#movie aircraft

[nocternalrandomness]

The Memphis Belle taxis back to the ramp after a media flight from MCAS Cherry Point

[rainmacaroni]

Family

[elizabugz]

[usafphantom2]

During filming of Tora Tora Tora! in 1970, a R/C fibreglass replica P-40 with a dummy pilot served out of control and smashed into a row of static replicas. The footage was so spectacular it stayed in the film. The extras seen running for their lives were not acting!

@petehill854 via X

[scipunk]

The Creator (2023)

[of-fear-and-love]

Airplanes from China Clipper (1936)

[twoseparatecoursesmeet]

The Ocean and Planes in Formation, 1950s

[hellyeahgeorgekennedy]

George Kennedy and Roy Davis on the set of Airport '79. Roy was the real-life inspiration for the character Joe Patroni in the Airport novel and 1970 film. Roy was the Director of Maintenance for TWA at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and was a legend in the world of aircraft maintenance. He was the TWA guy who flew company aircraft out of mud bogs and snowbanks. George spent a great deal of time with Roy to get his character down for the film.

[j4m3s-b4k3r]

Staying Alive

Godzilla is just gonna smash stuff. Every time. No matter what humans do. Award winning actors & big name directors can headline a story where elite military forces wield the most advanced tech on Earth, but none of that will matter. The franchise requires that the big lizard will prevail. There is always entertaining spectacle, but (for me) there's little emotional engagement, because humans are merely gnats buzzing around the feet of The Big G. And so, I prepared for the inevitable cocktail of uninvolving mayhem as the lights went down before the latest Godzilla flick.

However, GODZILLA: MINUS ONE gripped me from the very beginning and didn’t let me go. I was amazed by this. I’d always felt that the sheer futility of any human action in a Godzilla film was the reason that these films would always have little involvement, despite all their spectacle. However, this film defeats those dramatic problems by flying straight into the eye of the storm. The implacable force of Godzilla is flipped, in a judo-throw by writer/director TAKASHI YAMAZAKI, to tell a moving story about human frailty.

After a cataclysmic war, the protagonist (movingly played by RYUNOSUKE KAMIKI) deals with the shame of being a kamikaze pilot who came home. To a Japan utterly firebombed into ashes by Bomber Command. Much of the plot deals with remorse, survivor’s guilt, and people forgiving others & themselves. With loved ones all dead, new families form when complete strangers become attached to each other. Every character is trying to pick up the pieces, and all their stories are affecting. 

In this Godzilla film, the human story is the A-story, and Godzilla is actually the B-story, and that’s why it works so well. Here, Godzilla is just a force of nature. Like the earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons that frequently bash the Japanese archipelago. The A-story is about humans making sense of life after cataclysm, just as the Japanese people have done countless times over the centuries. The frailty of human life is the very point of this story, which seems to ask - are frailty, failure and futility the same thing? 

In fact, this could be a moving film about finding meaning amongst the ruins, even without any Godzilla at all. Adding in a rampaging radioactive monster heightens the drama & stakes when these new human connections have been made. Godzilla is the ultimate unstoppable chaos agent, and in the right hands, the perfect vehicle for telling a story about finding meaning after loss, tragedy & defeat. Staying alive by accident, or even cowardice, isn’t a disgrace if something meaningful is done with the life that remains. 

I often squirm when a movie is over 2 hours, but GODZILLA: MINUS ONE didn’t feel bloated at all. Every scene and each performance strengthened the whole. It both looked & felt like a blockbuster epic, but apparently cost less than 15 million dollars. It was very impressive indeed.

5 Radioactive Stars!

[thatsrightice]

Imagine it’s movie night on the aircraft carrier and they’ve got this new movie that just came out called Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. And it’s a decent movie like the flyboys are loving it and Maverick is loving it and Ice isn’t hating it, but then it all goes to shit.

Cameron resonates with Ice a little bit because his dad was gone all the time on business trips too and Ice was also afraid of breathing wrong out of fear for his father’s wrath. He was totally on Cameron’s side of course, he knew this whole plan of Ferris’ was not going to end well but it’s just a movie, right? But then he feels the fear creeping up a little because the miles aren’t decreasing when they rewound the odometer and Cameron’s dad is going to be so pissed when he finally gets home. Then the car crashes through the window and Ice’s breathing stutters for a sec because oh god Cameron is so seriously dead. There is no coming back from that.

But then Cameron decides to stand up to father! Ice envy’s the strength Cameron has to do such a thing because Ice wasn’t sure he’d come out of that conversation alive. He wants to see this work out for Cameron, he wants to see this kid get out from under the oppressive shadow of his father.

