Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[Macca]

This scene was lifted entirely for Star Wars, including the bit at the end where they think they've blown the damn but it turns out they haven't.

[struth]

they had to rename the dog, 'trigger, or tigger' for american audiences apparently. the dog wasnt as universally loved as film suggests, as it had a habit of pissing on people.

[struth]

although many debate the point of raid now, this was said at time..

The Dam Busters raids were hugely innovative and daring, but how much impact did they really have? At the time, there was much speculation. The mission was to cause mass flooding, crippling steelworks and other facilities and cause the enemy huge logistical problems.

Not everyone was convinced, however. Even after the event, Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris refused to budge on his earlier scepticism. In private, he wrote that the raids “achieved nothing compared with the effort and the loss”. Lancaster bombers were too valuable to have risked in this way, he was adamant.

Was it all a morale boosting stunt then, or something far greater? Perhaps the most telling evidence came from the Germans themselves. After the war it was revealed that the flood damage had caused chaos. Some 20,000 men were forced to redeploy to repair the dams and deal with the damage, rather than helping defend key strategic points in the conflict. The German Minister for Armaments himself, Albert Spear, declared it as “a disaster for us.”

For huge numbers of men and women stationed in the airfields of Lincolnshire, life was painfully tense. We can only imagine what passed through the minds of young pilots as they contemplated the mortal risks with every mission. The average age of RAF aircrew at the time has been estimated to be as low as 21. Almost three quarters (73%) were hurt or killed in action. Some 56% of those who flew with Bomber Command overall were killed in action or died of injuries.

In James Holland's recent book, Dam Busters: The Race to Smash the Dams, he states that "it is time to put the record straight". He insists that the damage was "absolutely enormous" and it was "an extraordinary achievement".

He points out that every bridge for 30 miles below the breached Mohne dam was destroyed, and buildings were damaged 40 miles away. Twelve war production factories were destroyed, and around 100 more were damaged. Thousands of acres of farmland were ruined.

Germans instantly referred to it after the raid as the "Mohne catastrophe". Even the cool Speer admitted that it was "a disaster for us for a number of months". German sources attribute a 400,000-tonne drop in coal production in May 1943 to the damage caused. Another German report into the effects of the raid talked about "considerable losses of production" caused by "the lack of water" and that "many shaft mines, coking plants, smelting works, power stations, fuel plants and armaments factories were shut down for several days".

The fact that a titanic effort was made to repair this damage shows how high a priority the dams were, and it meant resources were shifted from elsewhere. Nowhere was this costlier to the Third Reich than on the beaches of Normandy.

Hitler had ordered the construction of a massive network of defences against an Allied invasion. Now thousands of workers who should have been toiling in France were redirected to the Ruhr to repair the dams. A year later allied troops would have faced far more significant defences had it not been for the Dambusters raid.

No raid mounted by so few aircraft had ever caused such extensive material damage. It did not bring German war production to a permanent halt, but nobody had expected it to.

[struth]

great film... Squadron Leader George Leonard "Johnny" Johnson, MBE, DFM is last surviving dambuster. he is 100 yrs young.. he was 3 months younger than my dad(also in raf) and 22 when the raid went ahead...22 so many young guys died or were scarred for life especially in bomber command.

Selected to be part of the specialist No. 617 Squadron RAF, Johnson arrived at RAF Scampton on 27 March 1943. It was at this time that he was due to marry; however, due to the requirements of the training for Operation Chastise, all leave had been cancelled. Johnson appealed to his new Commanding Officer, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who eventually relented, giving Johnson four days' leave.

McCarthy's crew in Lancaster AJ-T (T-Tommy) were detailed to attack the Sorpe Dam, the structure of which differed considerably from the other main targets insofar as it being an earthen dam as opposed to the gravity construction of the Möhne and Eder dams, thus necessitating a completely different type of attack. Like the rest of No. 617 Squadron, Johnson had practised dropping his bomb as the aircraft flew straight towards the target at low level. However, on the afternoon prior to the raid, when the five crews detailed to attack the Sorpe Dam received their briefing, they were told that they had to fly along the dam wall and drop their mine at its centre. It would roll down the wall and explode when it reached the correct depth. The specialist bomb sight developed for the raid would also be of no use.

