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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For me its the EM-50 urban assault vehicle. Common, everybody knows the real EM-50 wasnt a GMC but an Airstream.
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CMSgt (Join to see)
Perfect if you are whipping into Wisconsin though.... (("I got my a$$ kicked in Wisconsin!")) ;)
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SGT Richard H.
General Barnaky is going to have your ass if he finds out you're blabbing about his top-secret project on social media.
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Long hair. I don't think movie stars like to get their hair cut to military standards.
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SGT Michael Glenn
What??? you guys didnt have hair down to your shoulder and run around with 5 day beard all the time??? what unit were you all in????
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CPO Jon Campbell
I worked with a guy who was a Vietnam vet once and he had a picture of himself on a cutter in vietnam. I commented on how long hs hair was and he laughed and said he was wearing a 'short hair wig' in that picture. Apparently, if you were within 6 months of being discharged back then you could grow your hair long and wear a short hair wig when you were on duty. He said his real hair was actually halfway down his back.
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MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca
Sam Elliott did a great job losing his flowing locks to portray CSM Basil Plumley in, "We Were Soldiers"
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PO1 Andrew Plack
I couldn’t watch the HBO miniseries ‘The Pacific’ at first when I saw the movie-star hairdos they were sporting. Inappropriately long for even civilians in that time period, not to mention combat troops of any branch — and especially Marines!
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My wife tells me shut up every time when I see ribbons and badges out of order and out of place on dress blues and ACUs
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SPC William Del Valle
I would tell you to say the same thing I tell my wife, it's the small details that make up the big picture and that you can't help it to be on point with "attention to detail"
" if you can see it, then the damn DS can see it"
This is what my DS's said all the time in basic.
The only people that care if a uniform is on right or not is us military past and present, because a Standard is what you need to uphold. I know non-military really don't care for that kind of stuff but I tell my wife that it's about attention to detail and the smallest detail is what makes it believable.
" if you can see it, then the damn DS can see it"
This is what my DS's said all the time in basic.
The only people that care if a uniform is on right or not is us military past and present, because a Standard is what you need to uphold. I know non-military really don't care for that kind of stuff but I tell my wife that it's about attention to detail and the smallest detail is what makes it believable.
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SGT Richard H.
My wife has gotten to the point where even she sees it and says "that looks wrong. Is that wrong?"
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PO1 Robert Wikert
SPC William Del Valle - For us, but as civilians they have no idea what it all means.
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Lt Col Kevin Calhoun
In the movie "Dear John" in one scene Channing Tatum is talking to Rachel McAdams. His Sergeant rank is upside-down on his epaulet. Cut to Rachel, cut back to Channing--now the rank is correct. Cut to Rachel, cut back to Channing--the rank is upside down again. I almost walked out.
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The way they portray people disrespecting the nco's and officers without any consequences.
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-Huge firey explosions from things that wouldn't produce them (grenades, RPGs, Satchel Charges, Mines).
-Explosions that don't hurt anyone nearby (frag)
-Things that explode that wouldn't really explode (gas tanks on cars, C4 being shot with a gun)
-Awesome marksmen, who don't aim but hit everything (especially with pistols)
-The chatter that happens in the background that makes no sense (Michael Bay movies are notorious for that. "Special Forces inbound!" would never be said on comms.
- Everyone's uniforms are clean and pressed...in combat
- Depending on the film, there are never bad injuries from flying objects. Just bumps and bruises.
-They never depict "hurry up and wait"
-Yelling "GO GO GO" every time a vehicle stops or someone kicks open a door...because in real life, everyone knows when they are supposed to "go".
-Explosions that don't hurt anyone nearby (frag)
-Things that explode that wouldn't really explode (gas tanks on cars, C4 being shot with a gun)
-Awesome marksmen, who don't aim but hit everything (especially with pistols)
-The chatter that happens in the background that makes no sense (Michael Bay movies are notorious for that. "Special Forces inbound!" would never be said on comms.
- Everyone's uniforms are clean and pressed...in combat
- Depending on the film, there are never bad injuries from flying objects. Just bumps and bruises.
-They never depict "hurry up and wait"
-Yelling "GO GO GO" every time a vehicle stops or someone kicks open a door...because in real life, everyone knows when they are supposed to "go".
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CPO Greg Frazho
I rarely watch them. One, I already know off the bat it's just a depiction. Two, the political complexity of the issues those movies covered is either glossed over entirely or tilted to the left. Three, acting, and to be sure just about everything else coming out of Hollywood lately, has taken a precipitous nosedive since about 1995. The last movie I saw that fits the description you float was Captain Phillips, and I understand even some of that may have been, shall we say, embellished.
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SSG James Draughn
i have to disagree with the hurry up and wait comment, that to was always something i thought was missed. i have to say the movie jarhead nailed that one on the head..lol
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PO1 Robert Wikert
SSG James Draughn - I guess the "hurry up and wait" factor is skipped for expediency in films. Can you imagine how long a movie might be if we had to wait for absolutely everything to happen as it does in real life.
