Memorial Day Marathon

[roamcajun63]

Just looked thru the Memorial Day listings and they are not showing "Tora! Tora! Tora", "MacArthur", "The Fighting Sullivans", "Ensign Pulver", and a few unknown or forgotten John Wayne films like "Jet Pilot"  and there is a movie where he teaches women to fly military aircraft to ferry them around.  "The Barbarian and The Geisha".  "The Teahouse of The August Moon" and so forth.  I wish they would put them into the rotation and learn there are so many more veteran movies out there.

[slaytonf]

I am wondering if anyone has counted all the war/veteran movies ever made,  and made a list of how many were made for each war. That way TCM could represent each war proportionately.   Weighting factors like the importance of the war in American history,  or the number of casualties could be factored in to refine the schedule.   The exception would be the Revolutionary War,  movies of which would be reserved exclusively for the Fourth of July. 

[ElCid]

Apparently it begins at 8 PM on Friday May 27 and goes through to 4 AM on Tue, May 31.

Regardless, there are lots and lots of WW II movies, but NO movies about Vietnam - again.  There are no Vietnam veterans under the age of 60.    Of course, there are proportionately fewer WW II and Korea veterans, but still NO Vietnam War movies.  This has been a trend for TCM for many years now.  Occasionally one might slip in, but very rarely.  Oh, and The Green Berets really does not count as a war movie in my book.   It was a John Wayne PR stunt to boost support for the war.  Yes, I realize many movies are PR for or against wars, but TCM shows The Green Berets way too many times.

I read the book before going to Vietnam and I have CD's with the song.  Great song and reminds me of when I got my "silver wings."  No, I was not in Special Forces (Green Berets).

[Fedya]

Decoration Day should only be for Civil War movies.

But then, we have this ahistorical argument every year.

[Katie_G]

You're right, there's 0 movies about Viet Nam.   I counted -

Civil War - 1
WWI - 4  
WWII - 27 
Korea - 4 

[David Proulx]

10 hours ago, slaytonf said:

I am wondering if anyone has counted all the war/veteran movies ever made,  and made a list of how many were made for each war. That way TCM could represent each war proportionately.   Weighting factors like the importance of the war in American history,  or the number of casualties could be factored in to refine the schedule.   The exception would be the Revolutionary War,  movies of which would be reserved exclusively for the Fourth of July. 

It's not just breaking it down to specific wars, but timing them with anniversary dates of events in them, and it's not just war movies. I've often thought that they could make their scheduling fun and/or date-appropriate with themes for many occasions. All the holidays, big & small, are easy to do. Movies w/ months in their titles, those which have amusement parks/carnivals/circuses in them, Cold War spy movies, sports or specific sports films are just a few ideas. I've had other good ideas I've thought of, but can't think of any of them right now, lol. I like what they did the other night with movies being in one country, then another, then another. 

[BunnyWhit]

2 hours ago, David Proulx said:

I've had other good ideas I've thought of,

You should enter a schedule in the Programming Challenge!

[skimpole]

Why not show The Thin Red Line?

[ElCid]

16 hours ago, Fedya said:

Decoration Day should only be for Civil War movies.

But then, we have this ahistorical argument every year.

We no  longer observe Decoration Day.  It officially became Memorial Day in 1967, but had been called that for decades.  It was recognized after WW I to honor all those who died in military service from every war or combat engagement.

Incidentally, Memorial Day is to honor those who died in service and Veterans Day is to honor those who served.

[ElCid]

14 hours ago, Katie_G said:

You're right, there's 0 movies about Viet Nam.   I counted -

Civil War - 1
WWI - 4  
WWII - 27 
Korea - 4 

And this is pretty much the pattern TCM has exhibited for many years.  Not sure, but there are somewhere between 50 and 100 movies about the Vietnam War.  Surely TCM could obtain some other than The Green Berets.

[King Rat]

Go Tell the Spartans would be an excellent choice, especially since it stars Burt Lancaster.

[ElCid]

3 hours ago, King Rat said:

Go Tell the Spartans would be an excellent choice, especially since it stars Burt Lancaster.

Actually, Go Tell the Spartans is my favorite Vietnam War movie and I have been recommending it to TCM for years.  But, to my knowledge they have never shown it. 

[David Proulx]

22 hours ago, BunnyWhit said:

You should enter a schedule in the Programming Challenge!

How do I do that? I looked and saw "Programming Challenge Archive". Do they actually read those, you think?

[BunnyWhit]

The Programming Challenge is not sponsored or endorsed by TCM (it was created by Path40a in 2006), but tcmprogrammr has stated that TCM programmers do "borrow" ideas from schedules which have been entered in the Challenge, and it is my understanding that quite a few entrants have seen their themes and movie selections reach the air. It is my opinion that the schedules entered in the Challenge are thoughtfully, imaginatively, and lovingly created, and entrants and Challenge hosts are nothing other than supportive. I'd watch any of those weeks I've seen submitted. 

Head over to TCM Programming Challenge #47: The European Grand Prix, hosted by CinemaInternational. You'll find it pinned right at the top of the General Discussions topic listings. It's a good'n.