Catch-22 lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Mike Nichols and Paramount Pictures delivered the offbeat WW II comedy Catch-22 to movie theaters in 1970. Alan Arkin stars as the mad bombardier, with Richard Benjamin, Martin Balsam and Art Garfunkel along for the turbulent ride into the wild blue.

Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 Novel

Catch-22 is based on the 1961 novel of the same name by American writer Joseph Heller (1923-1999). In 1941, Heller joined the United States Army Air Corps, where he eventually logged 60 combat missions as a bombardier with the U.S. 12th Air Force during World War II.

While working as a copywriter for a small advertising agency in the early 1950s, Heller began writing Catch-22. “I wrote the first chapter in longhand one morning in 1953, hunched over my desk at the advertising agency – from ideas and words that had leaped into my mind only the night before,” Heller recalled in an interview.

Heller’s first chapter appeared under the title Catch-18 in the quarterly New World Writing #7 in 1955, earning him $25. Heller eventually expanded his WW II story into a full-length novel, now retitled Catch-22 in order to distinguish it from Leon Uris’ Mila 18, which was published by Simon & Schuster on November 10, 1961.

Numbering 443 pages and priced at $5.95, Catch-22 garnered mixed reviews. Giving the book a big thumbs-up was Nelson Algren in The Nation (11/4/61), who reported: “Below its hilarity, so wild that it hurts, Catch-22 is the strongest repudiation of our civilization, in fiction, to come out of World War II…”

Mike Nichols Directs Catch-22

John Calley and Martin Ransohoff produced Catch-22 for Filmways Productions. Buck Henry wrote the screenplay and Mike Nichols (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Carnal Knowledge) directed, with the latter earning $1 million for his services.

Alan Arkin (Capt. John Yossarian), Richard Benjamin (Maj. Danby) and Martin Balsam (Col. Cathcart) head the strong cast. Other players include Art Garfunkel (Capt. Nately), Jack Gilford (Doc Daneeka), Buck Henry (Lt. Col. Korn), Bob Newhart (Maj. Major), Anthony Perkins (Capt. A.T. Tappman), Paula Prentiss (Nurse Duckett), Martin Sheen (Lt. Dobbs), Jon Voight (Lt. Milo Minderbinder), Orson Welles (Gen. Dreedle), Bob Balaban (Capt. Orr), Susanne Benton (Dreedle’s Buxom WAC), Norman Fell (Sgt. Towser), Charles Grodin (Capt. Aarfy Aardvark) and Peter Bonerz (Capt. J.S. McWatt).

Catch-22 Filmed in Mexico and Italy

Budgeted at $18 million, Catch-22 was filmed from January to August 1969. Shooting in Guaymas and San Carlos, Mexico, consumed six months, as cinematographer David Watkin could only film a few hours in the afternoon in order to capture the same, even lighting. The production company also traveled to Rome, Italy, in order to lend the movie some on-location authenticity.

The picture’s principal props were 18 B-25 Mitchell bombers, of which 17 were flyable. The one vintage aircraft that was not was employed in the crash-landing scene, where it was burned and destroyed by the special effects team.

Catch-22 suffered one fatality during filming when second unit director John Jordan, who had always refused to wear a safety harness, was sucked out of an airplane’s open doorway on May 16, 1969. The 44-year-old Jordan plummeted to his death 2,000 feet below into the Gulf of Mexico.

Catch-22: World War II Movie Comedy

Catch-22 opens on the island of Pianosa off the Italian coast. A first-light mission is underway, with a small fleet of B-25 Mitchells embarking from the island base. Watching the mission unfold is Captain John Yossarian, who, after discarding his bombardier wings, is stabbed by a shadowy figure.

Yossarian is seen in earlier days, engaging in nonsensical conversation with his fellow officers in the mess hall. Yossarian later pays a visit to the flight surgeon, informing him that he no longer wishes to fly because “it’s dangerous.” Doc Daneeka replies that he can’t certify Yossarian crazy because of an illogical, unwritten rule known as “Catch-22.”

An array of characters parade through the proceedings, including Lt. Milo Minderbinder, the head of M&M Enterprises who is heavily invested in the black market; Captain A.T. Tappman, the ineffective base chaplain of the Anabaptist faith; the callous Colonel Cathcart, who keeps increasing the number of combat missions needed to go home; would-be assassin Lt. Dobbs, who attempts to eliminate the hated Cathcart; and the pompous General Dreedle, who awards medals following a mission where 20 tons of ordnance was harmlessly dropped into the Mediterranean.

The height of insanity comes when Yossarian confronts Captain Aardvark, who murdered an Italian prostitute and dumped her body out of a window. The MPs arrive, but instead of arresting Aardvark they haul away Yossarian for being AWOL.

