Posted on Oct 13, 2014
What ONE incorrectly depicted thing pisses you off most about military movies?
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My question is really no more complicated than that.
For me, it is the rendering of the salute. Hands down. No second place. This pisses me off to no end!
In my opinion, this is THE most important of all military courtesies, and it should always be given with the most possible precision and exacting attention to detail.
FFS! It is something that is taught to every 'cruit in week 1 of basic training! It is perfected throughout training! In a military movie, this should be the EASIEST thing to get right!
It seems to me, that if an actor or actress can spend weeks or months learning hundreds, if not thousands of lines of dialog for a movie, they can at least spend an afternoon or a day, practicing with the advisor (there is ALWAYS an advisor who is a Vet or SM) on the set until they get it right.
I know there are bigger, or more obvious problems with some military movies. Weapons or uniforms or lingo that is anachronistic to the time period of the battle on screen...but DAMMIT, getting the salute wrong in any time period just frosts my shorts!
Usually, it's a fail with what I call the, "I'm shading my eyes from the sun" salute. Your f'n hand doesn't belong on your forehead like you're trying to watch the right fielder shag the fly ball! It belongs where you were TAUGHT to place it!
I find myself commenting out loud to friends, while watching movies that jack this up...they don't seem to understand why it pisses me off so much.
What does it for you?
For me, it is the rendering of the salute. Hands down. No second place. This pisses me off to no end!
In my opinion, this is THE most important of all military courtesies, and it should always be given with the most possible precision and exacting attention to detail.
FFS! It is something that is taught to every 'cruit in week 1 of basic training! It is perfected throughout training! In a military movie, this should be the EASIEST thing to get right!
It seems to me, that if an actor or actress can spend weeks or months learning hundreds, if not thousands of lines of dialog for a movie, they can at least spend an afternoon or a day, practicing with the advisor (there is ALWAYS an advisor who is a Vet or SM) on the set until they get it right.
I know there are bigger, or more obvious problems with some military movies. Weapons or uniforms or lingo that is anachronistic to the time period of the battle on screen...but DAMMIT, getting the salute wrong in any time period just frosts my shorts!
Usually, it's a fail with what I call the, "I'm shading my eyes from the sun" salute. Your f'n hand doesn't belong on your forehead like you're trying to watch the right fielder shag the fly ball! It belongs where you were TAUGHT to place it!
I find myself commenting out loud to friends, while watching movies that jack this up...they don't seem to understand why it pisses me off so much.
What does it for you?
Saluting
Movies
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 264
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If the soldier in a military movie can through a hand grenade 60 yards, the NFL needs to be drafting him.
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Patrols, group meetings etc in obvious contact-expected zones where the guys are five feet from each other instead of 5 meters.Also way too much noise while moving (at night especially!)I tried to get then so used to each other, and watching signals from leaders,we would move so silently, and respond, chage directions,shift positions, it was spooky.They bad guys never saw/heard
you until it was too late (for them)The one time I was actually graded on this, the grader said,after 18 hours of marching, "I have to see how your people react on ambush- you have evaded twelve ambushes in 18 hours- you tell me where you are going,and I will stand right next to you to make certain you dont signal anyone The grader was Capt Green, a former SF Officer, and DSC holder,who received promotion to Major before I left Active Duty.This was with 1/4 Infantry,3d ID,1975
you until it was too late (for them)The one time I was actually graded on this, the grader said,after 18 hours of marching, "I have to see how your people react on ambush- you have evaded twelve ambushes in 18 hours- you tell me where you are going,and I will stand right next to you to make certain you dont signal anyone The grader was Capt Green, a former SF Officer, and DSC holder,who received promotion to Major before I left Active Duty.This was with 1/4 Infantry,3d ID,1975
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SPC John Tousle,
Oh the hand salute is defiantly right up there with the endless magazines, male hair styles, female glamour shoots, “good guys” are always marksmen, and the general lack of military customs. But, if I had to name just one it would be the military uniform, regardless of which branch, or the scene being portrayed, pay attention to the details of the uniform. Hollywood please don’t mess with our flag nor our military uniforms.
SFC Kevin Hankins,
If I remember right it was the sole responsibility (unwritten of course), of the senior enlisted person to watch out for and educate the newly assigned (or minted), officer. This was the only way to season his officer and protect his men and get the mission done. It did not matter how your officer received his commission, until they are seasoned and ready to stand on their own it is your responsibly to lead.
