aviation movies? Mine a

1. Top Gun.
2. Angels One 5.
3. Memphis Bell.
4. Air America.
5. The Blue Max.

Most aviation related movies have a war theme but there must be
interesting non military movies or documentaries with realistic
flying action.


1. Dambusters.
2. Battle of Britain. Try watching the DVD with the original Walton
full score and it's just not the same!

3. Strategic Air Command. Just for the B-36s and B-47s and having
lived next to RAF Brize Norton, getting past the guards and playing
there as a kid in SAC days. I love the honest scripting about the
crewman whining about being called up and preferring to run his own
business.

4. 1000 Plane Raid. Highlights are the B-17 buzzing the airfield, no
CGI in that clip and a wingtip not far from the runway. Funny bit is
the Spitfire pilot in the dodgy bubble canopy. Memories of watching
it in Brize base's cinema and a B-47 revving up its engines just
outside the place so everyone leaning forward to listen better!

5. For Those In Peril - and other smaller films with various
aircraft clips in, such as the Walrus in this film.


Richard.



The above, plus:

12 O'Clock High

Tora! Tora! Tora!


I'd bought both of those on DVD because they are special and Tora! Tora!
Tora! amazed me because of the half-point screen blackout for me to go
to the foyer and buy stuff - in my own home.


Wings


Wings I don't know but I will search that one out.


The Great Waldo Pepper


For me that's on par with The Blue Max and damn, we've taken it over the
five mark! ;-)

There are loads that are special in one way but maybe not worth the DVD
effort.

There's the film where a B-17 crew try to make it back to mainland I
think, after having to evacuate Pearl Harbor and hopping from island to
island looking for spare parts.

The Way To The Stars, The one I've seen a few times with John Wayne
(Late 1930s) and some Navy flyers meeting with officers at a party and
one of their planes crash lands on the grounds. There are a few like
that usually with two guys who can't stand each other and some gal comes
along and makes up the triangle.

Old age kills the brain cells!

[With apologies]


OHMYGOD - High Flight! How could I forget that old gem of RAF Cranwell
and a great excuse to show long air-to-air aerobatic shots with Vampire
and Hunter display teams.



Richard.




--
Two updates tools for 3D Studio Max
http://www.kdbanglia.com/maxtools.html

("Richard Brooks" wrote)
Wings I don't know but I will search that one out.


[Longish ...but fun movie flying stuff about Wings (1927)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_(movie)
"The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film
Registry."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018578/
Wings (1927) Silent film
"Two young men, one rich, one middle class, who are in love with the same
woman, become fighter pilots in World War I." (Duh! That's always the plot!
g)

[Trivia link]
In contrast to co-star Richard Arlen, 'Charles 'Buddy' Rogers did not know
how to fly a plane when production began, but he learned how to do so by the
end of it. In the close-up scenes where Jack and David (and other
characters) are flying, the actors are actually working the planes
themselves. To shoot these scenes, the actors had to get the plane up in the
air, keep it up, turn on the (motorized) camera and land the plane--and act
at the same time.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9076505
"Wings" Director - William Wellman's other films.

http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/online/wellmanextra.htm
Fun interview with the director, William Wellman. [snips]

"Wellman died on December 9, 1975, of Ieukaemia, at his home in Brentwood
where this interview was conducted. He was seventy-nine and remained vital
and feisty to the end. Respecting his wishes, Wellman was cremated and his
ashes scattered from an airplane into the clouds and sky that he always
loved."

[After you got booted out of high school, did you go directly into the
Lafayette Flying Corps?]

No, I tried various things. I tried being a candy salesman, but I never sold
a pound of candy. I tried being a cotton belting salesman but I never sold a
foot of that. Then my brother, who was in the wool business, got me into
Coffin and Gilmour, a Philadelphia wool firm, as a salesman. I never sold
any of whatever the hell you sell wool by, pound or whatever. So then I went
to work in a lumberyard, and I was a hell of a success.

I started in Waltham, Massachusetts, in the middle of the winter with great
big freight cars full of South Carolina flooring. I started out as a lumper
and then a piler and I did those things so well that they made me a
truckdriver. Then I lost control of the truck one day in Roxbury,
Massachusetts and drove through a barn. They fired me, so I decided to get
the hell out of there. I'd always wanted to learn to fly, so one of my
father's brothers, Francis Wellman, got me in the Flying Corps.

[Just because you wanted to learn to fly?]

That simple.

[Didn't the prospect of getting killed enter your mind?]

I was nineteen years old, a crazy *******. It never occurred to me until I
got into it. When I got out there, I thought to myself, "What the hell are
you doing here?" Then I wished I'd never gotten into it.

[How close did you come to getting killed?]

