WIs re books made into (war) movies

Melvin Loh

I believe that certain war movies adapted from books, made over the last couple yrs- such as BHD, WWS, HART'S WAR and BoB- would've been better had they stuck more to the storyline contained in the book, although they themselves were good movies.

BHD- better portrayal of Rangers Nelson, Twombly and Yurek- instead of being shown as bumbling incompetents left behind by the main Humvee convoy, should've followed the book with all these brave soldiers actually being the 1st guys to fight their way thru to the SUPER 6-1 crash-site + greater level of coverage should've been given to the 10th Mtn Div's part, and that of Malaysian and Pakistani peacekeepers, in the battle instead of the fleeting coverage of the QRF towards the movie's end

WWS- should have included some scenes showing NVA soldiers murdering wounded American cavalrymen in cold blood at both LZ X-RAY and ALBANY after 7th Cav positions were overrun- dealing with this controversial issue instead of completely ignoring it

HART'S WAR- should've followed the book more closely- depicting the British officers- Wing Cdr Price and Capt Renaday- who assist Tommy Hart in his defence of Tuskegee airman Lincoln Scott, in the trial for murdering Vic Bedford, instead of making the movie an entirely American show + movie portrayed the POW camp as being for Army personnel (Hart captured while serving as a 106th Inf Div GOLDEN LIONS staff officer, instead of the downed B25 crewman he was in the book, Col McNamara as a 1st ID BIG RED 1 officer, etc) instead of as captured USAAF crewmen as described in the book

Any thoughts ?
 

David Howery

Uh... BoB?
for some others, you could name the Patriot and Last of the Mohicans... beautiful movies, but waaay inaccurate...
 

Melvin Loh

BoB

Sorry, Dave, couldn't really think of 2 many hist errors from the BoB series-could you ?- since the episodes for the most part followed the book pretty well. There were some soldiers who played a prominent role in the book, such as Forrest Guth and John Eubanks, who weren't portrayed at all in the series, but perhaps that was inevitable given the already extensive cast of speaking roles. Maybe other incidents from the book could've been included in some episodes, such as in Holland, where Winters catches a British tank cdr taking his time having coffee in the home of a young attractive Dutch woman, which frustrates Winters so much that he basically chews out the Brit officer for dawdling while there's still a war to fight. Also, possibly with Col. Sink (played by Dale Dye), could there have been included more references to him as 'Bourbon Bob', to hint at the problems he was having with alcoholism at the time ? Then certain instances too with some of the guys who were wounded, which weren't really shown all that clearly on the movie, such as Compton at Normandy and Guarnere in Holland.
 

David Howery

actually, I was wondering just what BoB was.... it struck me later that it was probably Band of Brothers... which I haven't seen or read...
 
Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf

Donor
Ah, so thats what that one is - but what are BHD or WWS ?

Was not Fatherland a case where for some reason the adaptation to film changed the ending ? I seem to remember reading that it was, though I have never seen the film

Grey Wolf
 

Melvin Loh

Dave, you ain't never seen BoB ? I highly recommend watching the entire series, man, you're really missin' out as a hist buff if you haven't seen it yet.
 
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