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New HBO mini series on WWII about to be made. (Masters of the Air)


history-buff1944
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8th Air Force - nothing can beat 'Twelve o'clock high' and 'Memphis Belle' is ok value and I don't mind 'The war lover' in which you gotta love Buzz Rickson. I would much prefer to see a series about the 15th Air Force.

 

Now one I would love to see a good film about Naval Aviation in the Pacific ;-)

Twelve O'Clock High & The War Lover were very good, but that movie "Memphis Belle", was a P.O.S. Very inaccurate and it looked more like a comic book brought to the screen than anything else. I would like to see a good military aviation movie about the Pacific, AAF or Navy/Marines. Don't even get me started on that horrible TV series "Baa Baa Black Sheep".

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I can't wait for this. The Pacific wasn't as good as Band of Brothers to me, but I'm still very excited for this regardless of politics.

 

The Pacific was much more about showing the individual soldier (Marine), the effects of war, the strains, struggles, and even the post war consequences it had on them. In that respect, The Pacific was miles better than BoB, and I enjoyed that a lot more than BoB. Not that I thought BoB was terrible, I just like seeing more about the people involved.

 

This mini-series will be interesting for sure, I just wish they hadn't chosen the 8th AF, and instead brought light on some/one of the lesser known ones.

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These days, CGI technology is such that any modern "air war" movie is likely to be CGI'd, just as the dire "Red Tails" was. Done properly, it can look very effective, eg the excellent "Dogfights" series. However, there is absolutely no substitute for the real deal, like in the 60s classic "The Battle Of Britain".... ditto "Top Gun"!

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43zVRey2XEs

 

 

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These days, CGI technology is such that any modern "air war" movie is likely to be CGI'd, just as the dire "Red Tails" was. Done properly, it can look very effective, eg the excellent "Dogfights" series. However, there is absolutely no substitute for the real deal, like in the 60s classic "The Battle Of Britain".... ditto "Top Gun"!

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43zVRey2XEs

 

 

 

"Dark Blue World" also has some excellent flying scenes. They even used some footage from Battle of Britain! Nothing beats the real flying

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0stVlJXAsbQ

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How many air-war movies have you seen where, for example, the "hero" is flying a P-51 then they cut to some actual wartime footage of a Corsair strafing a target, then cut back to our hero in the P-51...or whatever?! Non-existent continuity!! :o

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The Pacific was much more about showing the individual soldier (Marine), the effects of war, the strains, struggles, and even the post war consequences it had on them. In that respect, The Pacific was miles better than BoB, and I enjoyed that a lot more than BoB. Not that I thought BoB was terrible, I just like seeing more about the people involved.

 

This mini-series will be interesting for sure, I just wish they hadn't chosen the 8th AF, and instead brought light on some/one of the lesser known ones.

 

 

I see what you're saying. I just connected more with Band of Brothers for some reason. I also read the book so that could be it. I've also always had more of a connection with the European theater as I have relatives to served

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audacia cum prudentia

Personally for me, BOB was a better programme overall than THE PACIFIC. Whilst I enjoyed THE PACIFIC, the fact that it followed different Marine Units as opposed to BOB's one Company made it harder to connect with the characters featured in the programmes, although I will say it took me a while to figure out who was who in BOB.

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Personally for me, BOB was a better programme overall than THE PACIFIC. Whilst I enjoyed THE PACIFIC, the fact that it followed different Marine Units as opposed to BOB's one Company made it harder to connect with the characters featured in the programmes, although I will say it took me a while to figure out who was who in BOB.

 

Well put. I would think a lot of people connect more with the ETO in general because it's the classic image of WWII. The other thing is that BoB does a very good job in portraying ideas of leadership and camaraderie. It focuses more on the basics of how a unit operates in combat on a personal level, while the pacific deals more with the effects of war on the individual. One's more of a textbook case study of good/bad leadership and how a unit fights together, while the other is an ethical view of war.

I did think both series were awesome, but they had two different purposes and styles. I think Band of Brothers was easier to watch while The Pacific made people very uncomfortable.

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Personally for me, BOB was a better programme overall than THE PACIFIC. Whilst I enjoyed THE PACIFIC, the fact that it followed different Marine Units as opposed to BOB's one Company made it harder to connect with the characters featured in the programmes, although I will say it took me a while to figure out who was who in BOB.

 

 

Exactly!