Catch-22 Opens in New York City

Catch-22 opened at New York City’s Paramount and Sutton Theaters on June 24, 1970.   

“Catch-22…is, quite simply, the best American film I’ve seen this year. It looks and sounds like a big-budget, commercial service comedy, but it comes as close as being an epic human comedy as Hollywood has ever made…” reported Vincent Canby of The New York Times (6/25/70).

“Mike Nichols’ Catch-22 is a disappointment, and not simply because it fails to do justice to the Heller novel…The movie divides in the middle; the first half is funny, the second is not,” offered Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Catch-22 Box Office, Trivia, DVD

• Catch-22 grossed $12.250 million, earning the #10 slot on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1970.
• Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 was not an immediate success. But following praise from comic writer S.J. Perelman, sales of the novel began to take off.
• Understanding Catch-22: The “22″ refers to the number of combat missions needed to go home, with the “catch” being that the top brass can increase the magic number at any time.
• George C. Scott was offered the role of Colonel Cathcart but turned it down, declaring that he had already played a similar character, the wacky General “Buck” Turgidson, in Dr. Strangelove (1964).
• Second unit director John Jordan (1925-1969), killed while filming Catch-22, had to have his leg amputated following an airborne mishap with a helicopter rotor blade while filming You Only Live Twice (1967).
• Milo Minderbinder tries to corner the market in Egyptian cotton.
• Yossarian is lead bombardier for the 256th Squadron.
• TV remake and unsold pilot: Catch-22, telecast over ABC on May 21, 1973, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Dana Elcar.
• On DVD: Catch-22 (Paramount, 2001).

“Let me see if I’ve got this straight. In order to be grounded, I’ve got to be crazy and I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I’m not crazy any more and I have to keep flying,” Yossarian asks Doc Daneeka.

Right, that’s Catch-22, or thereabouts…

Lee Marvin in The Big Red One, image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Samuel Fuller and United Artists delivered the gripping war drama The Big Red One to movie theaters in 1980. Lee Marvin plays the old, grizzled sergeant, with Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco and Kelly Ward as his young charges.

Samuel Fuller and U.S. Army’s First Infantry Division 

The Big Red One garners its title from the United States Army’s First Infantry Division, whose members sport the distinctive big red 1 patch on their uniforms. The division’s history begins in 1917, when the American Expeditionary Force arrived in France under the command of General John “Blackjack” Pershing. The “Fighting First” would later distinguish itself in a number of WW I battles at places like Cantigny, Soissons, St. Mihiel and the bloody Argonne Forest. The division’s exploits would continue into World War II, Vietnam, Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Samuel Fuller served with The Big Red One in World War II, where he fought in the division’s campaigns from North Africa to Europe. Awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart, Fuller and his division completed their long journey across Nazi-occupied Europe in 1945 when they liberated the Falkenau Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia. Following a pitched battle between the Americans and die-hard Nazi SS guards, Fuller had employed his own 16mm movie camera, personally recording the camp’s horrors.

Lee Marvin Stars in The Big Red One

Produced by Gene Corman for Lorimar Productions, The Big Red One was scripted and directed by Samuel Fuller (The Steel Helmet, Hell and High Water, Merrill’s Marauders). Dana Kaproff created the original music score and Adam Greenberg served as cinematographer.

Lee Marvin (The Sergeant), Mark Hamill (Pvt. Griff), Robert Carradine (Pvt. Zab) and Bobby Di Cicco (Pvt. Vinci) head the cast. Other players include Kelly Ward (Pvt. Johnson), Stephane Audran (Underground Asylum Fighter), Siegfried Rauch (Schroeder), Serge Marquand (Rensonnet), Charles Macaulay (General/Captain), Alain Doutey (Broban), Maurice Marsac (Vichy Colonel) and Perry Land (Pvt. Kaiser).

Samuel Fuller makes a cameo appearance as a cigar-chomping Army cameraman who instructs the soldiers to wave at the camera.  

The Big Red One Filmed in Israel

Much of The Big Red One was filmed in Israel. It was a little unsettling for some to see Israelis playing German Wehrmacht and SS soldiers. When a scene was completed, they would take off their helmets, often revealing yarmulkes underneath. And in between takes, Jewish actors could be glimpsed lounging around the set in full Nazi costume, conversing in Hebrew or reading the Torah.

Other aspects of the picture were shot in Ireland and California. The brutal winter war scenes were filmed at Big Bear in California’s San Bernardino National Forest.

The Big Red One in World War II

The movie opens in 1918, where The Sergeant is locked in deadly hand-to-hand combat with an enemy soldier. Upon killing the German, The Sergeant returns to headquarters only to learn that the Great War had ended four hours earlier and that the “Hun” was merely trying to surrender.