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OMG, I'm with you!! Proper salutes are a HUGE pet peeve of mine - I will literally scream at the TV screen when salutes look like crap. What drives me off the deep end is when people who have actually served can't get it right - case in point, Randy Couture on Dancing with the Stars - he did a routine with a USO theme - he was in the 60's era khaki uniform - kudos to him for wearing only the rank he had earned, but he finished the dance routine, he did the WORST salute! I swear his hand was all the way over his LEFT eye. Seriously??? He actually served in the Army - he should know better!
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CPL Robert Davis
I always thought it was funny watching other people who were in the service salute. We had this PFC in my platoon and his salute was the dorkiest most jacked up thing ever and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mainly because officers would see it and get this confused look on their face. They would spend a good five minutes trying to correct it and he would get it right just that once then the next day it would be all jacked up again.
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MAJ Chris Ballard
My former CO (at the Old Guard, no less) had broken all the fingers of his right hand at some point. No two of them pointed in the same direction. When he saluted it looked like he was holding a garden weasel to his eyebrow.
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Cpl Glen Bradley
I am pretty sure that Hollywood does some of this stuff sloppy on purpose to try and keep people in the dark about how to look like the “real military.”
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For me it is two fold;
1. We are constantly running around base in formation with weapons in duty uniform and t-shirts.
2. Junior Enlisted and Junior NCO's only have yell mode. Why does Hollywood think every enlisted member is a hearing impaired member of the artillery?
1. We are constantly running around base in formation with weapons in duty uniform and t-shirts.
2. Junior Enlisted and Junior NCO's only have yell mode. Why does Hollywood think every enlisted member is a hearing impaired member of the artillery?
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MAJ Chris Ballard
But how would you know it was a military base if they didn't run around if formation all the time?
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Living and working in Hollywood almost my whole life, I do have to say that it is illegal/and or considered immoral for actors to wear their uniforms as properly as SM, and there has to be at least one discrepancy in appearance whether it is the medal order which is the most common, covers or haircuts. I thought you all should know this fact. However, the endless magazines and ridiculous action sequences definitely bother me, but there is a very solid reason for most movie discrepancies that aren't related to the overall entertainment value that needs to be taken into consideration.
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TSgt Phil Textor
Combat! was good on the US side, but the German uniforms were terrible. Nowhere even close.
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LTC Paul Labrador
If someone wanted to build a proper looking uniform to infiltrate somewhere, all they'd have to do is look up AR 670-1. It's not a classified document, y'know....
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SFC (Join to see)
The myth of wearing a uniform correctly in television and movies being illegal has been debunked several times. A couple years ago the PAO actually produced a written statement saying that it isn’t true.
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Two things:
1. When the spoken rank doesn't align to actual rank. i.e. The "general" is wearing MAJ rank...
2. Causally ignoring the chain of command. i.e. the SFC TELLING the CPT what to do (as opposed to "strongly advising..").
1. When the spoken rank doesn't align to actual rank. i.e. The "general" is wearing MAJ rank...
2. Causally ignoring the chain of command. i.e. the SFC TELLING the CPT what to do (as opposed to "strongly advising..").
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SP5 Terry Pool
I know what you mean SFC Hankins! I had an ROTC grad that was a 2nd Lt who when it came to work with pyro like artillery simulators.....he would throw the pin and let the grenade just drop. Because of this, someone in the squad had to do a flying body block to knock him out of the way before he got injured from the blast! He was actually going to try to pick it up again! Needless to say, the company took away all the pyrotechnics from him and wouldn't let him have any more. I also had a PL that could have easily been a company commander with the skills and knowledge that he possessed! His name was 1Lt Bruce Wozniak.
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LTC Jason Mackay
The Peacemaker is right up there in this regard. The Intel warrant is called Lieutenant over and over
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MAJ (Join to see)
Sir, these two things drive me nuts.
Or when you see an Officer in a non-SOF unit rocking a full beard.
It's not hard to pay attention or spend some money and hire a military advisor. Seriously.
Or when you see an Officer in a non-SOF unit rocking a full beard.
It's not hard to pay attention or spend some money and hire a military advisor. Seriously.
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Anytime theres a convenient pilot. Every action movie seems like they have one guy in the squad who just happens to be a pilot. This goes hand in hand with my other pet peeve, that the second someone gets the word "pilot" attached to them, they can fly everything from a tiny little Cessna, to an alien fighter pod, to a foreign attack helicopter, to a space shuttle. Just hop in, slide your "verified pilot" card through the slot, and press the "lets go" button.
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SSG James Draughn
i ensure to have one around me at all times for when it does go all mad max beyond thunderdome, just saying.
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Lt Col Kevin Calhoun
Like Will Smith in Independence Day? From F18s to choppers to spaceships all in one day. It could happen.
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