This is the new article being posted to Military Movies_Suite101 on
Tuesday, 2 May 00.

Before you give this a read, I would like to thank Geoff Topping for
his information on THE MUMMY. Interesting reading.

How Do I Make A Good And Realistic War Movie?

This was a question posted to The Hollywood Military Advisor Chat
Board (http://hollywoodnetwork.com/Lovett/chat/board.html) Ref 1336.
How do I make a good and realistic war movie?

My answer was Ref 1337. Ref 1336 - Well, you have asked the $64,000
question. Part of your answer can be found in the articles I have
written from Suite101 - Military Movies
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/military_movies . Another part
of your answer is to read the scripts for and watch war movies of
good reputation. A further part of the answer is to read novels
written about war. At the core, to make a good and realistic movie,
any kind of movie, you need to be honest and have integrity towards
the story and characters. Good luck on your movie. JL.

Yeh, I fudged. I admit it. I was tempted to suggest to the
questioner that the two issues; good and realistic, were mutually
exclusive. One can make a good war film and not have it realistic.
Or, one could make a realistic war film and not have it good. Maybe,
that was just the cynic in me?

Interestingly, this person asked the core question that makes both
the chat board and this e - magazine site exist. More specifically,
can Hollywood make war films that are good and realistic? The answer
to that question can be found by answering these two separate
questions "How realistic?" and "How good?"

While watching History and Hollywood on the History Channel over the
weekend regarding U-571, one the commentators mentioned that the
American submarine used for the movie was a S-Boat manufactured prior
to the war. Win one for the good guys. Not having seen the film, I
cannot comment on the rest of the historical accuracy's or
inaccuracies but with that one big effort the producers did well.

When two ex - submariners, one German the other American, were asked
specific historical questions about the movie they said that this or
that could not have been done. Yeh, I guess. However, without this
or that being done you don't have a movie.

A movie such as SAVING PRIVATE RYAN certainly has its historical and
continuity mistakes, but the film can be said to be both well done
and realistic. Other war movies such as 84 CHARLIE MOPIC could be
said to be realistic, but lacked production values.

How good is good? How realistic is realistic? I guess I go back to
what I gave as my answer. As a writer/director/producer, you have to
be honest to your story and give the viewer something that as real as
you can make without compromising the story you want to tell. If the
swivel bail hooks on the helmets are not the right design for the
period, don't let that stop you from creating a good story.