# Brainstorm some war movie ideas about underappreciated parts of the military! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 18, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828 "2009-03-18T01:52:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/41 "2009-03-19T16:11:12Z")
My husband is a retired Navy Supply Corps Officer. The nickname for a Supply Corps person is ‘Pork Chop’ – because their oak leaf insignia looks kinda like a pork chop, and also because they are in charge of (among other things) food. Anyway, my husband is always joking that someone needs to make a movie about the Supply Corps and call it _ **Top Chop.** _ ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/42 "2009-03-19T17:22:40Z")
In WW2, the China-Burma-India theater never got much attention. Between the Burmese jungles and the Himilaya mountains, you could have some spectacular visuals. Political stuff with the Americans, British, and Indians would make for some great human interest stories. Come to think of it, has anyone ever made a movie about the Gurkhas? The army Signal Corps in WW1. Stringing telegraph wires between HQ and the front lines, and taking care of carrier pigeons. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/43 "2009-03-19T17:25:00Z")
How about a movie about the Zulus or the Fuzzie-Wuzzies, told from the African point of view? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/44 "2009-03-19T18:19:12Z")
I always thought this was a cool concept - could make a great movie: [Q-ship - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q-ships) ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/45 "2009-03-19T18:27:43Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > [_Kelly’s Heroes._](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0065938/) > > Although I wouldn’t vouch for its authenticity - there was a dearth of hippie tank commanders during WW2, at least in the European Theater. The hell you say?!? I thought “Kelly’s Heroes” was a documentary! 😉 Don Rickles aka Crapgame: Then make a DEAL! Telly Salvalas aka Big Joe: What kind of deal? Crapgame: A DEAL, deal! Maybe the guy’s a Republican. “Business is business,” right? I love that movie. Sorry for the hijack. Carry on with your regularly scheduled post. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/46 "2009-03-19T21:04:28Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > How about a movie about the Zulus or the Fuzzie-Wuzzies, told from the African point of view? I thought the movie **Zulu!** was very good. While it was about the soldiers at Rourke’s Drift, it treated the Zulus with respect and showed what a formidable fighting army they were. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/47 "2009-03-19T21:10:04Z")
> [@awldune](#): > > Seems like there are very few movies about tank crews. I’m only aware of **The Beast** (1988), about the Soviet-Afghani war. _Kelly’s Heroes_ MAN! Kelly: Well Oddball, what do you think? Oddball: It’s a wasted trip baby. Nobody said nothing about locking horns with no Tigers. Big Joe: Hey look, you just keep them Tigers busy and we’ll take care of the rest. Oddball: The only way I got to keep them Tigers busy is to LET THEM SHOOT HOLES IN ME! Crapgame: Hey, Oddball, this is your hour of glory. And you’re chickening out! Oddball: To a New Yorker like you, a hero is some type of weird sandwich, not some nut who takes on three Tigers. Kelly: Nobody’s asking you to be a hero. Oddball: No? Then YOU sit up in that turret baby. Kelly: No, because you’re gonna be up there, baby, and I’ll be right outside showing you which way to go. Oddball: Yeah? Kelly: Yeah. Oddball: Crazy… I mean like, so many positive waves… maybe we can’t lose, you’re on! ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/48 "2009-03-20T00:07:37Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#): > > Sand Pebbles staring Steve McQueen. > > “Don’t break their rice bowl” Fantastic movie. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/49 "2009-03-20T05:27:23Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Fantastic movie. I was wondering if anyone would remember Sand Pebbles. I had people tell me that the main character reminded them of me. I like machinery. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/50 "2009-03-20T15:58:49Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > The army Signal Corps in WW1. Stringing telegraph wires between HQ and the front lines, and taking care of carrier pigeons. Hell, even nowadays, it’s rarely exciting. According to a buddy of mine who got back from his Iraq deployment a few months ago (he’s a battalion S6), it was dull, and he played a lot of Xbox and watched a lot of Sportscenter, except for the occasional mortar attack. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/51 "2009-03-20T20:01:37Z")
Yeah, but come on . . . carrier pigeons! There has got to be some comedy gold in there somewhere! On a more serious note, I think that the pigeon [Cher Ami](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cher_Ami) deserves a biopic. