Let's Fight Our Way Into The Movies! Quiz

Answer: WW2

The World War 2 "D-Day" invasion of the French coastal region of Normandy by the Allies was the focal point for the movie, "The Longest Day". It was based on a 1959 book of the same name which had been written by Cornelius Ryan. Operation Neptune, as the Normandy landings were initially known, later became a part of an even larger operation; Operation Overlord, or "The Battle Of Normandy".

One of the most expensive films ever to be filmed in black and white, the movie boasted an all-star cast with such famous actors as Eddie Albert, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Sal Mineo, John Wayne, Rod Steiger, Red Buttons... well, you get the idea.

Answer: Platoon

Oliver Stone had written a screenplay called "Break", after his return from Vietnam. This screenplay later provided the basis for the movie "Platoon". The movie was filmed on location on the island of Luzon, in the Philippines with real Vietnamese refugees appearing in various roles in the film.

The storyline involved a young man, Chris Taylor, (played by actor Charlie Sheen), who had volunteered for duty in Vietnam. As one of the new guys, he was at first shunned. This was purely for psychological reasons; the rest of the platoon dreaded getting to know newly assigned personnel for as long as possible. The rationale was that if a new guy was killed early on, no one had invested their time in getting to know him, thus sparing themselves the misery of losing a friend.

Eventually, Taylor was accepted into the platoon, but a series of events led to the entire platoon being investigated by their superiors. Notably, in one incident, they faced the ordeal of having to deal with a situation in which one of their members was found mutilated by enemy forces and two others encountered booby-traps which killed them impersonally.
Due to the stress of these incidents, the men entered a village where hidden enemy weapons were found and they began systematically destroying the village and killing the inhabitants.

Their superiors became intent on finding out the details of the incident, and the platoon sergeant, Bob Barnes, (played by Tom Berringer) became concerned that one of his NCO's, Sergeant Elias, (Willem Dafoe) would give evidence of his complicity in the atrocities committed. In an effort to prevent the truth from coming out, Barnes killed Elias and then told the rest of the platoon that Elias was killed by the enemy. Later, Taylor felt compelled to kill Barnes and did so; then he contemplated suicide, but he and others were rescued and shipped out of the combat area.

Answer: at Fort Benning and downtown Columbus, Georgia

While the first scene of the movie was filmed on location at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the overwhelming majority of filming for "The Green Berets" took place in Georgia, both at Fort Benning and in nearby Columbus. Located in west central Georgia, much of the topographical area was similar enough to Vietnam for the movie to appear to have been filmed on location in that country.

Other movies about wartime have been filmed at or near Fort Benning and include such films as "Tank", "Your Mother Wears Combat Boots", Jumping Jacks", "Parachute Battalion" and "We Were Soldiers".

Answer: The Dirty Dozen

"The Dirty Dozen" featured an all-star cast. The movie was released in 1967, but was set in 1944, during the preparations for the D-Day Invasion.
The movie's premise was that a group of 12 military prisoners were to be offered a chance for amnesty - provided that they survived a commando-style mission deep in the heart of Germany. Ultimately, most of the group was killed, but for those few who survived, life did improve, as the military lived up to its word of providing them with their freedom.

Featuring such talented actors as Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas and Donald Sutherland, this is one of the classics of the war-time movie genre.

One of the original members of the regiment was a young 20-year old man named Jack Agnew, an immigrant to the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, who originally hailed from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He and his group parachuted into France on D-Day, losing a good many of their number. He survived, but was injured and received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with Oak Leaf. Later, he and his unit were dropped into the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden and finally he was involved in a drop into Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge.

They acquired the nickname The Filthy Thirteen because of their failure to bathe or shave more than once a week while conducting their training in England, and they seldom if ever cleaned their uniforms.

His unit had an established reputation as a group of troublemakers and many of them were often placed in the stockade.

The unit gained notoriety due to a picture of them which was once published in "Stars and Stripes", a military newspaper publication. In a subsequent interview Jack Agnew once stated, "We weren't murderers or anything, we just didn't do everything we were supposed to do in some ways and did a whole lot more than they wanted us to do in other ways. We were always in trouble."

(Jack Agnew passed away in 2010, at the age of 88.)

Answer: False

The movie was based on the 1952 fictional novel, "The Bridge Over The River Kwai", written by Frenchman Pierre Boulle. The movie won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in 1958.

While the both the book and film were fictional, they attempted to portray actual conditions of Japanese labor camps during the war, although the harsh conditions endured by the prisoners in the film were notably much worse in reality.

