PaperModelers.com

Go Back   PaperModelers.com > Papermodelers' Bar and Grill > The CardBoard Lounge

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 03-19-2019, 09:24 PM
Yale's Avatar
Yale Yale is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Dipinajata, Texas
Posts: 732
Total Downloaded: 59.62 MB
Aces High

Thought I was familiar with all the aviation films, but this 1976 release was new to me. Kind of surprised me that it got so many 10-star reviews on imdb.com, because it seemed to me a slow-paced collection of clichés -- green pilots don't last very long, survivors feel guilty, war is messy and futile, and so forth. From some angles the SE5as look pretty good, but every time they bank, you see the tapered leading edges of the wings, so I suspect some sheet-metal work with Tiger Moths or Jungmeisters. And both Eindekkers and Avro 504s would have been long obsolete, so should not have appeared in the film.

Other Forum members may disagree, but out of 10 stars, the best I can give this film is 3.
Reply With Quote
Google Adsense
  #2  
Old 03-20-2019, 03:50 AM
cardist's Avatar
cardist cardist is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Fife, Scotland
Posts: 1,172
Total Downloaded: 2.91 GB
An interesting film from a War Movie collector's perspective. This is the play "Journey's End" transplanted from the trenches to the air. I have seen the play and the new film, so it matches up quite well, cliches and all. The aircraft are a bit offputing, but it's a movie, so some suspension of disbelief is alowed. I suppose they had to make do with what was available back then. Interestingly, the movie "Flyboys" gets the rotary engined Nieuports wrong as well, along with some dodgy cgi tracer smoke.
I would give it a 7 purely from its historical perspective.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 03-20-2019, 05:21 AM
Don Boose's Avatar
Don Boose Don Boose is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Posts: 20,702
Total Downloaded: 424.90 MB
I have not yet seen this film and appreciate both of your assessments.

I did see the recent Journey's End film, on the story line of which Aces High was largely based, and it was well done, in my view. We showed it as part of the Army War College Strategic Arts Film Program.

According to the Wiki article (for some reason, when I insert the URL, it doesn't work), the film also drew on Cecil Lewis's classic Sagittarius Rising, and the S.E.5as were rebuilt Stampe SV.4s.

The Wiki article (which notes the aircraft inaccuracies you pointed out, Yale, and also says, "The fatalistic mess room songs and the often juvenile, "public school" attitudes of the young pilots are considered authentic portrayals of the time."

Don
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 03-21-2019, 03:05 PM
Wyvern's Avatar
Wyvern Wyvern is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Centreville, VA, USA
Posts: 5,134
Total Downloaded: 499.03 MB
The movie SE’s were, as Don staged, modded from Stampes, and furthermore, the fiberglass mods the squared-off cowls, a fairing over the front cockpit, and the headrest) were reversible. Even the paint was water-based so they could quickly be stripped of their faux RFC paint schemes. The planes s and pilots were provided by Bianchi Aviation. One of the Stampes that had been an “SE5a” was later given some other movie makeup and used as the zeppelin-borne liasion airplane in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and then again used as the RAF “two seat fighter” in The Mummy.

Somewhere in my collection I have an old copy of Air Progress from 1976 which contains an article written by one of the movie pilots who flew the SE’s in “Aces High”.

Wyvern
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:19 PM.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

Parts of this site powered by vBulletin Mods & Addons from DragonByte Technologies Ltd. (Details)
Copyright © 2007-2023, PaperModelers.com