Fast forward to World War II, where The Sergeant is once again in combat, leading his raw recruits in Operation Torch, the 1942 Allied invasion of North Africa. This is only the first leg on their long, arduous trek as the Sicily campaign, the D-Day landings at bloody Omaha Beach, the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest and the final push into Nazi-held Czechoslovakia await them.

Along the way The Sergeant and his “Four Horsemen” experience the horrors and pathos of war, losing comrades in battle, delivering a baby in a tank and coming face-to-face with Hitler’s Final Solution at Falkenau Concentration Camp. One of the film’s strongest scenes takes place at the latter, where a young American soldier, confronted with the Nazi death ovens, continues to shoot an SS guard long after the man has died.

The Big Red One Opens in New York City

The Big Red One opened in New York City on July 18, 1980.

“A handsome, technically first-rate, almost leisurely recollection of the World War II experiences of five American soldiers, from the landings in North Africa in 1942 until the collapse of Germany in 1945,” reported Vincent Canby of The New York Times (7/18/80).

“Sam Fuller’s The Big Red One is a lot of war stories strung together in a row, almost as if the director filmed it for the thirty-fifth reunion of his old Army outfit, and didn’t want to leave anybody out,” observed Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

“The Big Red One was two years in the making and 35 years in Samuel Fuller’s head. It’s a terrific war yarn, a picture of palpable raw power which manages both intense intimacy and great scope at the same time,” announced Variety.

The Big Red One Trivia, DVD

• Lee Marvin (1924-1987) saw combat with the U.S. Marines during World War II.
• The Big Red One began filming in 1978. At over four hours, the movie was edited by Lorimar Productions to a more commercially feasible two hours, much to the dismay of its progenitor.
• Samuel Fuller passed away at age 85 in Hollywood, California, on October 30, 1997.
• The Big Red One: The Reconstruction Two-Disc Special Edition DVD was released by Warner in 2005, along with an accompanying documentary titled The Real Glory: Reconstructing The Big Red One. The former was produced by film historian Richard Schickel who with film editor Bryan McKenzie collected additional footage found in a vault in Kansas City, Missouri. The two then worked from Sam Fuller’s shooting script, creating a longer movie which they felt more resembled the director’s original version.
• “The Reconstruction, which clocks in at 2 hours, 43 minutes, with not a single extraneous frame, elevates the work from a robust genre film to a full-blown epic…” crowed Kevin Crust of the Los Angeles Times (1/21/05) on the restored DVD.

“You know how you smoke out a sniper? You send a guy out in the open and you see if he gets shot. They thought that up at West Point,” Private Zab informs the viewer.

Private Zab doesn’t like the Army brass…

Apocalypse Now lobby card set image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Francis Ford Coppola and United Artists brought Apocalypse Now to movie theaters in 1979. Martin Sheen plays a U.S. Army assassin, with Marlon Brando as his quarry.

Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is loosely based on the 1902 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay for Zoetrope Studios, with Coppola also directing. Carmine Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola created the original music score and Vittorio Storaro served as cinematographer.

Martin Sheen (Captain Benjamin L. Willard), Marlon Brando (Colonel Walter E. Kurtz) and Robert Duvall (Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore) head the cast. Other players include Frederic Forrest (Jay “Chef” Hicks), Sam Bottoms (Lance B. Johnson), Laurence Fishburne (Tyrone “Clean” Miller), Albert Hall (Chief Phillips), Harrison Ford (Colonel Lucas), Dennis Hopper (Photojournalist), G.D. Spradlin (General Corman), Jerry Ziesmer (Jerry), Scott Glenn (Lt. Richard M. Colby), Bo Byers (MP Sergeant #1), Cynthia Wood (Playmate of the Year), Colleen Camp (Miss May), Linda Carpenter (Playmate), James Keane (Kilgore’s Gunner) and Jack Thibeau (Soldier in Trench).

Making a cameo appearance as the director of a television news crew (”Don’t look at the camera, keep on fighting!…”) is a bearded Francis Ford Coppola.

Apocalypse Now Filmed in the Philippines

Apocalypse Now began filming in the Philippines in 1976 where the production team experienced a series of disasters. A raging typhoon wreaked havoc with the sets; a communist insurrection threatened cast and crew; the Philippine military commandeered the company’s rented helicopters to fight the rebels; Martin Sheen suffered a heart attack, and an indifferent Marlon Brando failed to learn his lines.

After 16 tortuous months of filming, the picture’s budget had swelled from $12 million to over $31 million. Finally, when all the jungle dust had settled three years later, producer Francis Ford Coppola had his war film. He then hurriedly pieced the finished product together in order to get it into release and satisfy his anxious creditors.

