Not so much… Major Cook’s (who Redford was portraying) crossing of the Waal near Nijmegen and subsequent actions got him a Distinguished Service Cross and a knighthood from Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.
Very impressive. I remember reading when the movie first came out that there had been some dispute over showing Americans capture the bridge, but it would seem they did.
Ignorance fought!
Thanks!
And I’ll be the first to admit that when I saw U-571, I was pretty disgusted, being an American, and being aware of the Royal Navy’s role in obtaining the Enigma machines.
But the ignorance and chest-beating goes both ways; I got a nice long lecture once by a kindly elderly English gentleman and his grandson about how “Memphis Belle” was an American adaptation of the adventures of a British Lancaster crew’s final mission. :dubious:
Close enough. They’re out of bullets, and they have a gun. Might as well throw it at the thing. It probably won’t work, but they’re angry and scared, and so that doesn’t matter.
Plus, if Superman is any indication, the gun can hurt more than the bullets (as it’s a real object.)
Not just by driving through it but by overting commenting “You know what’s remarkable is how much England looks in no way like Southern California.”
(I’ll just mention in passing my other favorite Mike Myers film driving moment in Wayne’s World 2: he’s driving along with “Mrs Robinson” playing on the film soundtrack. The car goes through a tunnel - and the soundtrack fades out for the length of the tunnel.)
I don’t know how universal this is but I believe some jurisdictions actively require phones to make the noise to prevent covert picturetaking (particularly those of the up-skirt variety).
There’s always a shortcut.
Pretty much any travel scene through a familiar locale will be offputting. Chases or car trips through London seem to pass by every major landmark in no particular order for no particular reason. (This was lampshaded brilliantly at the beginning of Paddington where a cab journey from Paddington station to the Brown house in west London, which should have taken about five minutes, crosses Tower Bridge on the other side of town. Mr Brown complains about the detour, whereupon Matt Lucas’s cheeky cabbie quips that he thought the young bear might have wanted to see the sights.)
One of the things I learned from watching Chuck is that you can prevent a professional killer from shooting you by putting out your hand and shouting “Waitwaitwait!”. Apparently they are required by the Assassin’s Code to stop and ask what you want.
One more: exploding microwaves. Sometimes someone puts something in a microwave that will explode. Which it always does - when the microwave timer goes ‘ding’. Look (ha!), if you put a can of hairspray in the microwave and set it for 5 minutes it’s not going to wait until the last moment to start a fire. The worst culprit here is Grosse Point Blank where the guy puts an actual timebomb in the microwave, which explodes when the microwave timer goes off. THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS. Grr.
Did U-571 ever pretend that this was the story of THE capture of THE Engima machine? I don’t think they ever did. It’s just a war story, like Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. Do people get confused and think those stories are true? If anything, it’s inspired by the U-505 capture.
Besides, the Brits aren’t any better. Watch Imitation Game and you’d think Britain alone cracked the code, completely ignoring Poland’s significant contributions.
Have you ever been to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (where U-505 ended up)? They show a short documentary film on how the capture happened. It was nothing like U-571.
For me it’s badly done bondage scenes. I’m not talking about stuff that’s not first-quality fetish ropework with wrapping and frapping. I’m talking about collars that are so bigthey can easily be pulled off and over the wearer’s head. I’m talking aboutcuffs that are so big all the wearer has to do is slip his or her hands out of them. I’m talking about gags that are just stuffed in the mouth so that they can easily be spit out by the wearer should they desire to talk or scream for help. They’re often used for comic effect, as in Small Soldiers with Kiersten Dunst gagged with a toy duck.
“Inspired” is a word with a different meaning than you think. If I’d have meant “based on” I would have said that.
And yes, I even own the VHS (!) tape of the U-505 from MoS&I.