And then the movie is over. That’s it. No follow up. And Ice hates that. Hates that he doesn’t get to see Cameron get his happily ever after. No reassurance everything turned out alright for him. The lack of resolution sits heavy in Ics’s stomach as his mind begins to fill in the gaps. There invisible oppression of his own father remains looming overhead.

[chiosblog]

Sad (gay) italian top gun noises

[nocternalrandomness]

"The Batcopter"

[ericaportfolio]

Disney’s The Gremlins Over the Years Chapter 2: Gremlin Gus (Part 1)

Due to the recent events with Epic Mickey Rebrushed, I decided to make posts dedicated to Disney's infamous characters from the canceled WWII movie The Gremlins. The character designs of these guys have changed many times during the concept art process and over the years. If you just discovered this post, here is Chapter 1 in the link below.

Today, this is a collection of our favorite bowler hat fellow, Gremlin Gus. For those discovering this, in summary, Disney was making WWII movies and shorts for the war effort. They were going to adapt Roald Dahl's first book about these guys, and several things like people getting tired of war movies and figuring out how to make the movie, which was canceled. Just like the story, Gremlin Gus's role in the story changed as well. Here's the breakdown of Gremlin Gus over the years. Also, get ready for SPOILERS!

TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of War, World War II History, Nuclear Warfare, the Nazis and Hitler, and Death.

Early Concept Art: From the early versions of Gremlin Gus by Bill Justice, Disney animator and engineer, There were versions where he looked ancient, slightly old but fit, or, possible theory, his natural hair color is white, but he aged poorly due to stress. Shout out to ZOLTAR'S FORTUNE on eBay, posting the Photocopies (the last three).

Cosmopolitan Magazine (1942): The earliest release of "The Gremlin" story was in the December 1942 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. Someone posted the full Article on the site, but I might post another one for each illustration. So stay tuned for that! But for now, here are Gremlin Gus's Designs. In the colored cover of "Introducing the Gremlins," Gremlin Gus has his green skin, a brown helmet, a broken horn, a pair of glasses, his bowler hat between his horns, and missing his mustache. In the original story, the Gremlins once lived in the forest of England, staying out of the way of the humans building towns or fighting each other. That was until the 1940s when World War II started. A bunch of workmen began to cut down the entire wood to build a plane factory to fight against the Nazis. The Gremlins swear revenge by sabotaging the planes without knowing what's happening in the outside world. One day, Pilot Gus of the Royal Air Force (RAF) fights in the Battle of Britain, where he becomes the first human to see a Gremlin. So Pilot Gus and his buddies get harassed by these guys, including their leader, Gremlin Gus. Will the pilots find a way to befriend these little guys before someone gets hurt?

Concept Art Upgrade: Now, here's starting to look like the Gremlin Gus we know! These would eventually be the final book and promotion designs.

The (Controversial) Life-Saver Ad (1943): AKA the ad Roald Dahl hated, but Walt Disney thought differently. Here, Gremlin Gus has a green helmet, his bowler hat is missing, and he has pale skin.

Dell War Heroes (April 1943): This is a sample from a six-page adaptation of the story featured in a Dell War Heroes comic book. The writer and artist are unknown. Here, Gremlin Gus has a green helmet, his bowler hat is now on his horn, had pale skin, and orange gloves. The most significant difference between the Article and this comic is that Gremlin Gus accidentally hurt Pilot Gus, and the plane they were in caught on fire. After a close parachute escape, Pilot Gus confronts Gremlin Gus when he finally learns why the Gremlins were sabotaging the aircraft. With that, Pilot Gus showed sympathy, saying that if the Gremlins started helping the RAF pilots fight and win the war, the Gremlins would get a new home. The same new home in Return of the Gremlins that the Gremlins have to fight to save years later.

The First Treatment (May 18, 1943): The first version of the movie treatment was 155 pages long. Gremlin Gus is both the leader of the Gremlins and the teacher of the widgets, the children of the Gremlins. While reading a newspaper, he discovers a pilot named Rip Wilson (a renamed version of Pilot Gus), who looks like a young Fred Astaire, hasn't had a situation regarding the Gremlins. Later, Gremlin Gus overhears Rip, saying he doesn't believe in Gremlins. With that, the Gremlins make him sick and get Rip into an accident. However, the Gremlins save Rip because they don't want to kill him. They just wanted to destroy the plane in revenge. Later in the hospital, Gremlin Gus reveals what happened to their woods. This causes Rip to explain what's going on with the war and how much of a threat Hitler is to everyone. At the very same time, the radio that's been on in Rip's room broadcasts a speech of Hitler insulting the Gremlins for destroying their planes. This causes the Gremlins to convert to the Allies' Cause to defeat the Nazis.