Apocalypse Now: The Ultimate Vietnam War Film

Apocalypse Now opens with Jim Morrison and the Doors’ rendition of “The End” amidst thumping helicopter blades and a spectacular napalm strike. An alcohol-debilitated Captain Willard is seen in his Saigon hotel room, impatiently waiting for another covert mission.

Willard, who is attached to the 505th Battalion, 173rd Airborne, SOG (Special Operations Group), is later transported by chopper to a high-level intelligence briefing. Here a three-star general and his aide apprise him of his latest assignment. He is to proceed up river by Navy PBR boat into Cambodia, where renegade Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz now commands his own personal army of Montagnard tribesmen. Willard is to “terminate the colonel’s command – with extreme prejudice.”

Captain Willard’s mission proves to be a surreal odyssey through the Vietnam War. Along the way he encounters a surfing-mad Air Cavalry colonel, a wild USO show featuring a trio of Playboy Playmates, a Vietnamese sampan whose occupants are slaughtered by a trigger-happy Navy gunner, a gonzo American photojournalist and, at journey’s end, the mad Colonel Kurtz himself.

Apocalypse Now Debuts at Cannes Film Festival

Apocalypse Now was first shown at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on May 10, 1979, where it won a Golden Palm award. “My film is not about Vietnam,” Francis Ford Coppola told the assembled media. “My film is Vietnam.”

“Apocalypse Now is a stunning work. It’s as technically complex and masterful as any war film I can remember, including David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai…” crowed Vincent Canby of The New York Times (8/15/79).

“Years and years from now…’Apocalypse’ will stand, I think, as a grand and grave and insanely inspired gesture of filmmaking – of moments that are operatic in their style and scope, and of other moments so silent we can almost hear the director thinking to himself,” reported Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times (6/1/79).

Apocalypse Now Box Office, Academy Award Nominations, Most Memorable Scene, DVD

• Apocalypse Now grossed $37.980 million at the American box office, good for the #6 position on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1979.
• Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Duvall), Best Film Editing, Best Screenplay, Best Sound (won), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography (won).
• Most memorable scene: Robert Duvall’s ode to napalm, while standing on a Vietnamese beach following a fighter jet strike in the surrounding jungle. “Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning…The smell, you know that gasoline smell…It smells like – victory.”
• Apocalypse Now Redux, which includes an additional 53 minutes, was released to selected American movie theaters on August 3, 2001. Featured in this restored version is the PBR’s “lost” stop at the fog-shrouded French rubber plantation.
• On DVD: Apocalypse Now - The Complete Dossier (Paramount, 2006).

“Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission. And for my sins they gave me one,” Martin Sheen intones at the beginning of the film.

Listen closely, and one can still hear Richard Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyries” from the opera Die Walkure – the music blared from Colonel Kilgore’s helicopters during the attack on the Viet Cong fishing village… 

Billy Jack lobby cards image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Warner Bros. brought Billy Jack to movie theaters in 1971. Tom Laughlin has the title role as the high-kicking Vietnam vet, with Delores Taylor, Clark Howat, Bert Freed and Kenneth Tobey along for the violent ride.

Billy Jack in The Born Losers

The Billy Jack character made his debut in the 1967 biker film The Born Losers. Released by American International Pictures, The Born Losers featured Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack, a half-breed martial arts expert who battles an outlaw biker gang in a small California town.

Budgeted at a miniscule $360,000, The Born Losers was deemed so violent that Sweden banned the picture from its shores in 1968, 1972 and 1975.

Tom Laughlin Directs Billy Jack

Tom Laughlin and real-life spouse Delores Taylor wrote Billy Jack under the pseudonyms Frank and Teresa Christina. As with The Born Losers, Laughlin once again directed under the moniker T.C. Frank, derived from the names of his two children, Frank and Teresa Christina.

Mundell Lowe created the original music score, which included the film’s spirited title song, “One Tin Soldier,” performed by Jinx Dawson of Coven. Released as Warner Bros. single 7509, “One Tin Soldier” graced the Billboard Top 100 for 12 weeks, peaking at #26.

Billy Jack Cast

Tom Laughlin (Billy Jack) and Delores Taylor (Jean Roberts) head the cast. Other players include Clark Howat (Sheriff Cole), Bert Freed (Stuart Posner), Julie Webb (Barbara), Kenneth Tobey (Deputy Sheriff Mike), Victor Izay (Doctor), Debbie Schock (Kit), Stan Rice (Martin), Lynn Baker (Sarah), Teresa Kelly (Carol), David Roya (Bernard Posner), John McClure (Dinosaur), Susan Foster (Cindy a.k.a. Little Miss Up Yours), Susan Sosa (Sunshine), Katy Moffatt (Maria), Gwenn Smith (Angela), Richard Stahl (Council Chairman), Alan Myerson (O.K. Corrales) and Ed Greenberg (Drama Teacher).

