The battle of #RorkesDrift ended 144 years ago today. A distant battle in a long gone war, its place in popular history relies as much on a film as it does the gallantry rewarded with 11 VCs.
But there's more to the story of the #VictoriaCross and cinema. A thread.
THREAD 1/14
The idea for ZULU (1964) came when Cy Endfield picked up a copy of Lilliput. John Prebble's article "Slaughter in the Sun" became #Zulu a few years later - recounting an underdog action which yielded 11 VCs and launched the career of a cinema great along the way.
THREAD 2/14
ZULU DAWN (1979) sought to cash in on the success of its predecessor by depicting the Battle of #Isandlwana. Some big names make up a strong ensemble cast, share the story of two more VCs (Melvill and Coghill), and put the events at #RorkesDrift into wider context.
THREAD 3/14
Context is key too in THE DAM BUSTERS (1955), depicting the last in a series of operations that would win Guy Gibson the #VictoriaCross.
As much about technical ingenuity and teamwork as individual valour, #Dambusters showcases the remarkable men of #617Squadron.
THREAD 4/14
Playing a small part in a much bigger story is the raid which earned Geoffrey Keyes a posthumous VC. THE DESERT FOX (1951) names neither Operation Flipper nor the commando commander of its opening engagement as Holywood does its bit to push the #Rommel myth.
THREAD 5/14
John Baskeyfield gets full billing in the independently made short BASKEYFIELD VC (1969). Filmed over three years, Bill Townley accurately depicts the determination of a brave NCO during the Battle of Arnhem.
THREAD 6/14
Not all VC winners are so unambiguously depicted. Staying in Arnhem, the epic A BRIDGE TOO FAR (1977) gives us Major Carlyle. Presented as an umbrella wielding eccentric, he is an amalgamation of two real officers - Digby Tatham-Warter and VC winner, John Grayburn.
THREAD 8/14
THE GIFT HORSE (1952) goes further. It gives HMS Campbeltown a new name and replaces skipper Stephen Beattie with Trevor Howard's Fraser. While the scriptwriters enjoyed licence with their fictitious crew, the events that won Beattie his VC at St Nazaire remain.
THREAD 9/14
Donald Cameron is another naval VC who'd be forgiven for not recognising himself on screen. John Mills' ABOVE US THE WAVES (1955) and James Caan's SUBMARINE X-1 (1968) loosely use his operation as their source material.
THREAD 9/14
Fictional VC portrayals give filmmakers liberty to explore different issues. In RYAN'S DAUGHTER (1970), David Lean uses the shell-shocked Maj Doryan VC to remind viewers that medal winners are human and that conspicuous gallantry takes place amid the horrors of war.
THREAD 10/14
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943) gives a depiction of the way a VC and the unwanted "celebrity" it can bring can change people's expectations and attitudes - "You're Candy!" exclaims an otherwise dismissive officer upon seeing the medal.
THREAD 11/14
Reverence, honour, and even jealousy are all responses explored in CARRINGTON VC (1954), a court room drama in which - in keeping with theatrical tradition that fake decorations should not be worn - David Niven is seen wearing the VC won by Arthur Cross in 1918.
THREAD 12/14
Perhaps surprisingly, given the drama involved with winning a Victoria Cross, cinema isn't awash with depictions.
Maybe there's a degree of reverence towards those who have shown gallantry of the highest order - something picked up in CONDUCT UNBECOMING (1975)
THREAD 13/14
Perhaps, though it's that those who win the VC are often "ordinary" men, with otherwise uncinematic lives, but who have shown the capacity for extraordinary valour.
At least one - Daniel Laidlaw VC - got the chance show why he wasn't ordinary in THE GUNS OF LOOS (1928).
Until June 1944, the rich farmland of #Normandy had been relatively untouched by war. #DDay changed that and, as Bert Hardy recorded #OTD 80 years ago, soldiers and farmers sometimes lived side by side...
