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Lately every War movie brags about sending their actors to ”boot camp” and training like real soldiers.

Now I’m watching the features on the windtalkers dvd and it’s featuring some scenes from their “boot camp”. In my opinion this boot camp looks like kindergarten and it’s done for the dvd only.

The other movies featuring “boot camps” that I know of is “Saving Private Ryan”

Any opinions?

There was also a boot camp for the cast of band of Brothers and in the movie We were Soldiers. It doesn't bug me and I can see from an acting standpoint why you would want to do that because it builds motivation and gives your character more depth. It also helps build the bond between the actors as most real bootcamps do, so yeah, it may be bootcamp lite but I think that it helps the movie far more than hinders it to have the cast go trhough something like that.

It doesn’t bug me so much but the selling point seems to be we where in a hard boot camp for like 5 days and we are so hard. Now go and buy this movie…

I can see that this sort of thing would help actors get some understanding about what boot camp is.

Nicolas Cage is not in any scene from the boot camp feature.

Coincidence?

They also used a boot camp in "Black Hawk Down". Method acting has been popular for decades; why stop now? Why rely on your ability to imagine things in your head based on books when you can experience a bit of the lifestyle, and get a more natural feel for the behaviour you're trying to emulate?

It does not bug me that they go through some mini-boot camp. It might help with their characters. I can see why some people would find it annoying if they over hype the experience.

Okay I’ll concede that

But I just thought of one other… it’s a huge one that no one notices any more.

The same movie, shells going off everywhere and big explosions.

When real explosives explode here is a loud bang and some earth gets thrown up and a small dust cloud that falls down fast.

The only movie that I can think of rite now that has a real explosion is Goldfinger when the fort Knox gate gets blown up, a bang some smoke and the gate is just gone.

BTW:

The real danger in explosions from mortar, arty and stuff like that is not the explosive but shrapnel.

When I did my stuff for the military the safety distance for 125g of plastic is in the ~100m meters. (free on the ground) I have no idea what the safety distance is for a 120mm arty shell.

A movie explosion is a huge fireball and anyone not inside the fireball is unhurt, shrapnel is not a problem in movies…

Faram wrote:Okay I’ll concede that

But I just thought of one other… it’s a huge one that no one notices any more.

The same movie, shells going off everywhere and big explosions.

When real explosives explode here is a loud bang and some earth gets thrown up and a small dust cloud that falls down fast.

The only movie that I can think of rite now that has a real explosion is Goldfinger when the fort Knox gate gets blown up, a bang some smoke and the gate is just gone.

BTW:

The real danger in explosions from mortar, arty and stuff like that is not the explosive but shrapnel.

When I did my stuff for the military the safety distance for 125g of plastic is in the ~100m meters. (free on the ground) I have no idea what the safety distance is for a 120mm arty shell.

A movie explosion is a huge fireball and anyone not inside the fireball is unhurt, shrapnel is not a problem in movies…

I mentioned this in a "what bugs you in the movies" or something thread. High explosives do not generate massive fireballs, gasoline does! It drives me batty, man! Do they think we can't tell the differance between a coffee can full of gas and a shell?

The pathetic thing is that actors now go to boot camp for military flicks because it's trendy.

Anybody remember when actors in war flicks actually were ex-military, at least a few of them?

It goes without saying that that is easier to do when you've just had a big friggin war.