Howard Hesseman, who later found fame as Dr. Johnny Fever on CBS-TV’s WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-82), appears as Howard Johnson under the name Don Sturdy.

Billy Jack Filmed in New Mexico

Budgeted at $800,000, much of Billy Jack was filmed at the Eaves Movie Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Other locations used were Los Alamos, New Mexico; Prescott, Arizona, and Imperial County, California.

Hapkido karate master Bong Soo Han expertly staged the movie’s martial arts scenes involving the twisting, high-kicking Billy Jack. Han also doubled for star Tom Laughlin in some of the more difficult fight sequences, displaying the now-famous Outside Crescent Kick.  

Billy Jack Studio Wars

Like The Born Losers, Billy Jack was originally to be released by American International Pictures. Because of studio interference, however, Tom Laughlin opted out of the AIP deal and took his film to Twentieth Century-Fox.

After learning that Fox might re-edit Billy Jack, the maverick Laughlin bought back his movie for $100,000. He then sold Billy Jack to Warner Bros. for $1.8 million and a whopping 45% of the film’s subsequent profits. In 1973, a disgruntled Laughlin sued Warner Bros. for $51 million, alleging that Billy Jack had been improperly publicized.

Billy Jack Set in the American Southwest

Billy Jack opens in majestic style, with a stunning aerial shot of a herd of wild horses racing through the canyons of the great American Southwest.

The motion picture centers on Billy Jack, described as “a war hero who hated the war.” An ex-Green Beret and Vietnam veteran, the mysterious Billy defends the persecuted and downtrodden against the locals headed by town boss Stuart Posner.

Posner’s son, Bernard, who pals around with a hulking sidekick named Dinosaur, is every bit as mean as the old man, habitually harassing the students who attend Jean Roberts’ Freedom School. Jean is an avowed pacifist, but boyfriend Billy Jack is decidedly not, as he continually demonstrates his martial arts skills in a series of violent encounters with the racist townsfolk.

Billy Jack is brimming with social idealism and violent action, with the latter including a dust-up at an ice cream parlor, a brawl at a city park, a brand new Corvette plunging into a lake, multiple killer karate chops and kicks, and a climactic shootout at an old adobe church.

Billy Jack Release and Reviews

Billy Jack was first trade-screened in Hollywood in the spring of 1971. The movie later went into limited release on May 1, 1971.

“For a picture that preaches pacifism, Billy Jack seems fascinated by violence, of which it is full,” reported Howard Thompson of The New York Times (7/29/71).

“Specious and mawkish as it is, Billy Jack has energy to burn: it’s deadly stuff but at least it doesn’t die on screen,” observed Gary Arnold of The Washington Post (8/7/71).

“There is essentially just one difference between Billy Jack and those countless oaters on which John Wayne has built a fortune and a personal credo. In this one, the good guys are youthful long-hairs and Indians, and the bad guys are your standard, paunchy pols, fat-cat capitalists, beer-guzzling ruffians, and cops…” opined Jerry Parker of Newsday (7/29/71).

Billy Jack Box Office, Golden Globe Nomination, Sequels, Movie Memorabilia, DVD

• Billy Jack proved to be a sleeper hit at the box office, grossing $32.5 million, good for the #2 position on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1971.
• Delores Taylor earned a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Female Newcomer.
• Billy Jack sequels: The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) and Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977).
• Auction results for original Billy Jack movie material, courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries, Dallas, Texas: one sheet poster ($62), Polish poster ($59), international one sheet poster ($262.90), lot of seven lobby cards ($51), 1973 reissue poster ($11).
• On DVD: The Complete Billy Jack Collection (Image, 2009).

“I’m gonna take this right foot, and I’m gonna whop you on that side of your face, and you wanna know something? There’s not a damn thing you’re gonna be able to do about it,” Billy tells Stuart Posner.

Right on!

The Final Countdown insert movie poster image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Director Don Taylor and United Artists brought the fantastic The Final Countdown to movie theaters in 1980. Kirk Douglas stars as the captain of the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz, with Martin Sheen and James Farentino also on board. 

Don Taylor Directs The Final Countdown

Thomas Hunter, Peter Powell, David Ambrose and Gerry Davis wrote the screenplay for Kirk Douglas’ Bryna Productions, Polyc International BV and United Artists. The story’s original setting was World War I, but that was changed in favor of the Pearl Harbor attack, which heralded America’s entry into the Second World War.

Actor Don Taylor (1920-1998) directed the picture. At the time, Taylor’s directorial credits had largely been confined to episodic television and made-for-TV movies. In 1971, however, he had directed the science fiction feature film Escape from the Planet of the Apes.

