Movies and Films
This is the forum for Movie and Film discussions. Again, our topic is naval warfare in WWII for the most part.
Re: An 'Allies'Das Boot ?
Posted by:
cate
()
Date: October 31, 2002 02:37PM
<HTML>Right
The play was "PQ17". You were spot on, it was a Play For Today about 20 yrs ago, and it was based on a true story.
Armed with this info I turned up the following article on the convoy - [therussiajournal.com]
It was sripted by a British actor / writer called Roger Milner.
So if you thought it was good, we have a potential screen writer who knows the convoy territory.........
Penny Wilton don't know - I like films with good women's roles, and female actors understandably get very hacked of at the lack of them, but when it comes to most war films I think you have to resign yourself to limited scope in this area. Token secretaries, drivers, ops room personnel and stiff upper lipped wives and mothers is about the best they can usually hope for. She ( or someone else) could maybe be Valery's wife, asking him not to go on this convoy in view of his health, and later after he's dead receiving two notifications in the same delivery perhaps - one that he has died, the other that he has been promoted.
Ian Richardson as the mole - Hmm, we might be getting a bit 'Tinker Taylor' here, and I don't think we should spread the focus too much. If you cram in too much plot you lose the chance to develop the main and supporting characters. But it does occur to me that there must have been figures at the admiralty who because of their backgrounds and political instincts must have had more sympathy towards the German regime than the Bolshevik one, and found an alliance with Russia pretty hard to stomach. The kind of people who might have reached an accomodation with Hitler had the war turned out differently. Churchill certainly got plenty of stick in Parliament when he entered the Russian Alliance. It might be interesting to reflect that in Richardson's character, and would only need a line or two to indicate that he may have an agenda 'in reserve', and wouldn't be too heartbroken if the convoy doesn't get through. But I'd leave that vague and implicit, rather than making him an active traitor.
Still leaves the director and quite a few leading roles to cast, and plenty of scope for picking and choosing which action, incidents and engagements to leave in or out. What ideas on those do you have? Anyone in mind for the poor old padre?
Cate</HTML>
The play was "PQ17". You were spot on, it was a Play For Today about 20 yrs ago, and it was based on a true story.
Armed with this info I turned up the following article on the convoy - [therussiajournal.com]
It was sripted by a British actor / writer called Roger Milner.
So if you thought it was good, we have a potential screen writer who knows the convoy territory.........
Penny Wilton don't know - I like films with good women's roles, and female actors understandably get very hacked of at the lack of them, but when it comes to most war films I think you have to resign yourself to limited scope in this area. Token secretaries, drivers, ops room personnel and stiff upper lipped wives and mothers is about the best they can usually hope for. She ( or someone else) could maybe be Valery's wife, asking him not to go on this convoy in view of his health, and later after he's dead receiving two notifications in the same delivery perhaps - one that he has died, the other that he has been promoted.
Ian Richardson as the mole - Hmm, we might be getting a bit 'Tinker Taylor' here, and I don't think we should spread the focus too much. If you cram in too much plot you lose the chance to develop the main and supporting characters. But it does occur to me that there must have been figures at the admiralty who because of their backgrounds and political instincts must have had more sympathy towards the German regime than the Bolshevik one, and found an alliance with Russia pretty hard to stomach. The kind of people who might have reached an accomodation with Hitler had the war turned out differently. Churchill certainly got plenty of stick in Parliament when he entered the Russian Alliance. It might be interesting to reflect that in Richardson's character, and would only need a line or two to indicate that he may have an agenda 'in reserve', and wouldn't be too heartbroken if the convoy doesn't get through. But I'd leave that vague and implicit, rather than making him an active traitor.
Still leaves the director and quite a few leading roles to cast, and plenty of scope for picking and choosing which action, incidents and engagements to leave in or out. What ideas on those do you have? Anyone in mind for the poor old padre?
Cate</HTML>
