Michael Bay strikes again

[Chic Sky]

We all remember Michael Bay's blunder in the movie "Pearl Harbor" where ships and planes were depicted incorrectly. He knows how to entertain viewers but fails to be historically accurate.

Here are some ships that should not have been seen in that movie:

Iowa Class Battleship (Missouri)
Knox Class Frigate
Spruance Class Destroyer
Essex Class Carrier

In the past (movies like Midway which also had the wrong ships and planes), due to limitations in production, such inaccuracies could be forgiven, but with the advent of modern digital visual effects (which Bay had at his disposal), this was a technical foul, even a flagrant one.

Recently, he had another strike: Transformers. I know the movie is fiction, but there are some things that needed to be taken into account:

1. Air Force One -- seen flying is a 747 which is accurate, but on the ground, where Frenzy escapes with Barricade, if one would look closely, the plane on the ground is a 707.

2. Carrier Battle Group and timeline -- The "present day" timeframe in the movie is set in 2009 or an even later year. This is supported by these facts: The Air Force has F-22s deployed in away bases (Quatar), right now the Raptors are based in the mainland US. We also see the V-22 Ospreys in the regular arsenal. The predator UAV used to photograph Scorponok is a jet powered version currently being developed to replace the propeller driven version. And lastly, Bumblebee scanned a 2009 Camaro, which as of now is only a concept car. Since the timeline is clearly established sometime in the near future, the USS Abraham Lincoln and its battlegroup are incorrectly depicted: There are no Super Hornets visible on the carrier. There are S-3 Vikings and F-14 Tomcats (both aircraft types are already retired by the time of this posting) on the flightdeck. And there is a Spruance Class Destroyer (all have been retired from the US Navy) to the starboard aft of the carrier. So unless the battlegroup is on a "Nostalgia Cruise," which is unlikely, Michael Bay has screwed up again.

[Foeth]

Wow, that is so shocking. Factual errors in a Michael Bay movie. And you'd think that with these precious historical recreations of "Transformers" they'd be more careful... This is just as shocking as Anderson getting the number of teeth wrong in "Alien vs Predator"...

[nick]

Here are some ships that should not have been seen in that movie:

Iowa Class Battleship (Missouri)
Knox Class Frigate
Spruance Class Destroyer
Essex Class Carrier

Well that explains why I saw a ship with a weird cylindrical looking thing. It's actually the MACK of a Knox class!!

What a very good observation there Chic!! It is wierd though to see modern ships in a 1941 setting.

[MichelB]

I you look closely at the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, you can see at least one of the US Rangers depicted by a meth addict, while metamphetamine has not been used by the US Army in WWII. It was however used by the Germans and to a certain extent by the Japanese, but this only shows Spielberg's historical ignorance.

[Werner]

I wouldn't know what a meth addict looks like, apart from destroyed teeth.

What symptoms are you referring to?

[MichelB]

[Foeth]

In nearly all historical movies, the players have perfect sets of teeth which suggests that the progress in dental care started around 3000 BC...

[Roger T]

In nearly all historical movies, the players have perfect sets of teeth which suggests that the progress in dental care started around 3000 BC...

Having said that, there are a lot of old skulls that get dug up with pretty good sets of teeth (okay, maybe not Hollywood quality...) as the refined sugars etc. in modern food that rot teeth so badly weren't in existence then.

[bengtsson]

I you look closely at the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, you can see at least one of the US Rangers depicted by a meth addict, while metamphetamine has not been used by the US Army in WWII. It was however used by the Germans and to a certain extent by the Japanese, but this only shows Spielberg's historical ignorance.

I understand the Meth. recipe in use today was a German WWII creation. There were I understand two kinds, one from German pharmceutical manufacture and another recipe designed to be used in the field, so that individual units could cook their own on the battle field from readily available ingredients. These are what fuels the illegal meth industry in America today.
In the Movie "The Cruel Sea" the ship's doctor is asked by the Captain for something to keep him up and going during a long sub hunt in the Arctic, in books about the RN I have read once or twice about a stimulant being used in extreme circumstances. Is this true about the RN in WWII?

Bob B.

[Guest]

In nearly all historical movies, the players have perfect sets of teeth which suggests that the progress in dental care started around 3000 BC...

Having said that, there are a lot of old skulls that get dug up with pretty good sets of teeth (okay, maybe not Hollywood quality...) as the refined sugars etc. in modern food that rot teeth so badly weren't in existence then.

Unavailability of cheap sugar was undoubtedly also responsible for the fact that there were no overbite, no underbite, no crooked teeth, no evidence of gum disease.....





Come to think of it, accurate cinematic depictions of historic personal hygiene is probably not good for attendance.

[Chic Sky]

More on recent movie inaccuracies depicting ships: "Flags of our Fathers" misused the Iowa Class battleships.

They even blew one up in one scene!

Towards the end of the movie, when the American flag was being raised on Mt. Surabachi, we could see five Iowa Class Battleships in the background. Funny thing is, the maximum possible Iowa class ships present should have only been three (USS Iowa was not present during the Iwo Jima campaign because of overhaul time), and I doupt that all were present during the flag raising.

Another scene seems to show an Iowa with its superstructure rendered backwards.

Yet another scene shows the bow of an Iowa with its bow bulwark trimmed (like the bows of Missouri and New Jersey), buth these were not trimmed until after WWII (around the time of the Korean War).

And lastly, there are scenes where the funnel caps of the Iowas are painted black, and as far as I know, they were not painted black until after WWII as well.

[Foeth]

[Deckard]

I thought speed was invented by the Japanese just before WWII, you know, as a stimulant to increase production. I also understand there was a nice dose of it in that little cup of saki given to kamikaze pilots before they took off; with or without their knowledge.

No evidence of that but it makes you wonder. We've all seen the kamikaze attack footage, the sky thick with flak and a plane that just keeps on going. Now I've seen plenty of planes hit, and plenty that have been shot to bits in the process, but I've never seen any flinch and by that I mean losing his nerve. May have happened? Sure, but considering more than 3,800 Japanese airman lost their lives in suicide attacks it would have to be the exception rather than the rule.

Fanaticism seems to be and probably is a great motivator, and a dose of speed to oil the gears along certainly wouldn't hurt if the only outcome was certain death.

[Guest]

Uhem, why are there cross bars in the anchor chain of your esteemed Hood model?

[Timmy C]

^ I was just going to say something like that.

[Foeth]

There are? Wow, I completely forgot about that...