Kirk Douglas Heads The Final Countdown Cast

Kirk Douglas stars as Captain Matthew Yelland. Other players include Martin Sheen (Warren Lasky), Katharine Ross (Laurel Scott/Mrs. Tideman), James Farentino (Command Richard T. Owens/Richard Tideman), Ron O’Neal (Commander Dan Thurman), Charles Durning (Senator Samuel Chapman), Victor Mohica (Black Cloud), James C. Lawrence (Lt. Perry), Soon-Tek Oh (Simura), Joe Lowry (Commander Damon), Alvin Ing (Lt. Kajima) and the crew of the USS Nimitz.

The Final Countdown Filmed Aboard the USS Nimitz

Much of The Final Countdown was filmed aboard the USS Nimitz during the aircraft carrier’s September 1979 to May 1980 deployment in the Atlantic Ocean. Reportedly, shooting had to be wrapped up early so the Nimitz could return to her home port in Norfolk, Virginia, in order to take on helicopters and crew. They were subsequently deployed in Operation Eagle Claw, the unsuccessful April 24, 1980, rescue attempt to free the American hostages in Iran.

Other U.S. military locations employed in the film included Pearl Harbor Naval Station in Hawaii and Naval Air Station in Key West, Florida.

Thanks to the cooperation of the United States Navy, real F-14A Tomcats flying off the Nimitz were used during filming. Portraying the enemy aircraft were specially-modified AT-6 Texan trainers, mocked up to look like the A6M2 Mitsubishi Japanese Zero of World War II infamy.

All ten aviation squadrons aboard the Nimitz garnered camera time: VF-41 and VF-84 (Tomcats), VA-35 (Intruders), VA-82 and VA-86 (Corsair II’s), VFP-63 (Crusaders), VAQ-134 (Prowlers), VS-24 (Vikings), VAW-112 (Hawkeyes) and HS-9 (Sea King helicopters).

In order to capture the Tomcats and mock-up Zeros in the same camera shot, the Zeros flew at full throttle while the technologically superior Tomcats slowed down to near stall speed. Performing one of the movie’s best flying stunts was Commander Richard “Fox” Farrell, executive officer of VF-84 (The Jolly Rogers), whose Tomcat is seen coming perilously close to the water before pulling up for altitude.

The USS Nimitz Returns to Pearl Harbor Attack

The year is 1980, and the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz is preparing to embark on a training mission from Pearl Harbor. Coming aboard as a civilian adviser is Warren Lasky, who secretly works for mysterious Tideman Industries.

While deployed in the Pacific the Nimitz is engulfed by a freakish electromagnetic storm, which temporarily renders the crew unconscious. Upon awakening, the storm has passed, but normal communications are inoperable, save for old World War II news broadcasts and a radio skit from The Jack Benny Show.

Unsure of their present position, Captain Matt Yelland dispatches an F-8 Crusader and two F-14A Tomcats on a search and report mission. The Tomcats soon encounter a pair of Japanese Zeros of WW II vintage, who strafe a pleasure boat occupied by Senator Samuel Chapman. The senator and his aide, Laurel Scott, along with a dog named Charlie, manage to escape the burning craft while the Tomcats distract the Zeros.

Captain Yelland and the crew of the Nimitz later discover the hard truth. The date is December 7, 1941, and at dawn a Japanese strike force will hit Pearl Harbor in a lightning attack, plunging the United States into World War II.

The Nimitz skipper now readies his own strike force, preparing to meet the Japanese invaders head-on before they reach Hawaii. But ominously brewing on the horizon is another preternatural storm, which is gradually closing in on the Nimitz.

Release, Reviews

The Final Countdown hit American movie theaters on August 1, 1980.

“This is the kind of movie that some kids would probably enjoy – it’s filled with technology, special effects and action. But it just doesn’t make any sense,” observed Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times (8/5/80).

“As a documentary on the USS Nimitz, The Final Countdown is wonderful. As entertainment, however, it has the feeling of a telepic that strayed onto the big screen,” reported Variety.

The Final Countdown Box Office, DVD

• The Final Countdown grossed $16,647,800 at the American box office, earning the #42 position on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1980.
• On DVD: The Final Countdown Widescreen Edition (Blue Underground, 2004).

“If the United States falls under attack our job is to defend her in the past, present and future,” argues Kirk Douglas as the skipper.

No doubt President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would agree, back for a belated fifth term as Commander in Chief…

Image via Wikipedia

Often called “The Forgotten War,” the Korean Conflict raged with bloody ferocity from June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953. The Korean War brought into our vernacular such buzzwords as the 38th Parallel, MIG Alley, Pusan, the Frozen Chosen Reservoir, Chicoms and Inchon.