I had a crack-up caused by the most useless things in the entire war:
anti-aircraft guns. I and an Englishman are the only ones I know of who got
shot down by those things. It didn't hurt me, but it blew my tail off so I
had no control over the thing at all. Greatest goddamm acrobatics you ever
saw in your life.

[The courage it must have taken to go up in those flimsy crates . . .]

It wasn't courage: we all wanted to learn to fly and that was the quickest
way. We only had four instruments, none of which worked, and no parachutes.
It was wonderful!

[Are you scared of dying?]

I hate to think about it. Certainly I am. I don't want to die now and I
didn't want to then. I just didn't think about it as much then as I do now.
I'm funny that way; I'm an Episcopalian, supposedly. I'm supposed to think
there's a God. I say my prayers every night because my mother always taught
me to.

[Nowadays, lots of people look on World War One with nostalgia, as the last
of the "noble" wars.]

Balls. In that movie The Blue Max and others, these guys would come back to
these beautifully dressed dames and champagne. Goddamn! At Lunéville, where
I was stationed, there was one fairly good-looking girl and her mother. One.
All the menfolk had been killed and she and her mother took in laundry. She
wore wooden shoes, and your reputation was based on whether you were a no
shoe man, a one shoe man or a two shoe man. If, during sex, you could shake
both her shoes off, you were a hell of a lay.

[She took everybody on?]

Not everybody. She confined it mostly to flyers. But, hell, there was no one
else.

[How many pilots were left after the war?]

Out of 222, eighty-seven were killed. I flew with Tom Hitchcock, the great
polo player. Tom and I were in the "Black Cat" group.

[What happened after the war?]

During the last six months of the war, I joined the American Air Corps
because I was broke and they were trying to get us in. They made me an
officer and sent me down to Rockwell Field in San Diego. I taught combat. I
used to fly up and land on Doug Fairbanks' polo fields and spend the weekend
with him; he had met me when I was playing hockey up in Boston and he was
playing at the Colonial Theatre in a thing called "Hawthorne of the U.S.A."
He used to come up and watch us play at the Boston Arena on Sundays. For
some reason or another, he liked me and asked me to come backstage at the
Colonial; that was the start of a very wonderful relationship.

So one day he told me that, after the war was over, he'd have a job for me.
So when it was all over, he made me an actor. I was the juvenile in
"Knickerbocker Buckaroo" and then I played a sub-lieutenant in "Evangeline."

Eventually, I had guts enough to go look at myself and it made me so sick .
.. . I ran out of the theatre, went to Doug and said, "I don't mean any
disrespect, but I'm no actor." Jesus, the guys from the Lafayette Flying
Corps that were still alive were sending me the most insulting letters!

So Doug said, "What do you want to be?" So I pointed to Albert Parker, who
was the director of occasion, and said, "Well, what does he make?" So Doug
told me and I said "That's what I want to be." It was purely financial. So I
finally got a job as a messenger boy, as an assistant cutter, an assistant
property man, a property man, an assistant director, second unit director,
and eventually I became a director.


Montblack

Montblack wrote:
("Richard Brooks" wrote)

Wings I don't know but I will search that one out.



[Longish ...but fun movie flying stuff about Wings (1927)]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_(movie)
"The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film
Registry."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018578/
Wings (1927) Silent film
"Two young men, one rich, one middle class, who are in love with the
same woman, become fighter pilots in World War I." (Duh! That's always
the plot! g)

[Trivia link]
In contrast to co-star Richard Arlen, 'Charles 'Buddy' Rogers did not
know how to fly a plane when production began, but he learned how to do
so by the end of it. In the close-up scenes where Jack and David (and
other characters) are flying, the actors are actually working the planes
themselves. To shoot these scenes, the actors had to get the plane up in
the air, keep it up, turn on the (motorized) camera and land the
plane--and act at the same time.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9076505
"Wings" Director - William Wellman's other films.

http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/online/wellmanextra.htm
Fun interview with the director, William Wellman. [snips]
[Snipped]

Fantastic! Thanks for that, Montblack!

Thank God no-one listed that awful spoof (made for afternoon tv) WWII
film with women flying helicopters into secret locations in Europe,
which looked quite like the set of MASH. Okay, the women slinking
around in lingerie early in the film softens( or is it hardens?) the
blow but it's no excuse.

In my mind, The Tuskegee Airmen didn't deserve to end up as a 'made for
afternoon tv' film as it was a great film. We in the UK got a version
that had been put through NTSC then to PAL to make everything washed out
and reddish-brown. Otherwise a great film.

Richard.


--
Two updates tools for 3D Studio Max
http://www.kdbanglia.com/maxtools.html

"Richard Brooks" wrote in message
...



Wings I don't know but I will search that one out.

It is the mother of all aviation movies and the winner of the first Academy
Award back when the award meant something