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Mistreating a masterpiece?

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Posted by narig01 on Wednesday, December 19, 2012 2:01 PM

Firelock76

 Hey, Patton's one of the best Marines the US Army ever bred! 

But did the Marines ever have an Army full of tanks?.

Thx IGN

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Posted by wjstix on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 9:34 AM

 

baberuth73

Are you folks trying to tell me that Shoeless Joe Jackson may not have really come back from the dead to play baseball in that Iowa cornfield? Darn.............

Actually he did, but he died as a left-handed hitting South Carolina hillbilly, and was reborn as a right-handed hitting Italian from New Jersey....

Devil

 

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Posted by K4sPRR on Monday, December 3, 2012 11:31 AM

Firelock76

Hey K4s, I don't mind a little joshing when it's all in good fun.  Shakespeare hit the nail on the head when he wrote "We few, we happy few, we bank of brothers.  For he who sheds his blood with me this day shall be by brother, be he e'er so base..."   Pretty remarkable for a man who never wore a uniform or fired a shot to get it so right.  What a genius he was.

And "Amen" to all the troops having a safe Christmas.  Hope they bring them all home ASAP.

So true!!!!

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Posted by Firelock76 on Sunday, December 2, 2012 6:51 PM

Hey K4s, I don't mind a little joshing when it's all in good fun.  Shakespeare hit the nail on the head when he wrote "We few, we happy few, we bank of brothers.  For he who sheds his blood with me this day shall be by brother, be he e'er so base..."   Pretty remarkable for a man who never wore a uniform or fired a shot to get it so right.  What a genius he was.

And "Amen" to all the troops having a safe Christmas.  Hope they bring them all home ASAP.

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Posted by K4sPRR on Sunday, December 2, 2012 8:49 AM

Firelock76

To K4sPRR:  Oh my, you've got yours Dad's Patton Christmas card?  Is that the one with the "Weather Prayer"  printed on the reverse?  If it is you've got a priceless family heirloom, don't ever, EVER, let it go!

By the way, the "Weather Prayer" works.  Trust me on that one.

And I'm sure I'll love the Patton Museum, I'm a Patton fan alright.  All Marines are Patton fans.  Hey, Patton's one of the best Marines the US Army ever bred! 

Yes, that the one, the Weather Prayer.  My Dad said it worked too, skies cleared and air support was able to get to them.  Its about 2 X 3 inches in size, many guys pitched them or lit them and passed it around to light cigarettes.  I don't know why, but Dad stuck his in his wallet and there it stayed.   Now I have it, and plan to pass it on hopefully for many generations. 

Also,  when I was at the Patton Museum his specially made Jeep was on display there at that time and also his pearl handled pistols with holster.   Obviously you were a Marine, Patton was the best "ground pounder" the Marines wish they had.  They made up for though, Gomer Pyle.....LOL.   

I was in the Army, we always jabbed with the Marines but when the s.... hit the fan, you learn what the term an Army of One really means.  Praying all our troops have a safe Christmas. 

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Posted by Firelock76 on Saturday, December 1, 2012 8:44 PM

To K4sPRR:  Oh my, you've got yours Dad's Patton Christmas card?  Is that the one with the "Weather Prayer"  printed on the reverse?  If it is you've got a priceless family heirloom, don't ever, EVER, let it go!

By the way, the "Weather Prayer" works.  Trust me on that one.

And I'm sure I'll love the Patton Museum, I'm a Patton fan alright.  All Marines are Patton fans.  Hey, Patton's one of the best Marines the US Army ever bred! 

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Posted by K4sPRR on Saturday, December 1, 2012 7:29 PM

Firelock76

To 54light15:  Patton wasn't killed in that '39 Cadillac, but he WAS fatally injured, dying of said injuries several days later.  The car is currently on display in the Patton Armor Museum  at the US Army's Fort Knox tank training center.  I haven't seen it but hope to go someday and shed a tear over it.

I've been to the museum at Ft. Knox and if your a Patton fan, you'll love it.  Several Patton artifacts.

  My Dad was in the 5th Infantry Division of Patton's 3rd Army in WWII.  He said they cused the man all across Europe, but when it was all said and done they agreed, the SOB was right!  I have the Christmas card Patton gave to each of his troops at the Battle of Bulge in 1944.  For some reason my Dad kept his, its very small, but a great piece of history and Pattons story about the card is classic.  As to the movie you mentioned, my Dad started to sweat when he watched it, George C. Scott did a great job.

  As for Patton, my Dad had a lot of respect for him.  Said he was the only General he'd ever go to into battle with.

