rorkesdriftvc.com Forum Index


rorkesdriftvc.com
Discussions related to the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879
Reply to topic
The Forces' Sweetheart
Alan
Site Admin

Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1530
Location: Wales
Reply with quote
From BFBS TV - 31st January 2008

It's official: Zulu is the Forces' favourite war film

How do you really find out which is the best war film ever made? Forget asking a film critic, go straight to those who should know. A survey conducted by British Forces Broadcasting Service Television (BFBS TV) has shown that the most popular war film of all time amongst the British Forces worldwide is the 1964 classic Zulu*.

These results illustrate that the British Forces have a very different idea as to what makes a great war film in comparison with the general public. When the British people voted for Channel 4's 100 Greatest War Films, in 2005, Zulu was only voted 8th. Similarly, The Cruel Sea (1952) was placed 41st by the general public but was ranked 7th by the British Forces.

It�s a tribute to Zulu's iconic status that the vast majority of those serving on the frontline in Afghanistan today were not even born when it was made. Saving Private Ryan (1998) and A Bridge Too Far (1977) were ranked second and third respectively.

General Sir Mike Jackson, former Chief of the General Staff, was torn between A Bridge Too Far, The Longest Day, and Saving Private Ryan. Whilst the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathan Band, chose Tora! Tora! Tora! which didn�t make it into the Top 20. BFBS TV will be showing the top three films on consecutive nights from 1st February.

* The top 20 war films as voted for by the British Forces are as follows:

Zulu (1964)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The Great Escape (1963)
Platoon (1986)
The Cruel Sea (1953)
The Longest day (1962)
Enemy At The Gates (2001)
Ice Cold In Alex (1958)
We Were Soldiers (2002)
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Das Boot (1981)
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Schindler's List (1993)
Cross of Iron (1977)
The Dam Busters (1954)
Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Battle of Britain (1969)


BFBS TV delivers its channels via DTT transmitters in most areas of Iraq and Afghanistan, so that service personnel can watch TV anywhere that there is a power source, rather than being limited to a communal TV in a mess tent. British Forces can watch BFBS TV via an inexpensive freeview style box in their own tent or on their laptop with a USB stick.
BFBS TV is part of UK Forces charity the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC), providing TV, Radio, Cinemas, SSVC audio-visual shops and CSE live entertainment to British troops throughout the world.

_________________
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mailVisit poster's website
Simon Rosbottom


Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 287
Location: London, UK
Reply with quote
If I were in the Taleban sitting in my cave and decided to surf away from Al Jazeerah and then I saw that all those squaddies were watching a diet of British War Movies every day, I'd be running for the hills.... er, I mean bigger hills,... much-further-away and safer hills.

_________________
Simon
View user's profileSend private message
Rich
Guest

Reply with quote
I knew all of them except "Ice Cold in Alex"..a British film?...on dvd?..thanks in advance...
AMB


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 921
Reply with quote
Rich,

Ice Cold in Alex is a classic about a group of 8th Army soldiers caught out in the desert and their exploits to get back to Alexandria.

Should easily be found on DVD.

AMB
View user's profileSend private message
Simon Rosbottom


Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 287
Location: London, UK
Reply with quote
Yes, a classic, John Mills, Sylvia Sims and Anthony Quayle. The title refers to the beer that John Mills' is looking froward to when/if they ever get out of the desert and back to Alexandria.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053935/

It's on DVD, you can pick it up singly or as part of class war films set.

I was in Alexandria when my old boss phoned me, I said that I was in Alex and he asked "Is it ice cold?" Ah, it's entered the language. Interestingly, his best friend's landlady at university was Sylvia Sims!

The classic clip at the end. Don't watch this if you don't know the ending!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Ra7hQoHpE

_________________
Simon
View user's profileSend private message
Rich
Guest

Reply with quote
Thank you all....this one certainly was under my radar..will certainly check it out...