Disney's The Gremlins Book (June 1943): Finally, here's the Gremlin Gus we know and love! Here is one of Bill Justice's colored paintings from the book. I highly recommend looking through all the paintings from the book because Bill Justice does justice to these guys! The part where Pilot Gus and Gremlin Gus escape the plane and the deal the Gremlins will get a new home from the comic was added to the book. Though Gremlin Gus doesn't accidentally hurt Pilot Gus. But there's a moment in the book in the original Article where Pilot Gus is sick, and Gremlin Gus tries to tell him not to go and does get hurt. At the end of the book, the reformed Gremlins help Pilot Gus get back into the air.

Walt Disney Comics and Stories #33 (June 1943): A new group of pilots believed the Gremlins were fairytales in this two-page adaptation. Jokes on them since what they said enraged the Gremlins that they mess with the guys. Gremlin Gus has green skin, a nose, a yellow helmet, and brown gloves.

The Second Treatment (June 9, 1943): In this 100-page long treatment, instead of being the leader of the Gremlins, Gremlin Gus's and Gremlin Jamface's characters are merged when Gremlin Gus is caught befriending a human pilot. Gremlin Gus is put on trial, where he explains the RAF pilots are the good guys fighting against the Nazis invading their homes. Suddenly, an unexploded German bomb crashes into the court gathering, proving Gremlin Gus correct. In this version, the writers were trying to get away from Gremlins harming the aircraft to make them "sympathetic" and focus on the Gremlin society and why they're destructive. Any material of Hitler in the first treatment is all gone in the second one and was replaced with the bomb. However, there was another version of the story where the Gremlins did have their own version of a Gremlin Hitler that Gremlin Gus and the others had to defeat before joining the Allies before he caused problems for everyone, too.

Donald Vs. The Gremlins (July 1943): This is the crossover we would get years later by Walt Kelly. Gremlin Gus has yellow gloves, a brown belt, and brown shoes.

Walt Kelly's Comics (July 1943-1944): Walt Kelly would make 8 comics about Gremlin Gus or both Gremlin Gus and two widgets getting in trouble at the airfield for a year. Here, Gremlin Gus has a Green helmet and gloves, a red shirt and boots, blue pants, green skin and nose, and missing his bowler hat.

Storyboard Short (1943): This is a sample of a 1943 storyboard when the production went from feature film to short film. The story drastically changed when the movie was cut down to an animated short. Instead of living in the woods, they lived in their cloud kingdom, making fun of humans trying to learn how to fly. That was until WWII broke out, and the modern warfare planes began to destroy the Gremlins' home. The Gremlins vow to destroy the aircraft for causing chaos and disrupting their lives. In the short, the story goes back and forth between the human pilots and the Gremlins interviewing their their bosses after an incident where Wellington aircraft caused damage while making an emergency landing. These are my favorite snippets of Gremlin Gus.

B-17F, 560th Bomb Squadron (1943 - 1946): This Gremlin may not look like Gremlin Gus, but this is one of his famous insignias and patches. The patch would be worn by members of the 388th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 560th Bomb Squadron, Eighth Air Force.

Some Time Never: A Fable for Supermen (1948): The last book Roald Dahl wrote something about the Gremlins was an adult novel and character names changed to prevent lawsuits (except this one pilot, Stuffy, got to keep his name). In this story version, the gremlins were the world's rulers, but the humans forced them underground. They briefly returned to the surface during the Battle of Britain and began sabotaging the RAF aircraft. They eventually decide to go back underground, believing humanity will destroy themselves, which happens with two more World Wars that are very similar to the Fallout TV Show opening. 

Gremlin Gus's Counterpart in this story is named the Leader. The Leader takes on a bit of a villainous role, having black and lidless eyes that glowed "with a strange hypnotic, almost fanatic lustre", a bowler hat greener than others, and a deep voice. But just like all villains, this one keeps his people underground once again to watch the humans die out so they can take over the world again; they get their comeuppance, but this time, the Leader doomed his people. When they emerged again, nothing was left, and the Gremlins disappeared, too. Despite the book not being that good, it was quite a sad read when I managed to get a copy of this book years ago. The book was never reprinted, so I had to get help from the local library to find a copy. The book was a flop with primarily negative reviews. Still, it did get some praise from the Glasgow Herald and The Saturday Review. It's also historically one of the first books about Nuclear Warfare. Recently, @gremlin-tails made a blog with the whole book posted online for reading. The link to the entire book is down below.

Fun Fact: If you guys remember Snoozeberries from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, they're actually the berries the Gremlins eat in the story.

Part 2 Coming Soon...

[usafphantom2]

Thank you to the Hispano HA-1112 Buchon & the North American AT-6 Texan. Without these two, war movies would not have had Messerschmitts or Zeros.

@petehill854 via X

[boybasher]