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Posted by Firelock76 on Friday, November 30, 2012 6:01 PM

One other thing:  Pattons jeep "War Eagle" is on display at the US Army Quartermaster Corps Museum in Fort Lee Va., Petersburg area,  I've seen that one.  Very nice!

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Posted by Firelock76 on Thursday, November 29, 2012 6:32 PM

To 54light15:  Patton wasn't killed in that '39 Cadillac, but he WAS fatally injured, dying of said injuries several days later.  The car is currently on display in the Patton Armor Museum  at the US Army's Fort Knox tank training center.  I haven't seen it but hope to go someday and shed a tear over it.

I don't know the whereabouts of the Roosevelt attempted assassination car.  However, should you find yourself in the Hyde Park New York area the Roosevelt home historic sight has the '36 Ford equipped with hand controls that FDR drove. I've seen that one.  I've read FDR used to drive like a maniac and I can believe it, you should see the chipped paint on the fenders!

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, November 29, 2012 2:15 PM

Firelock, that bit about Patton is brilliant! As an aside, I once saw the V-16 Cadillac that he died in back in 1966 in a museum (now gone) in Natural Bridge, Virginia. At least I think that was the place. They also had the car that F.D.R. was riding in when Giuseppe Zangara shot the mayor of Chicago who was standing on the running board. I wonder where those cars are now? 

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Posted by Firelock76 on Saturday, November 17, 2012 9:03 AM

baberuth73

Are you folks trying to tell me that Shoeless Joe Jackson may not have really come back from the dead to play baseball in that Iowa cornfield? Darn.............

Well, that COULD have been "Shoeless Joe."   I read a story of a sneak preview of the movie "Patton" in 1970 that was shown at a reunion of Third Army veterans.  When George C. Scott walked out in front of that huge American flag one of the vets in the audience yellled  "MY GOD!  THE SON-OF-A-B**** IS ALIVE!"  Brought the house down, but they all agreed Scott nailed the role.

As an aside, I've lost count of how many times I've put "Patton" in the VCR just to watch the speech and wound up watching the whole film.  It's just magic.

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Posted by rrebell on Friday, November 16, 2012 11:14 PM

I had a tenant who's father worked on the movie Union Pacific as one of the people who built the scale engines used in the crashes, he told of making the boiler out of tin foil so it would crumple on impact etc.

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Posted by baberuth73 on Friday, November 16, 2012 8:26 AM

Are you folks trying to tell me that Shoeless Joe Jackson may not have really come back from the dead to play baseball in that Iowa cornfield? Darn.............

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Posted by Pathfinder on Thursday, November 15, 2012 11:54 PM

On the Unstoppable DVD that we have there is a very neat feature on how the big wreck with the SD40-2 was done.  Worth watching to see how these sorts of scenes are planned and executed.  There is also a similar feature on the Fugitive (Harrison Ford movie) also worth watching.  More "real" stuff used for both movies than you might think.

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Posted by seppburgh2 on Thursday, November 15, 2012 11:41 PM

Just my two cents, but with the advanced of cheaper more powerful computers, the directors can do away with the actors all together.  Yes, today we can spot the CGI from the real person (who is really acting in front of a blue screen), 10 to 15 years from now, no so.

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Posted by Firelock76 on Thursday, November 15, 2012 6:55 PM

I wonder if others feel as I do.  In a way, I think it's a shame so many movie special effects and stunts are all CGI.  In the old days you'd see a special effect and say "WOW!  How'd they do that?"  Nowadays you see a special effect and you know exactly how they did it, it's CGI.  Takes all the wonder out of it, you know?

By the way, when I see the parting of the Red Sea from C.B. DeMille's "Ten Commandments"  I still wonder how they did it!  Just amazing.

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Posted by carnej1 on Thursday, November 15, 2012 11:23 AM

There are fewer and fewer Cecille B. DeMille type stunts being done in modern film-making. This is largely due to the rapid advancement of computer generated imaging techniques but also because it is extremely difficult and expensive to get the insurance coverage necessary for "live action spectacular" type stunts, especially if live actors (or even stunt people) will be in the danger zone. Most directors and producers would rather put the money saved into more CGI..

"I Often Dream of Trains"-From the Album of the Same Name by Robyn Hitchcock

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Posted by Firelock76 on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 5:40 PM

I saw a TV show not too long ago where the filmakers went to the site of Buster's bridge collapse scene from "The General".  There's still some remnants of the bridge there to be seen in the riverbed, and some assorted relics on the river banks.  If anyone goes to the site remember, "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints."  Leave the relics for others to enjoy.

