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The Last Ship (2014)
Some Notable Errors, Overall Not Bad
After watching 3 episodes, I like "The Last Ship" so far. Some have criticized the action sequences, to which I say, "Did you not see Michael Bay's name in the credits?" The show wins points for not pretending that sailors are automatically infantry when they pick up rifles (unlike "Battleship"), with the dwindling contingent of SEALs taking the time to train the USS Nathan James's crew. Food, fuel, and medical supplies are never far from the viewer's mind. The relationship between the SEAL officer and one of Chandler's female officers, and the operational problems that arise from it during dangerous missions, show some of the unavoidable problems with the idea of placing females in the military's Combat Arms jobs.
The crew face the end of the world with stoic determination. Some reviewers don't like this, but any Navy vet will tell you that while a crew with bad leadership would fall apart, a good crew with good leadership would suck it up and carry on. Eric Dane as Captain Chandler and Adam Baldwin as XO Slattery provide that good leadership. They both have their doubts, but they keep it together like the professionals they are supposed to be. Neither has been very well developed so far, but they are not wooden. Rhona Mitra is convincing enough as Dr. Scott, who is carries the weight of the world on her shoulders and looks appropriately exhausted and overwhelmed. Her assistant turns out to be helping the Russians, but by episode 3 his reasons are found to be perfectly understandable.
Is it pro-American? Yes. Is it propaganda? No. A superficial look at the show may seem that way, but thinking about it for a minute changes that perspective. The Russian Admiral Riskov is not a sneering Bond villain. The brief look at Chandler's copy of Riskov's book (in Russian, no less) shows that he greatly respects Riskov. You have to remember that the Nathan James had the benefit of being sequestered in the Arctic while the world fell apart, while Riskov and his men watched it happen in real time, saw their country that they swore to defend disintegrate, and were powerless to stop it. It makes perfect sense that the experience would have hardened them. Despite some shockingly ruthless actions, by the end of episode 3, it is clear that Admiral Riskov is also trying to save something. It is no great stretch to see that Riskov and Chandler could easily trade places if circumstances were different.
Some things in the show are incorrectly thought to be errors. For instance, the CO of a destroyer in the US Navy is a billet for a Commander (O-5), not a Captain (O-6). However, as the CO, he is still addressed as "Captain" out of tradition. This is why Eric Dane's character is called Captain Chandler but wears the rank device of a Commander.
There are some real errors, too, like the Russians flying American helicopters in the pilot episode or the fact that a Kirov-class battlecruiser can't really launch ICBMs. But it's pretty good overall.
Fortress (2012)
A Worthy Tribute to the Flying Fortresses and the Heroes Who Flew Them
I'll start by saying that I'm a history buff and B-17 aficionado. I started geeking out on those wonderful old warbirds when I was 7 years old, kept it up ever since.
This movie is fictional, but based on compiled experiences of B-17 Flying Fortress crews in WWII. "Lucky Lass" and her crew are part of the "Diamondbacks," 99th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 12th Air Force based in Algeria in the summer of 1943. When their pilot is killed over a target in Italy, they lack confidence in his brand-new replacement, 2LT Mike Schmidt. Schmidt tries to earn their trust through several combat missions, mechanical trouble, desert heat, GI hijinks, and a Saharan sandstorm.
This movie was clearly done on a shoestring budget, but every penny was well spent. The cast of unknowns deliver great performances and the soundtrack is simple, yet stirring. The violence is accurately depicted as sudden, unpredictable, and bloody. The CGI looks like that seen in "Dogfights", not Michael Bay material, but good nonetheless. The set for the bomber's interior lacks some things, but is mostly accurate. Uniforms are authentic, albeit a little incomplete. USAAF flight gear from 1943 is extremely rare today, and reproductions don't come cheap. 99% of the presentation is authentic, from the in-flight procedures to the day-to-day life on the base. The only exception is the operation of the Norden bomb sight, which no movie has yet depicted accurately.
B-17s were renowned for being easy to fly and tough as nails, ideal qualities for a warplane. Crews loved their bombers, as did the ground crews. I know this from my great uncle, a ground crewman in the 97th BG (sister unit to the 99th). This is well represented, as "Lucky Lass" takes on a persona of her own. I broke down to tears as the "Lass" struggled to stay airborne, then broke apart with Archie still onboard. B-17s could take a pounding and still bring their crews back safely, often on 1 or 2 engines with large pieces of wing and tail torn off. Many came back in such bad shape that according to the Boeing engineers who designed them, they should have disintegrated in midair. According to many veterans, the planes seemed to possess a will to bring their crews home.
And to address the naysayers who claim a B-17 can't loop: yes they can, it's just a bad idea. It has in fact been done a few times. Every "Fort" that has looped suffered major structural damage in the process, just like "Lucky Lass" in the movie, but they stayed in the air.
