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on May 24, 2014
As a fan who has watched well over a hundred and fifty war movies, I appreciate author Robert Davenport's extensive work to capture in a single volume Hollywood's catalog of films set in 20th Century wars. It is definitely a fine resource.
Like most film guides, each film entry in the book begins with production data such as the year of release, the studio, producer, director, and cast. There's a brief description of the film's plot, often followed by Interesting Facts, Mistakes, Quotes, and Awards.
The treatment of the film entries is uneven and reflect the author's own interest in the film or history portrayed, and probably the access the author had to movie. The more famous and notable films tend to get significant coverage, where many of the lesser known films have little more information than one might expect in any movie guide (which is likely where it came from).
There is a great deal of useful information and trivia to whet the appetites of war film and military history fans like me. But this is where the irregular attention to detail has its drawbacks -- the more details one adds to a volume, the greater the likelihood error or significant omission. Editing was not very thorough, so for example, the plot description of the 1938 Jimmy Stewart movie "The Shopworn Angel" starts with "During World War I, Gary Cooper . . ." when Cooper is not in the film, which a simple check of the cast listing immediately above it would verify. (The author has listed EVERY cast member in each movie, and alphabetically, which not only unnecessarily lengthens the book, but makes it more difficult to pick out the film's stars.)
More importantly for me were the occasional errors in historical fact. For example:
- The Interesting Facts listed under "The Devil's Brigade" (1968) state that the brigade ". . . went on special missions to destroy hydroelectric stations in Norway and northern Italy and oil fields in Romania," when in fact, the 1st Special Service Force never fought in Norway or Romania, let alone destroy hydroelectric stations and oil fields.
- In the 3.5 pages dedicated to "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), the author notes as a Mistake "In the scene with Gen. George C. Marshall the general is wearing the general staff lapel insignia. Generals wear no branch lapel insignia at all. Their staff officers wear general staff insignia." That would be true under current Army uniform regulations, but every photograph of Gen. Marshall taken during WW2 shows that he did in fact wear general staff insignia as was the regulation and custom of that period.
- The description of "Pearl Harbor" (2001) -- a movie in which the author was professionally in production -- is a mere single sentence: "Two best friends, U.S Army aviators, love the same woman as they fight World War II." It is followed by 13 Interesting Facts -- all referring to movie production trivia -- but no Mistakes, despite the fact that film historian Larry Suid, PhD found and published over 30 historical errors.
- In the entry for "Flying Tigers" (1942), the author mistakenly writes under Interesting Facts that the American Volunteer Group (AVG) "disbanded in April 1942 (the time of the Doolittle Raid.)" Actually, the AVG was disbanded on July 4, 1942. But more importantly, the movie has a glaring error: the portrayal of the AVG going into aerial combat with the Japanese before Pearl Harbor, when in fact they were still forming on December 7, and did not see their first combat until December 20, 1941 -- the author apparently didn't catch this.
These are but a few of the errors that I have found. There are also a number of signficant films that are missing from the book, inclulding A Guy Named Joe; Tigerland; The Clock; See Here, Private Hargrove (and its sequel What Next, Corporal Hargrove?); Saboteur; The Courage of Lassie; The Canterville Ghost; Miracle at Morgan's Creek; Last Train to Madrid; and Hail the Conquering Hero. These omissions are noteworthy considering the many forgettable B-movies and obscure minor films that are listed in the book.
This book is obviously a subject that author feels passionate about (as do I), and I retain my copy as one of my war film references. It is informative and even entertaining, but it is not authoritative as the subtitle claims due to the uneven treatment of the films and many factual errors.
Like most film guides, each film entry in the book begins with production data such as the year of release, the studio, producer, director, and cast. There's a brief description of the film's plot, often followed by Interesting Facts, Mistakes, Quotes, and Awards.
The treatment of the film entries is uneven and reflect the author's own interest in the film or history portrayed, and probably the access the author had to movie. The more famous and notable films tend to get significant coverage, where many of the lesser known films have little more information than one might expect in any movie guide (which is likely where it came from).
There is a great deal of useful information and trivia to whet the appetites of war film and military history fans like me. But this is where the irregular attention to detail has its drawbacks -- the more details one adds to a volume, the greater the likelihood error or significant omission. Editing was not very thorough, so for example, the plot description of the 1938 Jimmy Stewart movie "The Shopworn Angel" starts with "During World War I, Gary Cooper . . ." when Cooper is not in the film, which a simple check of the cast listing immediately above it would verify. (The author has listed EVERY cast member in each movie, and alphabetically, which not only unnecessarily lengthens the book, but makes it more difficult to pick out the film's stars.)
More importantly for me were the occasional errors in historical fact. For example:
- The Interesting Facts listed under "The Devil's Brigade" (1968) state that the brigade ". . . went on special missions to destroy hydroelectric stations in Norway and northern Italy and oil fields in Romania," when in fact, the 1st Special Service Force never fought in Norway or Romania, let alone destroy hydroelectric stations and oil fields.
- In the 3.5 pages dedicated to "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), the author notes as a Mistake "In the scene with Gen. George C. Marshall the general is wearing the general staff lapel insignia. Generals wear no branch lapel insignia at all. Their staff officers wear general staff insignia." That would be true under current Army uniform regulations, but every photograph of Gen. Marshall taken during WW2 shows that he did in fact wear general staff insignia as was the regulation and custom of that period.
- The description of "Pearl Harbor" (2001) -- a movie in which the author was professionally in production -- is a mere single sentence: "Two best friends, U.S Army aviators, love the same woman as they fight World War II." It is followed by 13 Interesting Facts -- all referring to movie production trivia -- but no Mistakes, despite the fact that film historian Larry Suid, PhD found and published over 30 historical errors.
- In the entry for "Flying Tigers" (1942), the author mistakenly writes under Interesting Facts that the American Volunteer Group (AVG) "disbanded in April 1942 (the time of the Doolittle Raid.)" Actually, the AVG was disbanded on July 4, 1942. But more importantly, the movie has a glaring error: the portrayal of the AVG going into aerial combat with the Japanese before Pearl Harbor, when in fact they were still forming on December 7, and did not see their first combat until December 20, 1941 -- the author apparently didn't catch this.
These are but a few of the errors that I have found. There are also a number of signficant films that are missing from the book, inclulding A Guy Named Joe; Tigerland; The Clock; See Here, Private Hargrove (and its sequel What Next, Corporal Hargrove?); Saboteur; The Courage of Lassie; The Canterville Ghost; Miracle at Morgan's Creek; Last Train to Madrid; and Hail the Conquering Hero. These omissions are noteworthy considering the many forgettable B-movies and obscure minor films that are listed in the book.
This book is obviously a subject that author feels passionate about (as do I), and I retain my copy as one of my war film references. It is informative and even entertaining, but it is not authoritative as the subtitle claims due to the uneven treatment of the films and many factual errors.
on April 12, 2017
Product as described and shipped fast.