The infamous Burma-Siam railway was a Japanese venture that was an attempt to support the Japanese army in Burma and it was constructed largely by the efforts demanded of British, Dutch and American prisoners-of-war by their Japanese captors.

Approximately 13,000 prisoners died during construction of the railway, with an additional estimate of 80,000 to 100,000 civilians who also died. Most of both groups died as a direct result of malnutrition, exposure to the elements, disease, abuse and neglect.

Answer: The Big Red One

The unit patch of the Big Red One, an Army unit based at Fort Riley, Kansas, is just what the name implies, A big red number one, with the One representing the U.S. First Infantry Division. It is the oldest division in the United States Army, having been in continuous service since its inception in 1917.

The movie began in black-and-white and the setting of the opening scene was at the end of World War I.
A U.S. Army Private, (played by Lee Marvin), killed an approaching German soldier with his trench knife. The German's hands were raised in surrender as he approached. When the Private went back to his headquarters area in the rear, he was informed that the war had been over for about four hours.

At the end of the "The Big Red One", after the unit liberated a Czechoslovakian concentration camp, located at Falkenau, the former Private, who by the end of the film had become a Sergeant, befriended a young boy whom he helped rescue from the camp. The boy died shortly after being liberated and the Sergeant buried him.

In a scene reminiscent of the beginning of the movie, a German soldier attempted to surrender at that moment and the Sergeant stabbed him.
Members of his unit arrived and informed him that the war had just ended about four hours previously. Immediately, frantic efforts began to save the German soldier's life.

A must-see film!

Answer: Saving Private Ryan

"Saving Private Ryan" was a film that used the U.S. military's Sole Survivor Policy as the basis for its plot. Private James Francis Ryan, (Matt Damon) was the last surviving brother of his family. His three brothers had already been killed in combat and the premise of the movie was to spare his family from losing him in combat as well.

Even though the Sullivan brothers' story could have served as the impetus for the film, scriptwriter Mark Rodat, had in actuality observed a monument in 1994 that paid homage to eight slain Civil War brothers, which inspired him to write the screenplay for "Saving Private Ryan".

Answer: The Great Escape

"The Great Escape" was a movie based on a non-fiction book by the same name that had been published in 1950 by former Australian RAAF fighter pilot, Paul Brickhill.

I suppose that I could have helped you even more by telling you this movie was based on a true story about a mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Poland.

I imagine that I could also have encouraged you to remember the famous motorcycle incident with Steve McQueen, in which he performed all the stunts himself, with the exception of the final jump.

Oh, and I guess I could have mentioned that in reality, during the actual escape from Stalag Luft III, none of the escapees were American; they consisted of British troops and other allies. Although the Americans had assisted in constructing the tunnels, they had been removed to another POW camp about seven months prior to the actual escape.

Answer: Tom Cruise

Originally, Operation Valkyrie was developed as an emergency plan for allowing the continuance of the German government in case of a general breakdown in civil order.

The plan was later altered by several German officers who, along with Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, planned to use this operation to take control of German cities, disarm the SS and to arrest the Nazi leadership once Hitler had been disposed of (read: assassinated). They attempted to carry out this plan in 1944 but it was ultimately doomed for failure.

Each of the men involved in the plot knew that they faced the risk of certain death, but they nonetheless made a valiant attempt to overthrow the Nazi war machine, especially focusing on its leader, Adolf Hitler.

General Friedrich Olbricht, Colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, and Lieutenant Werner von Haeften were all executed for their roles of complicity in the plot.

There was a bit of controversy involved with the making of the film due to the selection of Tom Cruise playing the role of von Stauffenberg, because of his involvement in the religion of Scientology. Objections arose from both German political leaders and from the von Stauffenberg family itself. The objections were eventually overcome and the movie was allowed to be filmed in Germany.

Answer: Leonard Lawrence

Leonard Lawrence was a bit of an overweight, naïve and slow-witted goof-up who, as the movie progressed, became ever more disturbed and irrational, even being portrayed in one scene as talking to his rifle. Eventually he killed his drill instructor and then committed suicide in the latrine with the same rifle.

The rest of the company of men were eventually sent to Vietnam and more deaths ensued as a result of the war itself. During the course of the film, the Tet Offensive began and the war escalated. The war was presented largely from a journalist's viewpoint, as one of the main characters, James T. "Joker" Davis (played by Matthew Modine) became a war correspondent as well as a soldier.