For some reason after watching the Pacific I had nowhere near the same emotional connection as with BOB.

I've watched BOB all the way through at least 10 times. The pacific I saw once and that sufficed

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I highly suggest everyone view The Pacific a second time. It is, to be frank, better the second time around. My fellow forum members skewered it when it was playing but I felt the personality portrayals were far superior in The Pacific.

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I will always feel that BoB has generally been considered 'better' than The Pacific is mostly because people like the ETO as a subject more than they like the PTO.

Sure, they were two different series, told different ways (and I do agree there were some seriously uncomfortable moments in The Pacific, far more than in BoB) but I truly think the root for people liking BoB more was where it takes place more than anything else.

Just like why PTO re-enacting has never taken off like people have often thought it would or why there's a comical percentage of ETO-themed book in comparison to ETO ones, there's just something about the ETO than brings a greater draw in interest...

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I also think it was just easier for people to follow BOB.....same bunch of guys really the whole time......in the pacific you had several different groups and they all look the same :-) I've talked to some people who said they got confused at times.

I enjoyed the heck out of both of them, although if I had to pick one I would probably say the Pacific. Probably a lot of that has to do with me having a little more interest in the PTO.......but I just enjoyed it a little bit more. And it did get better the 2nd and 3rd times I watched it.

I'm excited for the next one. I'm sure there will be nit pickers and there will be some errors, but overall I'm just excited that another WW2 series will be on it's way.

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  • 2 months later...

If you haven't seen this, there is a trailer out on you tube.

I can't paste the link for some reason, but it is under "The Mighty Eighth" 2014 trailer.

Sadly, it looks really, really bad.

I hope this is just early stage stuff and they get it right, because this ain't it...

 

John

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To paraphrase the great Abe Lincoln..."You can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time...but you can't please all of the people all of the time!" At the end of the day, we should just be grateful that such a film is apparently actually going to be made! ;)

 

absolutely two thumbs up sabrejet

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TreasureHunter

I was keeping this secret, but guess the whole collecting world knows now.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I467 using Tapatalk 4

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Interesting thoughts about the two series. For me I lost interest in the Pacific and really noticed a difference when they changed directors. The PTO has its miserable conditions and the latter director wanted the viewer to feel the same. When your bombarded by it, especially when it's drawn out, you lose interest. Overall the Pacific had a depressing tone in contrast BOB gave you the full flavor but in short bursts which keeps you interested. When you have to sit there for an hour being pounded by a deep depressing tone it gets old. The directing F'd up that series which could have been much better and given the PTO a different perspective to the less knowledgeable people.

I do look forward to the next series and feel it will the same tone as BOB

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  • 2 months later...

Just curious if anyone has heard any updates on this 8th AAF HBO Hanks/Spielberg series "Masters of the Sky" since our initial discussion?

 

JD

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Garandomatic

Here's a little blurb from later last year. Light on details, heavy on goofs. Complete with illustrations of POLISH MIGS and not B-17s... and apparently the Mighty 8th was a squadron...! I really wish people that are paid to write would do some cursory googling before they publish their work. Kind of like the package of Boca Java coffee I saw that donates money and/or coffee for US troops, but the illustration on the bag showed a German soldier advancing on the eastern front and a WWII Soviet all nicely photoshopped and faded together.

 

http://hbowatch.com/writing-of-masters-of-the-air-for-hbo-in-progress/

 

Regarding the feel of the Pacific and BOB, and how The Pacific kind of dooms the viewer as well (went right along with the feel of the books it was based on, so it didn't bother me... Sledge more or less described it as a constant meat-grinder and then the war just ended...), I'm not sure what to think about the mood of this one. It's been pretty grueling to read Masters of the Air just simply because of the losses incurred, and often, due to the pure bad luck to be in a plane in the wrong spot in the sky when a flak shell comes streaking up. Really makes me thankful for the P-51 and other long-range fighters.

 

One part of the book really sums up the mental fatigue that might be in this picture. Miller describes a guy that got time off to go to the "flak farm" to R&R for a few days during the time period where they were flying constant missions and bombing via radar almost every day with no time to unwind on their own. Everybody was sullen, quiet, moody, and this guy either watched or played in a volleyball game between the men there, and the entire game was played without a single word, or even so much as a grunt, uttered. To be a bomber man would truly be unimaginable at any stage of the war. It will be interesting to see if it has a BOB feel, where you can sense a bit more hope, or if it focuses on just how bad it was like The Pacific.

