So far, of the movies I hadn't seen before, the stand out has been Dunkirk - the MGM 1958 version, not the more recent one. I would rank this among my favorite war movies even after just one viewing.
It's a wonderful film that I'm sure almost everyone but me has seen. The changes in perspective between home front and war front, until they merge together works very well. And of course, it needn't be said, but I found some inspiration for gaming while watching, thanks in large part to the zoomed in focus on a depleted section of British infantry.
If you haven't seen the movie, stop reading, and go watch it.
From a gaming perspective, I think there were 3-4 good candidates scenarios of the kind that would work with One Hour Skirmish Wargames or a similar 1:1 individual soldier type game, like 5 Men in Normandy, or Nuts! (the "Chocolate and Cigarette" rules). I'm in the process of working out the details, but won't have time to try anything until next week at the earliest.
In any case, I have maybe ten Tommies in 1/72, along with one Churchill tank, and ten Germans, with no vehicles; all are left-overs from my initial foray into war games some 15 years ago. I have but three British infantry in 54mm - Britains (not Deetail though) that I acquired for a song. So, I do not have sufficient forces to field my ideas in any case - and barring an ebay score (not without question) I'll probably proceed with proxies in 54mm.
This is post-WWII, but a little-known gem is "Guns at Batasi", starring Richard Attenborough as a hard-as-nails British sergeant caught in the middle of an African coup in about 1960. He is simply wonderful, in all respects. I think this is his best performance ever, which is saying quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteBest regards,
Chris
Thank you for the recommendation, Chris. I took a look at the trailer and it looks quite good. And, even better, it appears to be available on youtube to watch in its entirety.
DeleteCheers!