Oh the hand salute is defiantly right up there with the endless magazines, male hair styles, female glamour shoots, “good guys” are always marksmen, and the general lack of military customs. But, if I had to name just one it would be the military uniform, regardless of which branch, or the scene being portrayed, pay attention to the details of the uniform. Hollywood please don’t mess with our flag nor our military uniforms.
SFC Kevin Hankins,
If I remember right it was the sole responsibility (unwritten of course), of the senior enlisted person to watch out for and educate the newly assigned (or minted), officer. This was the only way to season his officer and protect his men and get the mission done. It did not matter how your officer received his commission, until they are seasoned and ready to stand on their own it is your responsibly to lead.
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1LT John Fleming
Both of the Platoon Sergeants I had were glad to have an Lt to train,as well as run interference for then when necessary. I taught folks the new things I had learned from Ft Benning,plus tried to learn the more practical things from them
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MSG John Wirts
The salute was one thing that stood out. My training in salute went from 2 finger salute, to three finger salute, to full hand salute. That was cub scout salute, boy scout salute, and California Cadet Corps, Army and Air Force salute. One question was it ever proper in the U.S. military to salute with the left hand? If so under what conditions?
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I have two when it comes to military movies.
First the uniform is always wrong, so freaking annoying in that sense.
The second is the use of snipers and hand grenades. A hand grenade is not that light and they throw it like a baseball......WRONG.....and a sniper shooting another sniper through the scope while the other sniper is already staring the first guy down.......CRAP......that sniper who usually is shot through the scope had a good five seconds to kill the guy with a normal shot before the second guy even sees him, aims, then fires at the eye of the enemy....THE EYE.....just stupid shooting in that case.
First the uniform is always wrong, so freaking annoying in that sense.
The second is the use of snipers and hand grenades. A hand grenade is not that light and they throw it like a baseball......WRONG.....and a sniper shooting another sniper through the scope while the other sniper is already staring the first guy down.......CRAP......that sniper who usually is shot through the scope had a good five seconds to kill the guy with a normal shot before the second guy even sees him, aims, then fires at the eye of the enemy....THE EYE.....just stupid shooting in that case.
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Cpl Phil Hsueh
My peeve with grenades are the giant explosions they like to use for them and, occasionally, sending people flying. No grenade packs that much explosive, so no fireballs, and no flying people after a grenade explodes.
As far as the sniper thing goes, it's not really that stupid because it actually happened at least once, possibly twice. The one time that I know that it happened for certain was during Vietnam when Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock actually shot an NVA or VC sniper who was assigned to specifically hunt Hathcock down through the scope during a sniper duel. This was actually the subject of Mythbusters experiment once, one that they had to do twice when the first time didn't produce the results fans were expecting, so they redid it using a period correct scope and showed that a .308 round fired from an M40 sniper can indeed go through the scope of a VA/NVA issue sniper rifle and kill the sniper behind it.
As far as the sniper thing goes, it's not really that stupid because it actually happened at least once, possibly twice. The one time that I know that it happened for certain was during Vietnam when Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock actually shot an NVA or VC sniper who was assigned to specifically hunt Hathcock down through the scope during a sniper duel. This was actually the subject of Mythbusters experiment once, one that they had to do twice when the first time didn't produce the results fans were expecting, so they redid it using a period correct scope and showed that a .308 round fired from an M40 sniper can indeed go through the scope of a VA/NVA issue sniper rifle and kill the sniper behind it.
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I will agree, it does bother me a little but I look at it this way. With so many people trying to pose as military or veterans, movies is where I would think they learn how to put on a uniform. It's their AR 670- 1 - movie uniform regulation lol! I think it would be easy for RP members to spot fakes and frauds.
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The typical "tell my wife I love Em" line. Another thing that bothers me is when they get patches wrong like having a deployment patch but no current unit patch on the left shoulder. or soldiers wearing an American flag on the left shoulder rather than the right shoulder. Confusing uniforms or marines and soldiers.... Getting units completely wrong (for example having a 101st airborne division patch and being EOD, and not being attached to said airborne unit) when combatants yell "throw me a clip!" When it's really a magazine, or calling a rifle or any other weapon a "gun". Maybe I'm just severely anal, or my drill instructors were pretty specific about certain terms to never use. Oh and of course the typical shoulder mounted rocket trooper never yelling "back blast area clear!" That's a big no no.
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I despise the lack of respect up and down the chain of command.
the uniform mistakes are often laughworthy, but the interactions make me sick. lol
the uniform mistakes are often laughworthy, but the interactions make me sick. lol
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