Yesterday marked the 66th anniversary of this wartime bombing raid which is better known by the title of the film that was made about it in the fifties – The Dam Busters. I had never made the connection myself but Stephen Fry informed us that the Death Star bombing sequence in Star Wars is practically a remake of the bombing runs from this film.
The movie did a pretty good job of telling the tale of this raid outlining some of the technical problems which had to be overcome but at the time it was made some of the details were still not in the public domain due to the Official Secrets Act.
You can read a detailed description of the operation at this site.
Heard the great Stephen Fry on the radio a couple of weeks ago and he has been commissioned to write the script for a remake of the film which is being produced by Peter Jackson. He made a really good point when he said that people were concerned that the film would contain present day references to feelings that were not appropriate 66 years ago.
He had met the commander of the raids lover who told him that while they were training they would go out for long drives, park up and that he would sob for ages behind the steering wheel while she stroked his hair.
However the thing which will give the makers the most angst is what to do about the commander's dogs name (which was used as the call sign for the successful demolition of the first dam) – while acceptable all those years ago it is now deemed to be beyond the pale for white folks to use the “N” word now.
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3 comments:
That's really interesting. I think we have to keep reminding ourselves that those who fought in past wars and present wars are quite human, not emotionless droids. I think we forget that sometimes, and it is nice to hear about their humanity.
The part about Star Wars is really neat, too.
It really is unfortunate that they didn't use the name of his goose ... Honky, as the call sign. It's hard to tell what will play well 50 years down the road though.
rt, Less of the stiff upper lip attitude indeed - never made the Star Wars connection but it became obvious when I thought about it.
Lin, Goose - ROFL; just as well the coffee was brewing and not to hand when I read that!
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