Here are seven “unforgettable” Korean War movies that best capture the essence of the conflict. Fix bayonets!

1. Pork Chop Hill (United Artists, 1959)

Lewis Milestone directed this compelling drama that features elements of the U.S. Army’s 7th Division and their struggle to control an apparently insignificant piece of real estate in the waning days of the Korean War. Based on the book by noted military historian S.L.A. Marshall and expertly scripted by James R. Webb, Pork Chop Hill stars Gregory Peck (Lt. Joe Clemons) and a gallery of young, up-and-coming actors, including Rip Torn (Lt. Walter Russel), Harry Guardino (Pvt. Forstman), Norman Fell (Sgt. Coleman), George Peppard (Cpl. Chuck Fedderson), James Edwards (Cpl. Jurgens) and Martin Landau (Lt. Marshall).

“Pork Chop Hill is a grim, utterly realistic story that drives home both the irony of war and the courage men can summon to die in a cause which they don’t understand…” reported Variety.

• On DVD: Pork Chop Hill (MGM, 1999)

2. War Hunt (United Artists, 1962)

One of the true lost gems in the genre, War Hunt garners most of its fame in that it marks the motion picture debut of Robert Redford in the role of Private Roy Loomis. Also on board are John Saxon (Pvt. Raymond Endore), Charles Aidman (Capt. Wallace Pratt), Sydney Pollack (Sgt. Owen Van Horn), Tommy Matsuda (Charlie), Gavin MacLeod (Pvt. Crotty) and Tom Skerritt (Stan Showalter).

John Saxon is absolutely riveting, playing an American soldier who relentlessly hunts the enemy, embarking on solo night patrols where he silently kills by knife. In one scene Saxon stealthily takes out a North Korean unfriendly, performing a little war dance over the corpse. Providing the moral counterweight to Saxon – who continues his murderous patrols even though the war has ended – is the 26-year-old Redford.

Stanford Whitmore penned the taut screenplay and Denis Sanders directed. Cast member Sydney Pollack later found fame as a director (Jeremiah Johnson, Out of Africa).

“If you want to see one of the most original and haunting war movies in years, don’t miss War Hunt…” urged Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (8/8/62).

• On DVD: War Hunt (MGM, 2003)

3. The Steel Helmet (Lippert, 1951)

WW II vet Samuel Fuller wrote and directed this quirky blood and guts movie that debuted one year after the start of the Korean War. Gene Evans (Sgt. Zack), Robert Hutton (Pvt. Bronte), Steve Brodie (Lt. Driscoll), James Edwards (Cpl. Thompson), Richard Loo (Sgt. Tanaka) and Sid Melton (Joe) head the cast.

The cigar-chomping Evans – the epitome of the tough, grizzled infantry sergeant – is tasked with defending a Buddhist temple from the marauding Red hordes. Under his command is a band of ragtag soldiers, who give the commies hell in realistic battle scenes shot on a meager budget of $103,000.

• On DVD: Eclipse Series 5 – The First Films of Samuel Fuller (Eclipse, 2007)

4. The Bridges at Toko-Ri (Paramount, 1954)

James Michener’s novel was adapted for the big screen by Valentine Davies and directed by Mark Robson. William Holden stars as Lt. Harry Brubaker, a Naval Reserve aviator who is called back into service for the Korean War. Also on board are Grace Kelly (Nancy Burbaker), Fredric March (Admiral Tarrant), Mickey Rooney (Mike Forney), Robert Strauss (Beer Barrel), Charles McGraw (Commander Wayne Lee) and Earl Holliman (Nestor Gamidge).

The Bridges at Toki-Ri  features some superb flying sequences and a realistic look at combat operations aboard an aircraft carrier. Producers filmed the shipboard scenes on the USS Oriskany and the USS Kearsarge.

William Holden is shot down in one scene, and remarks that he’s just a lawyer from Denver. “Then what are you doing in a smelly ditch in Korea, sir?” helicopter pilot Mickey Rooney queries.

The Bridges at Toko-Ri won a well-deserved Oscar for Best Special Effects. “One of the best of modern war pictures…” crowed Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (1/21/55).

• On DVD: The Bridges at Toko-Ri (Paramount, 2001)

5. Men in War (United Artists, 1957)

Philip Yordan and Ben Maddow wrote the gritty screenplay and Anthony Mann directed. Robert Ryan plays Lt. Benson, whose Army platoon is cut off during a retreat. Benson and his fellow survivors attempt to make their way to Hill 456 with the North Koreans on their heels.