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/52 "2009-03-20T20:16:31Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Yeah, but come on . . . carrier pigeons! There has got to be some comedy gold in there somewhere!.. Look no further! [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361089/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361089/) ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/53 "2009-03-20T20:30:36Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Evidently the Army’s accountants have a long and proud history. After D-Day they parachuted in with their little accounting machines to make sure everybody was getting paid. My boyfriend says the little museum they have here at Fort Jackson is actually very interesting. they could join [the field bakery dudes](http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Germany/HB/img/30-451-08-122.jpg) I found the german ones, but I know the US had the same … My father refused to eat anything that could be made with bread, powdered eggs, dried chipped beef and powdered milk [ir shall we say stuff like french toast and shit on a shingle and scrambled eggs] because by fucking damn, they had no hot water, barely potable water but they had freaking bread trucks and powdered milk, powdered eggs and dried beef … Got to love the well meaning but mislead person who though hot fresh bread in the field for a combat unit was a great idea [ww2] when they would have preferred a hot shower, and hot coffee that wasnt boiled up in a helmet…and apparently the gernams would target them, so orders came down that they had to spend valuable sleeping time standing extra watch to guard the damned things. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/54 "2009-03-20T20:39:22Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I know this thread has basically been about American military, but I would really love a movie about the Rhodesian Bush War, specifically special forces like the Grey’s Scouts (who were a horse mounted tracking unit) or the Selous Scouts (who recruited native tribesmen and used all kinds of unorthodox guerrilla tactics.) I think the Rhodesian nation is a little too un-PC for a movie about it to fly, unfortunately. heh, i have a falcon tattoo, and one of my eve online pilots is named selous falk and flies a hund class ship=) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/55 "2009-03-20T21:01:07Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > The army Signal Corps in WW1. Stringing telegraph wires between HQ and the front lines, and taking care of carrier pigeons. I read somewhere that either during WWI or WWII, the Germans tried to use hawks (or some other predator birds) to hunt the Allied carrier pigeons, but they had to stop doing so, because the hawks would also hunt the German carrier pigeons. So that could be an amusing side plot in such a movie. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/56 "2009-03-20T22:47:35Z")
I remember reading that B.F. Skinner, the psychologist, was hired to teach pigeons to fly in unmanned drones, recognize when the drone was over target, and peck a button to release payloads. ---
**Author:** ![Old\_Goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/5daacb/32.png) [@Old\_Goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Goat)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/57 "2009-03-22T06:22:23Z")
Graves Registration or the true cost of the war. We used to say 'You kill ‘em, we chill ‘em’, or ‘Baggin’ and taggin’ and sending 'em home. Prior to that, I actually ran a field service bakery making bread in 400 lb batches. Intersting. Entirely self contained equipment, but set up in a metal warehouse with a concrete floor by the time I got there. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/58 "2009-03-22T06:56:09Z")
> [@Old\_Goat](#): > > Graves Registration or the true cost of the war. > We used to say 'You kill ‘em, we chill ‘em’, or ‘Baggin’ and taggin’ and sending 'em home. I’d imagine that you could make a pretty emotionally gripping movie about the guys who have to send word of soldiers’ deaths to loved ones, or the Marines whose job it is to escort the bodies of dead Marines home. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/59 "2009-03-22T09:59:06Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > I’d imagine that you could make a pretty emotionally gripping movie about the guys who have to send word of soldiers’ deaths to loved ones, or the Marines whose job it is to escort the bodies of dead Marines home. You might want to name it [Taking Chance](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019454/). Just brainstorming. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828/60 "2009-03-22T14:57:07Z")
I remember reading [a particular section](http://books.google.com/books?id=MxV_86EpdRIC&pg=RA2-PA105-IA2&lpg=RA2-PA106&output=html) of _A Higher Form of Killing_, an otherwise somber book about chemical and biological warfare, in high school and thinking it would make a great black comedy. It details the exploits of Stanley P. Lovell and his team at the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. They were charged by “Wild Bill” Donovan with the task of coming up with new and inventive “underhand tricks” that the enemy would never expect. I’d say they succeeded, at least in that respect. > [@](#): > > Lovell and two colleagues developed a simulated goat dung, to be dropped from Allied aircraft onto German-occupied Morocco during the North African campaign in 1942. > [@](#): > > Cats, it was suggested to the OSS, always land on their feet, and will go to any lengths to avoid water. Why not wire a cat up to a bomb, and sling both cat and attached high explosive below a bomber? When flying over enemy ships, the explosive cat would be released. The cat would be so concerned to avoid landing in the water that it could, it was argued, be virtually certain of guiding the bomb onto the deck of enemy warships. > [@](#): > > Lovell’s own favorite scheme was a plan to attack Hitler with female sex hormones One has to wonder what this group’s planning sessions were like. I envision something like _Mythbusters_, but gone horribly, horribly wrong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainstorm-some-war-movie-ideas-about-underappreciated-parts-of-the-military/489828.md?page=4)