🧵1/8 AFPUinNWE #WW2 #Photojournalism
When AFPU photographer Sgt Bert Hardy visited M. Bekarot's farm at St Manvieu, he discovered some temporary inhabitants - men of 530 Battery, 190 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. Part of 15th (Scottish) Division, they'd been in #France for a little under a month.
🧵2/8 AFPUinNWE
The battery's presence wasn't the only sign of war Hardy found that day. Here, a couple of gunners help a farm girl repairing a loft shattered by shell fire.
In June 1944, war came to #Normandy, exerting a high cost on the civilian population. #OTD in 1944 photographer Bert Hardy joined a family returning to their shattered home.
Join me for a powerful piece of #photojournalism...
🧵 1/12 #AFPUinNWE #WW2
Located to the north west of Caen, the village of Buron had been liberated by men of the 3rd Canadian Division on 8th July 1944.
As the Le Du family would discover 10 days later, the fighting had left once familiar streets devastated.
🧵 2/12 #AFPUinNWE #WW2
The family soon began searching through the wreckage of their home, hoping to unearth some of the belongings they'd been unable to take with them when they left the village.
#OTD in 1944, Sgt John Goddard was in the ruins of Caen.
In #Normandy to film the war, he'd soon be dismissed from AFPU in a downfall which, via the #BritishFilm industry, ended in an appointment with the hangman.
Join me for a #WW2 thread that turns to #TrueCrime...
🧵 1/11
A far cry from Korda's 1939 technicolor epic THE FOUR FEATHERS - a film on which Goddard cut his teeth as a clapper loader - the scenes shot on 10th July 1944 give a vivid rendering of the realities of a city ravaged by war.
🧵 2/11
Born in Paddington to a Belgian mother, Goddard (birth name Godar) spent time around Caen in July 1944 - here he is speaking to Rene Tithy, "a one-handed French lad who had been compelled to work for the Germans" - but gave his OC, Major Hugh Stewart, cause for concern.
80 years ago, the overarching #DDay deception campaign, Operation BODYGUARD, was in full swing.
Designed to mislead German intelligence ahead of the landings, these initiatives have proved fertile ground for filmmakers.
A thread of big screen deceptions and daring do... 🧵 1/9
Still technically subject to the Official Secrets Act when it was made, I WAS MONTY’S DOUBLE (1958) gave M E Clifton James the chance to re-live his experiences impersonating General Montgomery in the weeks leading up to #DDay.
🧵 2/9
A similar theme emerges in fiction via a very different film - WHERE EAGLES DARE (1968).
His role may have differed from Clifton James', but Corporal Cartwright Jones - the man posing as OVERLORD planner, General Carnaby - treads a similar path.
OTD in 1944, the real "#GreatEscape" was launched.
In time, it inspired a Hollywood epic, but while #TheGreatEscape (1963) is a heavily fictionalised look at the break out of Stalag Luft III, some of those involved knew something of the reality behind their portrayal...
🧵 1/12
Donald Pleasence (Blythe) knew first hand the lot of a prisoner of war.
A Wireless Operator/Air Gunner in the RAF, he was shot down on a daylight raid over France and, after enduring a long march to the Baltic, found himself in a POW camp alongside American airmen.
🧵 2/12
Richard Attenborough (Bartlett) couldn't draw on the same experience, but he had flown over wartime Europe.
A member of the Royal Air Force Film Production Unit, he flew with Bomber Command and filmed the whirlwind being reaped from the exposed turret of a rear gunner.
It's 65 years since the first "Carry On" film, CARRY ON SERGEANT (1958), was released.
The film that spawned an iconic franchise drew on the then familiar experience of national service. Indeed, many of the cast had their own military backgrounds. A thread... 👇
🧵 1/11
The film's star, Bob Monkhouse (Pte Sage), received his call-up papers in 1948, completing his national service with the RAF.
But he wasn't the only former airman to where army khaki for the film...
🧵 2/11
Terence Longdon (Pte Heywood) saw wartime service high above the Atlantic as a Fleet Air Arm pilot, while Gerald Campion (Pte Galloway) had spent his war in Kenya as navigator with the RAF.