Joining Ryan in the cast are Aldo Ray (Sgt. Montana), Robert Keith (The Colonel), Phillip Pine (Riordan), Nehemiah Persoff (Lewis) and Vic Morrow (Cpl. Zwickley). Morrow would later star as Sgt. Chip Saunders in the WW II television drama Combat! (1962-67).

Men in War – loosely based on the WW II novel Day Without End by Van Van Praag – features strong characterization, excellent battle scenes, nasty enemy snipers and even a near fragging involving a junior officer and a noncom.

• On DVD: Men in War (Geneon, 2005)

6. I Want You (RKO, 1951)

Scripted by Irwin Shaw and directed by Mark Robson, I Want You examines the impact of the draft on small-town America at the start of the Korean War. Dana Andrews (Martin Greer), Dorothy McGuire (Nancy Greer), Farley Granger (Jack Greer), Peggy Dow (Carrie Turner), Robert Keith (Thomas Greer), Mildred Dunnock (Sarah Greer), Ray Collins (Judge Turner) and Martin Milner (George Kress Jr.) head the cast.

Andrews plays the prosperous WW II vet who reluctantly heeds the call to duty once more. Farley Granger plays the son, who is none too happy about the prospect of being drafted and sent to the ROK.

“A straight recruiting poster would be more convincing and pack more dramatic appeal,” reported Bosley Crowther of The New York Times (12/24/51).

• Currently available on VHS only

7. M*A*S*H (20th Century-Fox, 1970)

M*A*S*H’s origins date back to the Korean War and Dr. H. Richard Hornberger (1924-1997), who served as a surgeon with the 8055th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Hornberger – using the pseudonym “Richard Hooker” – later authored M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, published by William Morrow & Company in 1968.

Budgeted at $3.5 million, M*A*S*H was scripted by Ring Lardner Jr. and directed by Robert Altman. Much of Lardner’s screenplay – which ironically won an Oscar – was altered by Altman or simply ignored by the cast who improvised their own lines.

M*A*S*H follows the raucous adventures of three Army surgeons at the fictional 4077th. Donald Sutherland (Hawkeye Pierce), Elliott Gould (Trapper John McIntyre) and Tom Skerritt (Duke Forrest) play the freewheeling docs, with Robert Duvall (Frank Burns), Roger Bowen (Henry Blake), Sally Kellerman (Hot Lips O’Houlihan) and Gary Burghoff (Radar O’Reilly) along for the ride.

Irreverent, bawdy, gory and oftentimes tasteless, M*A*S*H spawned the popular 1972-83 television series of the same name.

• On DVD: M*A*S*H Two-Disc Collector’s Edition (20th Century-Fox, 2006)

Related Articles:

• Hollywood’s Best World War II Movies
• Hollywood’s Best Vietnam War Movies 

The movie follows Captain Benjamin Willard in his search for Colonel Walter Kurtz, whom Willard is being sent to kill. Kurtz is wanted for ordering the execution of some Vietnamese agents that he thought were double agents. On Willard’s journey to find him, he ends up doing drugs and becoming more and more like Kurtz. Kurtz tells Willard the story of what he did to make himself wanted by other army officials, and Willard takes it as Kurtz asking him to kill him.

Captain Benjamin Willard is the main character in the film, but it turns out that he was not actually a Captain in the Vietnam War. The actual person Willard is inspired by is named Marlow. The only misrepresentation in the film, though, is the name. Willard does all the same things in the film that Marlow actually did in the war. In the film and in real life, they were sent to terminate Colonel Kurtz. Another difference, though, is in the way that Kurtz dies.

Colonel William E. Kurtz is accurately represented in the movie as he was in real life. In the film, Willard kills him when Kurtz basically asks him to. However, in actual events, Kurtz has gone insane and ends up dying on the trip back. He had been in Korea and had an extremely impressive, even perfect, career. At the age of 38, he wanted airborne training, and he returned to Vietnam in 1966.

Operation Archangel was established in October of 1967 according to the film. Accordingly, this is also when it was established in history. The operation was created by the air force to come up with a new airplane that would be better than the U-2 that was already in use. They wanted something that would travel higher and faster. The result of Operation Archangel was the A-12 aircraft.

In the film, Willard and some of the men in the crew on his boat used drugs like LSD during the war. In the actual war, marijuana was the first drug used by American soldiers when they got over to Vietnam because it was the most abundant, and Vietnam did not have any well defined or enforced drug laws at the time. Other drugs that were widely available to soldiers at this time were opium, morphine, Binoctal, and heroin. Heroin was very widely available to the US forces during this time. It seemed that while at war, most of the men who were using these drugs would not have ever used them at home.

“Apocalypse Now” gives a good basic overview of what the Vietnam War was like, however there are several historical inaccuracies that could prevent it from being a good aid in teaching US history in a classroom.