Due to various losses and technical issues en route to the target, AJ-T was the first Lancaster to reach the Sorpe, and McCarthy soon realised how difficult the attack would be. Although there were no flak batteries, the attack would require the aircraft to be flown low across the nearby town of Langscheid, with its prominent church steeple, followed by the aircraft having to drop even lower so the bomb could be released. It was not until the tenth attempt that the crew were satisfied, with Johnson finally releasing the bomb.

For his part in the raid, Johnson received the Distinguished Flying Medal.

[Barry]

There was far more loss of life to the Allies than to the Germans. Only 40% of the squadron returned after the first mission. Many of the bouncing bombs exploded harmlessly in the water, or bounced over the top of the dam walls, exploding in neighbouring fields.

Only the Möhne and Eder dams were seriously breached, causing the death of some 1,700 people, mostly captured Allied prisoners. The dams were quickly repaired, using forced prisponer-of-war labourers taken from the V-weapon programme; which meant the development of the A3 rocket was delayed and never deployed.

[struth]

The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1939. Rathbone and Bruce star....







The impressive interior set for Baskerville Hall was subsequently recycled by Fox, most notably for their last Charlie Chan feature, Castle in the Desert (1942).

Publicity materials referred to the dog who played the title character as "Chief". The dog's real name was "Blitzen", but this was thought to sound too German.

Watson's revolver in this film is easily identifiable as a Colt Single Action Army, aka the Peacemaker, widely identified with the American "Wild West." However, over 5300 of these were sold in England through Colt's Pall Mall agent between 1874 and 1912, and were chambered in nearly every caliber approved by the British Army. Since officers (like Watson) purchased their own sidearms, this is, somewhat counter-intuitively, one of the more realistic choices made by a film maker of what Watson's service revolver might have actually been.

The film inspired the Grateful Dead song "Dire Wolf".

[struth]

There was far more loss of life to the Allies than to the Germans. Only 40% of the squadron returned after the first mission. Many of the bouncing bombs exploded harmlessly in the water, or bounced over the top of the dam walls, exploding in neighbouring fields.

Only the Möhne and Eder dams were seriously breached, causing the death of some 1,700 people, mostly captured Allied prisoners. The dams were quickly repaired, using forced prisponer-of-war labourers taken from the V-weapon programme; which meant the development of the A3 rocket was delayed and never deployed.

think there were 5/600 german deaths. the rest were mostly pows and forced labour;

[struth]

Bicentennial Man, 1999. Robin Williams stars, from a short story by Isaac Asimov.






When Andrew regales the family with jokes, the jokes themselves were unscripted. Robin Williams ad-libbed all of the jokes. The other actors' reactions to the jokes and their laughter are real.

The aria that Andrew is listening to when he first uses the record player is from Dvorak's opera "Rusalka." The opera is concerned with the fairy-tale story of a water nymph who wants to become mortal for love.

Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which govern all the robots in his stories, are as follows: First Law - A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second Law - A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third Law - A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

[walpurgis]

Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which govern all the robots in his stories, are as follows: First Law - A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second Law - A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third Law - A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

People have been injured by robots and probably fatally too. Not the sentient humanoid type though, if there are really any yet.

Not sure how you'd reconcile Azimov's rules with the idea of robot soldiers

[struth]

It was an excellent film.

now, Dances with Wolves, 1990. Kevin Costner directs and stars in this western epic.





Because of the film's enormous success and sympathetic treatment of the Native Americans, the Sioux Nation adopted Kevin Costner as an honorary member.

Kevin Costner did all his own riding, including bareback and shooting his gun without holding the reins, during the buffalo hunt.

During the scene where the buffalo is charging at Smiles a Lot, the buffalo is actually charging at a pile of its favorite treat: Oreo cookies. (lol)

In the skinned buffalo scene, fake animals made of paper were used and looked very realistic. A passerby called the police during filming and they showed up with guns drawn ready to arrest the crew for poaching. After some explanations, the cops left laughing.