!Tom Hanks is a little long in the tooth for Jimmy Stewart's role, though, and I don't think it's really a part for Depp. Maybe DiCaprio?
Anyway, here're some pics to help get you in the mood:
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| It's like a giant flying '50s Detroit hood ornament full of thermonuclear bombs, Jimmy Stewart, and "America, $%&# yeah!" |
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| Despite the looming threat of global thermonuclear war, somehow the future didn't suck back then. What the hell happened? I blame hippies. |
Does DiCaprio know how to be in an aviation movie where he doesn't play Howard Hughes or a Hughes-esque character? Don't get me wrong, I think Leo has been robbed by the Academy multiple times and is easily one of the best actors in Hollywood. But can he channel his inner Jimmy Stewart?
ReplyDeleteOn the flipside, when will the movie about Jimmy Stewart with DiCaprio has Jimmy Stewart come out?
-Rob
You forget the age you live in, DiCaprio wouldn't be a politically correct choice for the role. More likely Eddie Izzard or maybe Bronson Pinchot portraying his flamer character.
ReplyDeleteLove the pics, an aircraft as sexy as Lauren Bacall. Every time I run across a Stratojet image I think of this:
ReplyDeleteBoeing B-47 Stratojet Combat Maneuvers
Found here:
ZenosWarbirds
Mike James
How about Lt. Col. Walter Sobchak?
ReplyDelete"Do you see what happens when you find a stranger in the alps? This is what happens, Larry!"
I enjoyed Strategic Air Command, corny as it was, as much for the great '50's era jet bombers as for the fact that Jimmy Stewart, as an USAF Reserve officer, could actually fly the bombers in the film.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't just any "jet," it was a Stratojet! People knew ~how~ to live, they drank and smoked and rode fast motorcycles. The only pearl-clutching complainers were still in church at 9:00AM on Sundays, not unleashed upon every corner of the world by a demented Academia and it's minions.
ReplyDeletebest captions evar. Damn hippies.
ReplyDeleteNo DiCaprio. It has to be someone with some manliness and patriotism and he lacks both last I looked. How about that Kevin Sorbo guy?
ReplyDeletePutin has to be laughing his ass off at the US brass trying to kill off the A-10. I'm not saying it held back the Red Hoard single handedly, but 4,200/m, 30mm, depleted uranium, 6,096g projectiles make a strong diplomatic argument.
ReplyDeleteThe remake in today's world wouldn't sound right. Everyone knew what SAC was back then. How would the remake sound now? Global Strike Command...Come see America's nuclear arsenal moved around the country...without anyone even knowing about it, not even their commanders!
ReplyDeleteI picture a buddy comedy/action flick with hints of The Hangover and Lethal Weapon thrown in.
Thoughts?
Sorry to say that hazmat probably has the right of it. Might be a little closer to "A Gathering of Eagles" wherein our (anti)hero has to deal with a drunken base commander... and throw in drug-addled missile combat crews, air police who spend more time on their smartphones than guarding the perimeter, and an emergency landing sequence made all the more dramatic because somebody forgot that there were live weapons loaded on the training aircraft.
ReplyDelete"Colonel Smith was relieved after we failed our last ORI."
"He was a good officer. What happened?"
"During a simulated launch, only seventy percent of our missiles would have gotten out of their silos."
"That's unacceptable! What happened with the bad thirty percent?"
"Well, in one case, Captain Weed was stoned and thought the EAM alarm was just part of the AC/DC tunes he was listening to on his iPod. In another, the MCCC and DMCCC were... um... well, they didn't want to be disturbed. And over in silo BRAVO-6... um... the missile wasn't actually there."
"Where was it? Or do I want to know?"
"Master Sergeant Loos... um... he took it to his son's school for Show 'n' Tell. But he said he and his wife stayed with the bird the whole time, so the Two Man Policy... Hey! Are you OK?"
That other-wordly scream you hear is the ghost of Curtis LeMay...
Eternal thinker of hopeful things that I am, I am wondering if we are on the cusp of a slew of remade WWII flying films. There is meant to be a remake of The Dambusters in the works (from Peter Jackson no less) but they are still worrying about the name of Guy Gibson's dog, honest.
ReplyDeletehttp://dambustersblog.com/category/peter-jackson/
For my money, the Lanc compares very nicely to the B17.
Cheers- Rusty
Every time I make the run south I pass the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum on 95 outside Savannah, landmarked by a B-47 parked adjacent to the highway. It always reminds me of that movie; someday I'll pass that point during normal hours when they're open and stop in.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDFqoReof6A
ReplyDeletegvi
I think Guy Gibson's dog could be named "Sir" in the remake, and every utterance of the dog's name in the movie made with a sneer and tone of utter contempt to make the point that contempt can accompany any word, not merely words that are now reviled.
ReplyDeleteThe Lancaster could do barrel rolls too - but not with Skippy The Dam Buster aboard.
ReplyDeleteMy personal fave of the era was the Überdelta B-58 Hustler. Whatever happened to Convair?
The B-47 could do more that barrel rolls. The bombing technique for the '47, due to the desire to not be overhead when the thermonuclear device went off, was to have the bomb bay doors open while doing an Immelmann turn and releasing on the climb. That lobbed the bomb up and out and sent the bomber in the opposite direction. The B-47 looked like a fighter and it's pilots treated it like on.
ReplyDeleteNC,this hustler?
ReplyDeletehttp://poobie.smugmug.com/Military/Pima/i-jf9bBPp
Convair, unfortunately, got absorbed by the blob-like maw of LockMart, when Electric Boat decided to get out of the airplane business.
NotClauswitz:
ReplyDeleteSo could the B-17.
About '77-'78, I nearly got blown off Hy 101 as I crossed the overpass that was in line with the runway for Moffet. B-58! After sundown, but no mistaking that planform, with the wide set engine pods. Think he might have been a bit low, nose high, and throttles up, for that approach. Loud!
Supposedly, they had been retired by then, but maybe NASA was using it. Didn't have the pod attached.