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Posted by wjstix on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 8:13 AM

In a documentary on Buster Keaton, it noted that the scene of the steam engine collapsing the bridge was the most expensive single "shot" in the history of silent pictures. It noted that if you look carefully you can see some local people who got into the shot to see the bridge/train crash, and you can see a film crew man pulling a rope to remove a support from the bridge at the key moment to make the bridge collapse.

Stix
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Posted by seppburgh2 on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 9:42 PM

A quick Google search will find that Keaton use a logging railroad that was ready for scrapping with the locomotives way obsolete at that time.  Lancaster's The Train used realy French steam all being sitting in the scrap line.  I belive the reason the movie was made was the "actors" were had for the "cheap" and no one cared what shape they came back in.  The derailment scene where the steamer comes to rest on top the camera is an all time action shot.  The camera being set up as an 'extra' which I recall the camera director didn't thing would make it. 

  If you have not seen these moves, they are well worth the price of a used CD.

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Posted by vsmith on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 4:51 PM

wjstix

vsmith

BTW I can tell you this Lone Ranger movie is NOT using the Hooterville Cannonball/Ticket to Tomahawk replica as its currently undergoing restoration in Colorado.

 
Sierra RR No.3 isn't a replica. It was built in 1893.

Very true, Sierra #3 was used as the original Hooterville Cannonball early in the series, but in the series later years to save money, they simply used stock footage of the #3, then augmented it with long distance motion film of the large scale model and then the studio leased the wooden/fiberglass Tomahawk mock-up for the in-station shots or cab shot of the actors, they even built an in-studio copy of the Sierra RR shorty combine. By the end of the series they hadn't returned to the Sierra RR for several seasons.

Here's a link to the restoration:

http://www.drhs315.org/blog/projects/emma-sweeney-2/restoration/

   Have fun with your trains

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Posted by wjstix on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 2:48 PM

vsmith

BTW I can tell you this Lone Ranger movie is NOT using the Hooterville Cannonball/Ticket to Tomahawk replica as its currently undergoing restoration in Colorado.

 
Sierra RR No.3 isn't a replica. It was built in 1893.
Stix
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Posted by Firelock76 on Thursday, October 25, 2012 8:15 PM

nwo4rf

Then you would really be sad in "Rio Grande" when they took two D&RGW 2-8-0's and staged a head-on wreck with them.

You better believe it!

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Posted by HiDesertEd on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 10:39 PM

I've never seen mention of a live steam model used for that movie but I have seen the full size model that was built for the movie.  The model was built to scale right down to the rivet heads on the tender shell.

As of circa 2000 it was still in protected/enclosed storage at Desert Center, Ca.  If you know where to look you can see in the windows of the building that it is still in fair shape but starting to show age and lack of attention.

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Posted by bubbajustin on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 8:28 AM

Stoop Davy Dave

There's no Polar Express?  

IT DOES EXIST! AT THE STEAM RR'ING. INSTITUTE IN OWSSO, MICHIGAN! 

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Posted by nwo4rf on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 8:00 AM

Then you would really be sad in "Rio Grande" when they took two D&RGW 2-8-0's and staged a head-on wreck with them.

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Posted by Firelock76 on Monday, October 22, 2012 5:25 PM

dknelson

Well on the other hand the locomotives and rolling stock in Buster Keaton's The General and the great Burt Lancaster film The Train really were destroyed, just as you see on screen.

Dave Nelson

Well, it was a little bit of a different situation with Keatons "The General"  and Burt Lancasters "The Train".  Those locomotives and rolling stock were headed for the scrappers anyway, the filmakers gave them a chance to go out in a blaze of glory.  No problem back then, but seeing that equipment destroyed, especially the 4-4-0 in the  "General" makes my blood run cold, even if it was doomed anyway.

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Posted by k9wrangler on Monday, October 22, 2012 5:05 PM

The below paragraph is contained in the linked article: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/depp-and-hammer-ride-in-new-pictures-from-the-lone-ranger/

There are so many train scenes in The Lone Ranger that the filmmakers built their own period train. "It was a modern train clad in a steam engine just to get through all the work we had to do," says Verbinski. "The train sequences are really entertaining." The train robbery is an iconic Western shot. "But we turn it on its head."

Karl Scribner

Sunfield Twp. Michigan

Kentucky Southern Railway

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Posted by dknelson on Monday, October 22, 2012 8:11 AM

Well on the other hand the locomotives and rolling stock in Buster Keaton's The General and the great Burt Lancaster film The Train really were destroyed, just as you see on screen.

Dave Nelson

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