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You mean this?

 

Tom Hanks' WWII Comments Spark Controversy

 

"..."Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods," he told the magazine. "They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?"

 

Hanks brought up the comparison again while promoting "The Pacific" during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

 

"'The Pacific' is coming out now, where it represents a war that was of racism and terror. And where it seemed as though the only way to complete one of these battles on one of these small specks of rock in the middle of nowhere was to - I'm sorry - kill them all. And, um, does that sound familiar to what we might be going through today? So it's-- is there anything new under the sun? It seems as if history keeps repeating itself."

 

I realize this is old, but I was reminded of something that showed up in the paperwork of an Iwo Jima based P-51 pilot that I have. 15 pages of 'facts' on why we had to 'kill em all'. Dehumanizing an enemy is nothing new

 

The cover should be enough, but reading some of the wartime produced 'education' for the troops inside is enough to make a person cringe. As is the artwork.

Japanese_zps5e7457ae.jpg

 

 

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Here's a little blurb from later last year. Light on details, heavy on goofs. Complete with illustrations of POLISH MIGS and not B-17s... and apparently the Mighty 8th was a squadron...! I really wish people that are paid to write would do some cursory googling before they publish their work. Kind of like the package of Boca Java coffee I saw that donates money and/or coffee for US troops, but the illustration on the bag showed a German soldier advancing on the eastern front and a WWII Soviet all nicely photoshopped and faded together.

 

http://hbowatch.com/writing-of-masters-of-the-air-for-hbo-in-progress/

 

Regarding the feel of the Pacific and BOB, and how The Pacific kind of dooms the viewer as well (went right along with the feel of the books it was based on, so it didn't bother me... Sledge more or less described it as a constant meat-grinder and then the war just ended...), I'm not sure what to think about the mood of this one. It's been pretty grueling to read Masters of the Air just simply because of the losses incurred, and often, due to the pure bad luck to be in a plane in the wrong spot in the sky when a flak shell comes streaking up. Really makes me thankful for the P-51 and other long-range fighters.

 

One part of the book really sums up the mental fatigue that might be in this picture. Miller describes a guy that got time off to go to the "flak farm" to R&R for a few days during the time period where they were flying constant missions and bombing via radar almost every day with no time to unwind on their own. Everybody was sullen, quiet, moody, and this guy either watched or played in a volleyball game between the men there, and the entire game was played without a single word, or even so much as a grunt, uttered. To be a bomber man would truly be unimaginable at any stage of the war. It will be interesting to see if it has a BOB feel, where you can sense a bit more hope, or if it focuses on just how bad it was like The Pacific.

 

 

It would seem easy enough to do given the budget a Hanks/Speilburg production might have. Pick a squadron from an 8th Bomb Group. Follow it from the crews coming together in the States, the flight across and initial training in England. Get to know the locals, fly the first few missions. The first losses which leads to both the KIAs and the POWs. Figure a group like the 447th that got their in late 43 and waded into the fight as it went to Germany with Bigweek, the first Berlin Raids, then D-Day etc. Focus on a few crews that include ones that go down, and get home. Include the ground crews. All kinds of ways to keep people tuned in.

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I would really like to see the new HBO series tell the story of the groundcrew, the bomber crews and the fighter pilots instead of focusing on just one squadron. Leaves in London, Girls, Missions, Evading capture, Prisoners..

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I highly suggest everyone view The Pacific a second time. It is, to be frank, better the second time around. My fellow forum members skewered it when it was playing but I felt the personality portrayals were far superior in The Pacific.

You are right on the mark. I was one who didn't like it, but finished it anyway. There is really something different about it when you watch it a second time!!

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You are right on the mark. I was one who didn't like it, but finished it anyway. There is really something different about it when you watch it a second time!!

I agree with the above statement about watching the Pacific more than once. To me, it was hard to get to know the characters and the story lines blurred together. Watching it the second time, I could better understand the series.

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  • 3 months later...
airborneaviator

Personally I liked The Pacific better because it really captured the horror of war, but BoB seemed to me, to be more of a story than capturing the horrors of war. as far as this new miniseries, I would prefer they show how terrifying and stressful flying in bombers over Europe was instead of trying to make it a story. But this is just my opinion.

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