And regarding the list..real entertaining war films...but I guess a film on El Alamein never came up...great British victory with Monty at the helm...maybe a film hasn't really done it well or is El Alamein perhaps not top of mind anymore among the current generation?...
AMB


Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 921
Reply with quote
Simon,

Great clip!

AMB
View user's profileSend private message
Peter Ewart


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 1797
Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England.
Reply with quote
Rich

I don't know how well Ice Cold in Alex did at the box office - quite well I'd imagine - but with Mills & Quayle in lead parts it could hardly fail at that time.

It is the film that always comes to my mind when I think of the hype attending the release of new ones. I remember its release very well indeed as the trailer seemed to be shown at our local cinema for weeks and weeks, so it was certainly "hyped" as a big film. For some reason, although a very regular picture-goer as a child, I never did see it, but I still have a vague memory of someone (Quayle or Mills perhaps) pulling someone desperately on the end of a rope & a lot of shouting going on at the time. I don't know why I still have this impression that the trailer came and stayed for weeks, but that little "clip" has stayed with me.

I think I was too young to know what or where "Alex" was and my brothers and I must have seen an awful lot of these classic 1950s British war films (the first and second-string actors were nearly always the same!) without having a clue what was going on, and we were probably satisfied if there was simply a lot of shooting! The two which stand out in the memory - way, way above all the others - from that period are The Bridge on the River Kwai (I still haven't seen cinema queues to match the length of those queues) and Dunkirk (probably because it was filmed in and around my home town, so it was part of our life for some weeks). Neither are on the above list, I see. I'm probably stuck in a time warp as I can only remember seeing about eight of the above and there are four or five on the list I've never heard of!

Peter
View user's profileSend private messageSend e-mail
Rich
Guest

Reply with quote
Peter..

Speaking of a time warp, I have a similar experience like you with 'Sink the Bismarck" when I saw it played in a theater. That film has stayed in my head for all the years. Of course it's probably one of my favorite films. I don't know why but perhaps it had something to do where I was sitting which was kind of in the 3rd or 4th row center. To see the battleships (no matter even if they were probably filmed in a bathtub or something!) trading fire on the high sea was an indelible image seared on my brain.
I felt I was right there. And when the Hood blew up oh boy...And all that responsibility Kenneth More had. Well, another thing is I think I fell for Dana Wynter..she was real pretty...well I was growing boy at the time, eh????.. Very Happy
Simon Rosbottom


Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 287
Location: London, UK
Reply with quote
From a post of mine last summer.

Simon Rosbottom wrote:
Hmmmm. Dana Wynter was the love interest in Sink the Bismarck. A friend of mine had dinner with her once in California and they got on ... let's say very, very, very well.

He only found out years later when their paths crossed once again (and when they were both married again) that that she had turned up at his hotel but he had just checked out..... She called it "The case of the missing Englishman" - as she is German.

_________________
Simon
View user's profileSend private message
Rich
Guest

Reply with quote
hehheheheh...lucky guy!.....now I didn't know she was German! Danke...I thought she was British.
Simon Rosbottom


Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 287
Location: London, UK
Reply with quote
The daughter of a noted surgeon, Dana Wynter was born Dagmar Winter in Berlin, Germany, and grew up in England.

_________________
Simon
View user's profileSend private message
Rich
Guest

Reply with quote
boy you learn something every day around here!...and you might know this...she was in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", one of the great sci-fi film of the paranoid '50's.....
Simon Rosbottom


Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 287
Location: London, UK
Reply with quote
She later went into TV. Ironside, Hawaii-Five-O, The Rockford Files, Magnum PI, Hart-to-Hart, The Love Boat .... Oh dear, has your opinion of her now dropped?

_________________
Simon
View user's profileSend private message
Rich
Guest

Reply with quote
hey Simon....I see you've been followin' her around too!... Wink
The Forces' Sweetheart
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
All times are GMT  
Page 1 of 2  

  
  
 Reply to topic