The Hurt Locker is a mixed bag. Parts are totally BS. Like you never leave the wire with less than like 4 vehicles in a convoy sort of wrong. Much of the movie had this crazy cowboy stuff going on. But if you view it as a composite of many peoples stories mixed into one guy doing a job its not all that wrong. Other bits like showing daisy chained IED's was certainly right. The being home after deployment stuff felt spot on to me. I know I did the massive confusion in a supermarket over a billion choices on a food item thing myself. But every bit of EOD cowboy guy was totally wacko.

Many times my unit had to call EOD guys. Army and Marine sorts. They roll up with a security detail of vehicles and then do their thing. And then off they go after dealing with the found IED's. They are not going to be getting into fire fights and clearing rooms kind of things. Not their job. They deal with things that explode.

+1

The atrocities committed by those two countries were State-sanctioned while the atrocities committed by US and UK soldiers were NOT.

Yes!! What's so hard to understand about that. Of course there were Allied soldiers who did things like killing prisoners.
But in China, Japanese officers were having contests to see ho could chop off the most Chinese heads. Winner got a bottle of Saki. Saw a photo of one of them standing next to a pile of heads with a big proud smile on his face. I think its in Iris Chang's "The Rape Of Nanking."
American soldiers were court martialed and imprisoned for atrocities. These guys were given medals.
But, back to The Hurt Locker. I admittedly didn't know much about the job these guys were doing. I really enjoyed that film. Glad to see that someone who was there doesn't think that it was COMPLETELY bs.

Right, all sides commit atrocities, it's the scale and scope that differentiate them. For every Axis POW that was killed without due process, there were many, many more who were treated fairly. The reverse percentage for Allied POWs was far lower.

Killing a German POW after seeing a concentration camp or hearing a screaming villager tell you how they raped and murdered your family is hardly in the same league as Pooch's example. Yes, it's wrong by the letter of the law to serve as judge, jury, and executioner based on limited evidence, but there's a good chance that soldier did indeed commit war crimes and deserve it. Especially if you lost half your friends from basic training during fighting with them, some of them in possibly truly awful ways, it makes sense from their perspective.

As bad as it is, killing a surrendered POW in a sense of misguided justice is still not as bad as killing a civilian family for fun.



The Jedi Master

I did too. I also get to see Charlton Heston's plane on a weekly basis too.

Planes of Fame's Douglas SBD-5
(This Dauntless was used in the movie Midway, with Charlton Heston being filmed in the cockpit.)


Wheels

Agreed. There was no Allied version of the Commissar Order or Commando Order. Those came from the top levels of the German Government. The worst 'offenses' that happened at the end of the war was the open air penning of German POWs in the final months of the war. The numbers that surrendered overwhelmed the system of processing and retaining POWs and as a result an estimated 25-50 thousand may have died in the months just before or after the end of the war. This is nothing compared to the 3 million Soviet POWs starved or worked to death after capture by the Wehrmacht during WW2. Most atrocities were done by individuals and small groups.


There was no Commissar order or Commando order on the Western Allied side. These orders were initiated by Hitler and transmitted, with the German High Command's consent, to subordinate commanders in the field. It would be like Churchill or the President ordering that all SS members be shot on site. While the individual SS were killed at a higher rate this was not based upon any standing order but more a result of the ferocity of the fighting. Horrific? Yes. War Crime? Probably. Same level as the organized murder of millions? No.

I loved Bat 21 until I got older and realized the entire movie was completely made up. I assume this was because the actual way Col. Hamilton was rescued was still classified at the time of the movie so they just "hollywooded" it. I would LOVE to see a complete remake of the movie detailing the actual story and how he was actually rescued by Navy SEAL and Medal of Honor Recipient Tom Norris.

Kingdom of Heaven, if we're counting the crusades as a war movie. What a turd.

Also, the characters in When Turmpets Fade might be made up, but I liked it.

To add to the short list of historically accurate movies, I'd like to recommend Waterloo.

I strongly second that recommendation. "Waterloo" is one of my favorite films of all time and it's by far Rod Steiger's most compelling role.