I wish I wasn't limited to just 1000 words to review "Fortress", as I have so much more to say. The filmmakers clearly share my love of B-17s and respect for the heroes who flew them. This is one of many stories about the 8th, 12th, and 15th Air Force bomber crews that need to be told, and I think the crew of "Fortress" are the right people to tell them, just for God's sake, give them a better budget!
Chicago Fire (2012)
Mixed Feelings From A Real-Life Firefighter-EMT
I am a firefighter-EMT on the west coast, and wasn't sure about this show going in.
My first thoughts were, "It can't be any worse than 'Backdraft'," and, "Please God, let this be better than 'Rescue Me'."
It's nice to see a show that doesn't make us all out to be lying, cheating, philandering d-bags the way "Rescue Me" did (although that show could always make me feel better about my own life...). This is not to say its characters are paragons of perfect virtue, but it does at least show them as worthy of the public's trust.
The station environment is semi-realistic. Of course, messing with the Probie/Candidate/New Hire/FNG/Boot is a time-honored tradition and rite of passage that all of us endured when we were new. However, the co-ed locker room is a stretch. Yes, we often share the same barracks with females, but we don't strip down for the shower in full view of the opposite sex. Just doesn't happen. Also, "incidents" like LT Severide sneaking into the gear room for a quickie with ANYBODY would result in serious disciplinary action.
The cast seems mostly believable to me. Eamonn Walker feels exactly like many chiefs I have known. Both LTs seem a bit young to be company officers, especially in a department like Chicago, but stranger things have been known to happen. The crews feel real enough.
The subplot that has LT Severide getting morphine from one of the medics is ridiculous. Every medication on an ALS ambulance is tracked, and the potentially addictive ones like morphine are watched like a hawk. They WOULD get caught, they WOULD get fired, and they WOULD do prison time for that.
As for the incidents, I am disappointed. The "medics" can't even perform basic C-spine immobilization for starters. I almost threw up in my mouth during the pilot episode when Dawson tells the little girl in the back of the wrecked car with head trauma and obvious mechanism of injury to turn her head. Any EMT student can tell you that YOU NEVER EVER DO THAT!!! I understand it's Hollywood, but come on, it's not that hard to show it done the right way. I'm a guy who has crawled inside a lot of mangled cars to pull people out; I know whereof I speak.
Many of the operations performed on incidents in the show are real, or at least close to it. Some people have criticized the "slide down the charged line" stunt. That is actually taught as a way to bail out from an upper-story window if you get trapped upstairs. I'm not so sure about suspending it from the truck's aerial the way they did it in the show. I'm an engine firefighter, and my truckie friends haven't gotten back to me on that one yet. However, I could think of at least two or three better ways to access that collapsed floor section. Some have also criticized the scene with LT Severide visiting the victim's widow to bring her his last words. I have had to comfort more new widows, orphans, and grieving parents than I care to think about, and it has kept me up at night. I don't carry my Iphone around in my turnout coat pocket, but this one is still perfectly plausible.
The third episode featured an overturned SUV teetering on a guardrail above a tunnel entrance with occupants trapped inside. I have experience with this type of incident (mine was on a steep hillside with the vehicle balanced on a rock). The stabilization methods they used on it would not have worked. Stabilization struts support an overturned vehicle, they don't hold it down, and placing cribbing on the guardrail would have done nothing useful that I can see. Then again, at least they sort of C-spined the kid from that wreck.
I'm unimpressed with the fire scenes so far. I've been inside lots of burning buildings. Most of the time, you're snake-crawling on the floor and you can't see your hand in front of your face. Multi-story apartment buildings with open stairwells can be a little different if the fire is on an upper floor, but not if you have fire established in the basement. If you take off your BA mask, you're probably going to die very quickly. If you stand straight up for more than a few seconds, your gear is going to fail and you're going to be in serious trouble. And while they did do most of the Pittsburg drill correctly to pull a downed firefighter out of the basement after the floor collapsed, they kinda forgot to pull out the other two guys who were down there, which is to say they only did part of the real operation. Also, they are way too clean. When you come out of a structure fire, you gear is filthy and so are you. You clean it when you get back to the station. So why do these guys come out looking like their turnouts just got dry-cleaned? I will give them this, they seem to be getting a little better in realism with each episode. I'm going to try to give this show a chance, as I think it's got some potential, though it certainly doesn't live up to "Emergency!", which to this day remains probably the most realistic Hollywood production about firefighters ever made.
If there's one thing I really hate about this show, it's the fact that after every episode I have to calm my fiancée down and convince her all over again that I'm not really cheating death twelve times a day. They do try to overdramatize the job. I get that, as I can attest to the fact that it's a lot more boring in real life (isn't everything?) and nobody would be that interested in a real day on the job, so I'm trying not to hold that against them.